Thank you for all the feedback! I would like to go one step further though. One of the arguments for using gifted clusters of five kids is that it brings the rest of the class up to a higher learning level. Based on my conversations with a teacher friend at another school district, she said that in her experience there is a huge variance between classes with 5+ gifted children and classes with one or two gifted children. (She says the classroom discusses and explores the information taught at entirely a different level--good for the 5+ gifted cluster, but not good for the 1-2 child gifted class). Gifted clusters of 5+ kids will lift the entire class to a higher level, but in the classes with only 1 or 2 gifted children, it will bring the gifted kids down the average level of the class.
I think that the public schools are purposefully trying to group the gifted kids in order to maximize their overall school performance (i.e., not so much to advocate for the gifted kids, but to enhance the overall performance of the school).
Does anyone have any examples or resources for clusters of 5+ kids as compared to larger groups? I would love feedback on what an optimal class size number of gifted kids would be. Thank you.
