Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments private school concerns

If you have concerns regarding accelerated GT education creating gaps in your child's knowledge (this is what I understood from your OP) - then, ask them how they implement gifted education - ask if they compact a regular curriculum to do more than a year's worth in a year, if they skip certain parts of a curriculum to accelerate, if they pre-test before skipping and compacting, if they provide "depth" rather than speed in progression, if they do "enrichment" in addition to normal instruction or if they use specific methods catering to gifted kids (project based learning is one example). The best way to assess whether your child has gaps in knowledge or not is for them to take a standardized test (ERB or ITBS is what local private schools use). The standardized tests are a battery of tests that give a break down of scores in all the areas of learning that you can review to check for weaknesses. Standardized testing is done by most private schools and they use the results as part of their marketing strategy - so, they will share the school's performance by grade with you if you would like to know where the students of the school stand nationally.

As for switching over to traditional high school, it is going to be difficult if your child is ahead by more than 2 years in any subject. locally, I have heard of stories of kids switching over from private schools to PS for HS and having to repeat a large chunk of chemistry and biology because they seem to have covered most of the 9th grade material in 7th and 8th. But it really depends on the school district and its policies. Some districts allow kids to go over to AP level courses if they have transcripts proving that they have completed qualifying course work (not happening in my area, but, it might be possible elsewhere).

Ashley, this was my question as well. IF one is switching to private school which allows major acceleration it looks like it is a one way street, Not clear how one switches back to public school when they do not allow AP classed in freshman/sophomore year.

In some of the highly rated public high schools in my area, there are complaints that students have been allowed to skip levels in math but had to repeat biology, chemistry etc. to meet the PS prerequisites for AP sciences. Parents have lobbied with the school districts, gone to the local press etc. So, it depends on how the local public schools handle the issue (perception of unfair advantage to some, lack of post-AP level offerings are issues). In my opinion, high levels of acceleration in private schools will result in some repetition and time wasted in public high school. I don't understand what Dual Enrollment and Community College options might mean to such students. Maybe someone with knowledge on that topic will reply here.

Regarding the OP, it depends on when the student goes back to school and how formally the private school documents what the student did there and how well the student does on tests at the beginning of the new school year.

In my state at least, if a student skips a whole grade and changes schools, the school can't force the student to repeat the grade (kindergarten is an exception, I believe). My youngest worked a year ahead of a skip in a tiny private school and then moved to a medium-sized mainstream school. They accepted the skip but made her repeat some of the accelerated subjects.

My eldest homeschooled for a year and I taught him algebra 2. He went to the local high school for year after that. They wouldn't give him credit for algebra 2, but let him enroll in pre-calc. YMMV. He may have got lucky, because the decision maker's hair was on fire over something that day. I don't know. They would have accepted the algebra course had it been taken with an accredited organization.

Dual enrollment: again, it depends. In our district, students in college courses get something like 3 or 3.5 times the number of credits the high school would give for its course. This seems fair; my now dual-enrolled son took introductory chemistry for majors as a semester course, and it's reasonable that he should get way more credits for that semester than someone who covered less material in an entire year of high school chemistry.

I highly recommend dual enrollment. While some community college courses can be gut courses (especially some of the gen. ed. courses), HG+ students who choose their important courses carefully can end up with professors who are very knowledgeable and who can stretch them. My observation via my son: courses taught online aren't likely to stretch; courses where homework is done online (especially math, physics, or humanities) aren't likely to stretch. Asking other motivated students can be a good way to find the best professors. I'm referring to community colleges (well, maybe four-year-colleges too) here, not to gifted-oriented courses like those at AoPS or Stanford's EPGY & online high school.