Public school GT class - help me think this through

[Targhee]

I need to decide ASAP: do we continue to HS, or enroll kids in the district's GT classes?

 

I have three school age kids that I need to make decisions about, but for simplicity sake I am going to talk specifically about oldest DD.

 

DD (10) began HSing with my right after turning 5. She has a late Oct birthday, so local district wouldn't let her in K but a state umbrella school accepted her. As long as she passed year end tests at 90th percentile for K she could advance to 1st. Well, she passed them, at the 99th percentile for 1st grade. The next year we gave PS a shot. It was horrible - Dd was so anxious because she was getting bad makes for not coloring in the lines, and the teacher kept pointing out her differences. Teacher had a conference with me, in an attempt to send her back to K under the concerns that she wasn't engaging with her peers, cried at the littlest things, and was daydreaming. Oh, and she was always last from the bathroom (WTH?). I stuck to my guns about her grade placement, and teacher made her year horrible. I admit, she is not as socially mature as her age mates, and she has fine motor difficulties, and does have trouble focusing (especially when she is not engaged with things she's already mastered).

 

We then moved to Alaska and DH immediately went to Afghanistan. I was alone in a new place, and we decided to give it a go in a new setting. DD started 2nd grade at a Spanish Language immersion charter school, with multiagency classes. She did well. She struggled a little with immaturity, focus and organization. She was still very sensitive, too. There wasn't as much writing required because they spent so much time orally learning Spanish. Her teachers recognized her giftedness (no assessment done), and gave her some more challenging work. We were there two years before being reassigned to our old post again.

 

We moved back to old school district, but different neighborhood. We chose at that time to HS to get kids (DS did K in AK) caught up in English LA skills. This is our second year HSing since moving back from AK. We discovered DD's writing/coloring trouble in K were still there and they were because of a muscle deficiency. Months of OT, and a formal diagnosis of ADD helped us help her and make reasonable expectations of her skills. She has come a long way, but writing (physical) needs a bit more time to get up to speed. She started to develop speech disfluencies, and saw a SLP. She is still sensitive, but also anxious. She was also having trouble putting her thoughts in words (spoken or written). I recently took her to an EdPsych two rule out any LD. The Psych was blown away by her achievement and IQ scores. He suggested that her focus, anxiety, and social skills/maturity would improve if she could interact more with her intellectual peers. I asked DD if she would like to be in a class with other smart kids - "Yes!"

 

So here I am looking at the district GT classes. They are self-contained, 3rd-4th and 5th-6th combo classes. The idea of DD working on PBL with other GT kids makes me excited! But then I read in the application for the program:

"Student work exceeds mainstream grade level standards"

"Student work exhibits the four dimensions of rigor (deeper, broader, faster, further), including products/performances above

grade level"

 

DD is not a producer! She will do the work you ask her to, but she still struggles with the motor issues and putting thoughts into words. From the above statements I wonder if this isn't a true GT class, but a high performer class? I want to her to be a good performer/producer, but isn't that something that can be difficult to develop in GT kids? Or will having a more stimulating environment (one where she doesn't feel as different from the other kids) be enough motivation to help her become a better producer? I do like that the classes are multi-age, and self-contained...

 

Who can share their experience with public GT? Is this worth it?

[Targhee]

Oh, I need to decide ASAP so they can do evaluations and place the kids for NEXT fall.

[WTMCassandra]

Honestly, she sounds 2E to me, and I think the psych is seeing homeschooling as the problem, as many medical professionals tend to do. I think it's already been demonstrated that she struggles in a school environment, even with a supportive teacher. I would keep homeschooling her and instead try to find a few "smart kids" and start some kind of after-school enrichment club (math, science, robots, etc.) if she needs additional interaction.

[wapiti]

If you can find out the name of the teacher, I'd call and get his/her take on output requirements (the names are probably on the school's website someplace), ask if there are 2e kids in the program and how they're doing, and generally try to get a feel for how outside- or inside-the-box the program is.

Edited January 12, 2016 by wapiti

[Targhee]

I agree its hard to fit 2e. I know she is in the sense of her ADD. But with her spoken and written communication I think it has a lot to do with anxiety, and the way she thinks. I think they are things she can catch up with/compensate for. It isn't as if she can't write or speak - she's actually quick-tongued and witty a lot of the time. Organizing thoughts needs work. Her social immaturity is one of her ansynchronous traits. And the anxiety doesn't help that. I thought perhaps the GT program would have other asynchronous kids. Maybe not.

 

She actually did well at the charter school. She had her struggles, but she had successes as well (a best friend, part in the school play, teachers who were quite fond of her, and she lived the school spirit/community feel - she still sometimes sings the school song). She was happy there. Maybe not challenged to the max, but happy.

 

 

I was planning on letting her go back into public high school, for several reasons. Maybe now would be better though, since kids are a little more accepting and forgiving when they are young. My sister has 3 gifted kids who were in a GT program k-6 and it was beautiful - the teachers just got the kids so much better. Has anone else had good experiences with GT programs???

[AnIslandGirl]

I am a G/T coordinator. To be completely honest, we do not accept 2e students into our inclusion classroom, but do have them come visit for certain presentations. We require a WISC-IV full scale of 136 at a minimum.

The sheer amount of output that we require is honestly rather huge. If your dd has a real problem putting thoughts into words, I would seriously reconsider placing her into a class that expects such results. I was hesitant to post due to the fact that your school seems to place students by "age grade". We allow children to progress due to ability, and I would really wonder about the true gifted vs. advanced quality of such a program.

I say this gently, but If you can cater to her quirks at home, she might just be in the best possible place at home with you.

[Targhee]

anislandgirl

 

I am glad you posted! I think DD could be a producer, but she is not there yet. It's kind of like preparing in athletics by developing endurance. She is still jogging, 3 years of not having her needs met. If she would have had consistent development from her teachers at school maybe we would be there - we have come so far in the past two years. If her 1st grade teacher would have seen that she had fine motor issues and ADD instead of insisting she had been hot houses and was too young, and if the English had been more rigorous at the charter school... Lots of ifs. But we are where we are, and we will keep working hard to increase output level. I know she will get there. If she will not be successful in the GT class then she will miss out on a lot of collaborative learning with people who *think* like she does. Very hard to not be served by either the regular or the GT class.

[kiwik]

Good luck.