Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Boston/Cambridge Area for Quirky Kid

I'm afraid they have. A colleague is sending his gifted daughter with an October birthday to private school for KG and 1st grade because the Brookline public schools will not let her into KG before age 5.

Boston assigns children to elementary schools based on a lottery system http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/assignment , so your child may not get into the nearby school. My colleague did not like this, which is why he moved to Brookline. In general, affluent people either send their children to private schools in Boston or move to suburbs such as Brookline but do not send their children to Boston public schools.

A friend of mine recently listened to me describe my DS (a quirky gifted 4th grader) and immediately suggested we look into the school she used to teach at -- Fayerweather in Cambridge. Its seriously pricey, but she said its amazing. She described to me what she did for the one truly gifted kiddo she had in her class once, and it sounded like a dream. And that was just the expectation there...

I'm from a tried and true public education family (both my parents, husbands parents, and my brother in law are or were public school teachers) so a private elementary school is a non starter for us (plus its too far AND too $$ for us for 5th grade...) but if you don't have those issues, it might be worth looking into. Trust me, I had a moment of trying to figure out how to make it work!!

Also, if you aren't 100% committed to living in Cambridge, in addition to the other places folks have mentioned, the McAuliff school (a public charter) in Framingham is entirely project based and might be a great fit for the right gifted kiddo since you can work within your own range in a PBL curriculum. I am not entirely sure which communities it draws from, but perhaps one that might be a decent fit for you living wise (nothing quite like Cambridge though!).

This may be too late for the original poster, but the public Montessori in Cambridge is AMS accredited, i.e. a "true" Montessori. It does also have to conform to public requirements e.g. standardized testing. They do allow classroom observation by current or prospective parents.

Also, although entry for three year olds is via a very competitive lottery, my understanding is that due to the high fluidity of the population in Cambridge spots often open up for children in higher grades as families move away from Boston (typically for professional reasons) or out of Cambridge (typically for housing cost reasons).

fwiw, the figure I have heard for g/t students in Cambridge public schools is ~7%.