I am new here, but have been in Los Angeles since my college days!
Mirman is a private school for highly gifted (WISC-IV 138+) but I have not toured it.
My rising K and 3rd grader will attend the same school next year, Da Vinci Innovation Academy in Hawthorne. It is a hybrid homeschool CA state charter. All kids attend school 2 days a week (either T/F or M/Th) and Wednesdays have 4 periods of electives (robotics, Minecraft on school's own server, cooking, musical theatre, Mandarin, Spanish, strategic games, etc.). There are also electives offered after school on the 2 regular school days as well -- yarncrafting, dance, Legos, yearbook, etc.). K-2 grades are 18-20 students/class and 3-8 grades are 24.
It is a newer school and doesn't have the funding that privates have, but a lot of high tech science companies (Hughes, Chevron, etc.) are very generous to the Da Vinci system (they also have a dedicated science high school, and a dedicated design high school).
DVIA is a project-based learning environment striving towards nonviolent communication. They teach "Habits of Heart and Mind" and kids have a regular presentations they are responsible for beginning in kinder. Twice a year they have "Exhibition" where they dress up as a class and present to guests the learning that has been happening in the classroom. DD1 presented on Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, etc. Later in the year, it was on animal conservation and she presented on honeybees and colony collapse disorder. In addition, they do "Presentations of Learning" where they present individually to a group of small panel of parents and their teacher. Conferences are student-led where kids set their goals and evaluate how they have been doing themselves. No letter grades so far.
I didn't know that DD1 might need something more than what she was getting at DVIA, but she complained that her math lessons were boring, so I looked into EPGY. I wanted the tutor option so I had her take the WISC-IV and she but the ceiling in every portion. The child psychologist tests for Mirman and told me that my DD1 belongs there or Davidson, if we were willing to move. I first thought that maybe I had been screwing things up for DD1 by not thinking that she needed more challenge, but I'm not too eager to change her environment -- we had been pursuing her special interests in the days not at DVIA, when I didn't know she was "profoundly gifted" and it seems that for now, this model may very well serve her newly assessed needs. The one thing I do keep wondering about, though, is if she would find more friends at a place where there were more kids who learned at a quicker pace.
Other schools we looked at when DD1 was ready for kinder were: PS1, Crossroads, Wildwood, Westside Neighborhood School. There is a democratic school that I wanted to check out called Westland, but we never went because it was too far for us. Muse is another school that interested us, but again too far for us.
The charter and magnet system in LAUSD is massive and difficult to get into. The child psych we met with explained that LAUSD gifted programs are not for PG, but much lower -- not even for highly gifted and that it may not serve DD1.
I have read on forums that dual enrollment doesn't seem to work because the gifted kids lose facetime with their peers. When I read this, I thought DVIA was really a perfect solution in many ways.
I'll probably enroll DD1 in a CTY summer program this summer locally -- it's nearby. I also did CTY when I was a kid, but it was after 6th and 7th grade. I remember feeling "normal" there and that was really nice. I'm hoping if DD1 can connect with some mind-mates at CTY, but maintain other social connections at DVIA, while I supplement her work on days off DVIA, we've got it covered for now!
Good luck with the school maze in LA!
Lastly -- there are a few school districts here that are separate, but CA state charters don't require you to live in the same district as the school. Here is a list of some school districts off the top of my head -- there are many more:
- LA
- Glendale
- Beverly Hills
- Santa Monica-Malibu
- Burbank
- Pasadena
- Manhattan Beach
- Culver City
- Arcadia
- Wiseburn (where DVIA is)
Best of luck!
