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We, honestly, didn't find ANY public school in Illinois to accommodate our gifted kids. Not all gifted kids have the same needs. A moderately gifted kids might do very well a good public schools - but a highly or profoundly gifted kid might not. You also have to consider the personality of the individual child and a host of other factors before determining which school would be best.
For our kids, who are both PG, no public school would work with them. Most gifted programs don't kick in until 3rd grade, many don't allow grade skipping, etc. While most schools say they differentiate curriculum - if you have a kindergartener who is reading at a 5th grade level and solving math problems... well, most public schools simply do not have the resources.
Montessori has been a great option for our kids. It's not a good fit for all gifted kids, and Montessori's vary a lot in quality, but for our kids it worked really well. They are currently attending a K-6 Montessori but the school is now suggesting that we should transfer them to a private gifted school next year as they feel the private gifted school would better meet their needs.
If private schools aren't an option, just know that almost any child can have a great educational experience at home. You can basically home-school part time in order to keep your child challenged. You can do weekend enrichment programs like the ones mentioned above. Many parents of gifted kids choose to homeschool full time, but the obviously isn't an option for everyone.
If your child is moderately gifted (as opposed to off the charts) then a good public school system can likely meet their needs. Unfortunately, you are also at the mercy of public funding and gifted programs are frequently on the chopping block.
Good luck! Gifted kids are quite a ride, and it's a real challenge to make sure their needs are met.
Yes children "off the charts" are definitely not something you would want in a public school...
I suspect that people like Ted Kaczynski, Kristen Gilbert, Catherine Wood, Ted Bundy and others were misidentified "profoundly gifted" kids whose frustrations turned them into monsters.
Please, if you have propounded gifted children get them out of the mainstream...
Quote:
Originally Posted by InterplanetJanet
Don't get me started on Everyday Math! ARG!
We, honestly, didn't find ANY public school in Illinois to accommodate our gifted kids. Not all gifted kids have the same needs. A moderately gifted kids might do very well a good public schools - but a highly or profoundly gifted kid might not. You also have to consider the personality of the individual child and a host of other factors before determining which school would be best.
For our kids, who are both PG, no public school would work with them. Most gifted programs don't kick in until 3rd grade, many don't allow grade skipping, etc. While most schools say they differentiate curriculum - if you have a kindergartener who is reading at a 5th grade level and solving math problems... well, most public schools simply do not have the resources.
Montessori has been a great option for our kids. It's not a good fit for all gifted kids, and Montessori's vary a lot in quality, but for our kids it worked really well. They are currently attending a K-6 Montessori but the school is now suggesting that we should transfer them to a private gifted school next year as they feel the private gifted school would better meet their needs.
If private schools aren't an option, just know that almost any child can have a great educational experience at home. You can basically home-school part time in order to keep your child challenged. You can do weekend enrichment programs like the ones mentioned above. Many parents of gifted kids choose to homeschool full time, but the obviously isn't an option for everyone.
If your child is moderately gifted (as opposed to off the charts) then a good public school system can likely meet their needs. Unfortunately, you are also at the mercy of public funding and gifted programs are frequently on the chopping block.
Good luck! Gifted kids are quite a ride, and it's a real challenge to make sure their needs are met.
I think it is possible (though somewhat difficult) to find a good fit for a "profoundly gifted" child in the higher-performing Illinois public schools. However, the parent must be very proactive/knowledgeable and be willing and able to make program changes as necessary.
This year, I have found the right environment/teachers for my son who is identified as profoundly gifted. However, 3 years ago I did homeschool him in order to provide the appropriate environment. He actually received the highest CogAT (quantitative) and Map (math) scores for his grade in the district. When he was in 4th grade, he started topping out of these tests (e.g. receiving 100% CogAT/12th grade MAPS score), so the WISCIV had to be administered which is better at differentiating the top 99.99% scores.
I do want to stress that the social environment of his school is, IMO, as important as his academics. He is doing so well socially and academically in our district. In the gifted program, he is surrounded by supportive peers and teachers (who all have Masters degrees in Gifted Education). He is now such a happy kid who is challenged in academics, has lots of friends, participates in competitive sports/music/clubs, etc. Really a great fit from a public school system. I wish more kids had these amazing opportunities.
The BCGT (Barrington Council for Gifted/Talented) is a group of parents/teachers working together to advocate for gifted programs/funding in the Barrington school district. I'm not sure if many Illinois communities have similar community advocacy - probably one of the reasons why there is (relatively) strong gifted support/funding in this district.
I think it is possible (though somewhat difficult) to find a good fit for a "profoundly gifted" child in the higher-performing Illinois public schools. However, the parent must be very proactive/knowledgeable and be willing and able to make program changes as necessary.
This year, I have found the right environment/teachers for my son who is identified as profoundly gifted. However, 3 years ago I did homeschool him in order to provide the appropriate environment. He actually received the highest CogAT (quantitative) and Map (math) scores for his grade in the district. When he was in 4th grade, he started topping out of these tests (e.g. receiving 100% CogAT/12th grade MAPS score), so the WISCIV had to be administered which is better at differentiating the top 99.99% scores.
I do want to stress that the social environment of his school is, IMO, as important as his academics. He is doing so well socially and academically in our district. In the gifted program, he is surrounded by supportive peers and teachers (who all have Masters degrees in Gifted Education). He is now such a happy kid who is challenged in academics, has lots of friends, participates in competitive sports/music/clubs, etc. Really a great fit from a public school system. I wish more kids had these amazing opportunities.
I'm so pleased to hear that your son has doing so well in the public school system! I suspect the school system he is in is the exception - as I've never found one that can deal with PG kids. Even if they could meet their needs academically, social issues can be a real problem. I'm really happy to hear of a PG kid having success in this way!
Fitting in is a really major issue. We aren't so much worried about our kids intellectual development as we are their social development. Our kids really don't connect to other kids - they very much prefer adults as "friends". So we are always working hard to help them connect with children near their age. The Montessori has been great in helping with this as well. But, I can't recommend Montessori to any parent with a PG kid just because schools vary greatly. We've just been very fortunate in connecting with some outstanding teachers who have taken an interest helping our children.
In general, I do believe that PG kids are best served outside of public schools. There is a free public school in Nevada for PG kids - it's a very unique setting and they attract families from all over the country. So there are options, if families are willing and able to make major life changes to find such accommodations.
I can’t agree with you more and I am just so glad to hear all valuable opinion. Actually, my kid was in a Montessori school but the school offers classes only up to 1st grade. I found my budget wouldn’t be able to support my kid in a private school for a long term so that I switched him to public school after kindergarten. I did regret the switch since there was a big gap between the public school and Montessori since Montessori based on the kid’s ability to teach and has smaller teacher and student ratio. Therefore, my kid was taking daily pull-out 3rd grade math and reading 4th grade books when he started 1st grade.
His first grade teacher actually fit well with my kid and provided a lot of support and discipline since my kid has some behavior issues (intensity, highly sensitive, bordom,etc..). However, 2nd grade is a totally different story. The teacher keeps saying my kid is doing fine because she basically doesn’t want to put any extra effort on potential children. However, she complained my child has behavior issue but she implied it is not her problem and this is my problem since she doesn’t realize one of the reason my child has behavior issue because he is getting boring in the class. The teacher said she is not going to help but fortunately my kid seems have better control when he is getting older and run into less trouble lately.
However, I find my kid starts to develop some bad habit since 2nd grade. He is getting less motivate and make less effort to learn and starts to avoid challenge. Pretty much like if the teacher set the bar at 50, he will only score 50 even he can score 150. He seems like to take an easy way out.
Even I feel he is sliding, he still scored 99% percentile at the recent MAP test for all categories and he also scored 99% at CogAT and MAP last Oct. If he can keep up and control his behavior, he should have a good chance to get into gifted class next year. If I find he continues to lost interest to learn, I have to make a move. In the meantime, I think it is a good idea to mix up the tradition public school with extracurricular supplement such as online and weekend classes to keep him challenge. I am also going to check out Barrington district about their gifted program. For the worst case, I am going to downsize my house and have more funding to send my kid to Montessori school again. No wonder some people said talent children are more expensive to raise.
I do want to add that, though gifted classes officially start in 3rd grade, there is some in-class gifted/differentiated instruction for K-2 kids in D220. However, I think the level of gifted differentiation depends on the school and, primarily, it depends on the teacher. One of my complaints about this district would be that, IMO, there is an inconsistent district approach to how K-2 gifted students are identified/instructed.
We've had 1st/2nd grade teachers who have given my child a completely separate gifted curriculum. They were amazing teachers basically providing a 1:1 custom curriculum for each child depending on abilities (they used more of a Montessori approach). I felt like we won the teacher lottery with these teachers. We also had a teacher who, quite obviously, focused on the lowest performers in class and told me my son was "doing fine" so would not get any advanced work. That is the year I pulled my son out of her class and homeschooled him through Northwestern's online gifted program (I have a thread on the Education forum about this).
The problem is teacher assignments can be a roll of the dice, so I advise parents to advocate for their kids. E.g. Make a teacher request to the principal/teachers if you feel your child needs differentiated/gifted instruction in K-2 and stay informed. Since Illinois schools do not require IEP's for gifted needs, the gifted child's best (and often only) advocate is the parent.
Hi, GoCUBS1! I'm new to the forum and trying to PM you about District 220 and (temporarily) homeschooling my highly to profoundly gifted, super sensitive son but it looks like my messages aren't going through. If you get this, I'd love to talk! I can send you my email. Thanks so much.
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Yes children "off the charts" are definitely not something you would want in a public school...
