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We left Montessori b/c we thought it was lame. The class size was large- 36 kids. My son was bored silly. With Montessoris, you have to do each "job" exactly as they want and you can't move on until you do that- even if you already know that skill.
Our local public school is really terrific, so I moved him there this year. He is writing and reading ALOT more than he did at the Montessori. He takes timed math tests in school- I am against these, but my son scored at 50% on the WJ-III achievement on the timed parts of those tests but aced the more theoretical parts that didn't require timing.
I think my son just had no experience completing tasks/tests in a timed fashion, which he gets in the public school. The montessori has no real science (it's naming the parts of the plant, not understanding the mechanism of the science), no real social studies or history.
I will say that math at a montessori is phenomenal. My son really moved ahead with that- I do Singapore math with him at home 2 grade levels above where he is, which is below him; he tested into the 5th grade on the math part of the WJ-III in first grade, but I want him to make sure he gets the basics.

I would just say that this is not representative of all Montessori schools. My dd10 started at 3 in Montessori, and the lower elementary kids do timed math facts and spelling tests, and in upper elemntary the teacher has done a great job making the spelling actually challenging for the gifted kids in the class. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by dd10's high science score on the Explore--and because science is not something she is interested in, I know that all of the exposure to science has been at school. For now it is also a great fit for dd3. Just in case anyone reading is considering Montessori, depending on the individual kid and the specific school, it can be a great fit.

I think I've mentioned this before but- there is a wide spectrum of what "Montessori" means. The school we were at is an AMI-Montessori accredited school, which most "Montessori" schools are not.
I personally think that the blend you are describing is ideal- sort of "follow the child" Montessori mixed with some actual structure.
However, generally "real" Montessori schools do not have homework or timed tests. They sound almost like unschooling. The problem there is that there is little accountability, and if your child doesn't want to write or read alot, they probably won't do that.

My son DOES go to an AMI school. I do wonder if that is part of the reason for his underachievement. I worry that the bar is not high enough, or even that there is no bar.

His teacher points out that a major benefit of Montessori is that he is able to advance at his pace though - i.e., he is currently getting math lessons with the 4th graders. But as you can see above, his math scores do NOT reflect his aptitude in this area. His teacher says - well, you really can't place much stock in tests..............hmmmmmmmmmm.

He absolutely loves his school and really feels a sense of belonging though. He gets irate at the thought of changing schools.

How traumatic for your son was the move Jack'smom?

TeriS -
I fear that you might have this backwards. A kid with sloooooow processing speed isn't going to get great scores on speed Math no matter what school you put him in. The difference is that in a speed-Math school the child will be held down conceptually to the level of his Processing speed, while a school thei the concept-Math orientation will allow a pokey kid with High Understanding to move ahead.

Seriously, the only way to know what is going on at ANY school is to plant tush into a chair for some 30 minute intervals and observe, compared what happens when the child tries to learn new things with you at home. Yes it's unfair on some levels, but it's the only way.

If your son loves his school, is happy, and is learning who to learn new things, I would be loath to switch him. His current school may needs some tweaking, but that isn't unusual for an unusual kid.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Flossy - GAI of 146 is a very high score. I'm glad you are following Aculady's advice, and following up on the eye-stuff. With ADHD it can be a tough combo to handle. I can bet that the teacher feels uneasy with him. Vocab at 18 is usually enough to un-nerve any teacher except the most supremely self-confident and internally sensitive.

Also - I'm baffled at the 2 year wait to get those scores from the psychologist. Is this a situation where you need to ask a lawyer to write a letter? I'm thinking that the psychologist should arm-twist a friend-psychologist who has more experience in very unusually high and low scores to provide a retest at no charge ((not that I've ever seen this happen - I'm off in gifted-judgement-orrientation-land in my head here)) Achievement test will help too so ask them to throw that in.

Of course if you child can't see without tremendous effort that would explain the reading level and the processing speed.

I'm so glad you posted here!
Grinity

You are right--there is a wide spectrum! It is an AMS school, so yes, the teachers are more flexible than AMI. Many of them have also taught in the public schools, or other private schools, and while obviously they believe in the Montessori philosophy they don't mind tweaking it to fit individual child's needs. I am sorry your experience wasn't good.

I think you can work on your processing speed. Perhaps a child with a very low score on that will never achieve a 99% on that part of the test, but like with anything, it is a skill that can improve over time.
My point was simply- a Montessori does not emphasize at all speed. You go at your own pace. My son was at a fifth grade math level in first grade through the Montessori. However, I think our very good public school is challneging him much more for other critical subjects like reading and writing. And it's forced him to get better with speed and finishing tasks on time, which the Montessori never emphasized.
The transition from the Montessori has gone very, very well. Actually, this has been a terrific year for him. We are waiting for the GT program that is full-time and starts in 4th grade. He got a 138 on the WISC and I'm assuming he will get into it.

I do agree that kids who get low processing speed scores will improve with practice. My sweet 'n of 1' has always been in speed=math accomplishment schools and has always been about one standard deviation below average. I don't think he would have improved without practice, and he has practiced quite a lot, however is his always about one SD below average for his age - the other kids always improve about the same amount that he does! So DS is improving, and still 'slow' relative to his agemates. If my son had been in an environment which didn't put any emphasis on speed, he might have practiced less and fallen even more behind, but I think that he might have been a happier kid because he was allowed to do more interesting Math at a younger age.

I hope that clarifies, because I didn't mean to imply that speed can't improve. I'd rather hothouse speed at home and have a good 'thinking level' match at school than vise versa, but that might be just me.

g

Just got back from eye exam, they say my son has convergence insufficiency and saccadic dysfunction. I am not very familiar with the latter. Vision therapy is recommmended. Anyone familiar with this and whether it is a plausible explanation for his performance deficits?