Maybe he meant they don't have AP classes in kindergarten?
Okay, that is true.
This takes on a new light for me, as I just learned in the past week that my school has a rather cloak and dagger gifted program for which children are hand selected in first grade based on IQ and other tests that I didn't even know they took. I didn't know any of this because my kid apparently didn't make the cut to receive accelerated instruction and extra projects and field trips beginning in the second grade. After much googling, I was finally able to find some information about this program, and apparently its only iteration in high school is AP courses. Does that mean my un-gifted child can't take them? My entire perception of my school district has changed, and not in a good way.
Obviously, no one here knows how your school will work out. I didn't make the cut for our Gifted program, though I was tested three times (IQ 3 pts short ftw haha). In elementary school they got all these classes and field trips and projects. They were also in the regular classes and mostly my friends, since they were "my kind of people". At 7, haha. In middle school, they could take some technology, foreign language, and other classes that regular kids couldn't. But our advanced tracks for math/science and english were the top 25-30 kids in each of those subjects, which didn't always include the Gifted kids, depending on their abilities. And in high school, the advanced track middle school kids* were the only ones set to take Calculus and Stats before graduation, unless someone took two math classes in the same year. English didn't really matter-there were cool electives for anyone in College Prep or Honors (like 65% of the school). So at my school the G&T track definitely helped, but it wasn't the exclusive way to participate in AP courses. I'd ask around at the h.s. who gets into those A.P. classes. Because I'm pretty sure my school's website says something along the lines of "in h.s. our G&T students have opportunities to explore their interests and abilities through various electives and AP course offerings". Though AP is open to anyone high achieving in that subject. And my school has throughout the years had students work out some chances to take classes at the local colleges for h.s. and college credit if they were very high achieving. Excellent grades and an aptitude for a subject can't be denied.
*In math, the highest track was chosen in 5th grade. 3-4 students joined in 6th and 7th and about 8 dropped down a "level" to only 1-year-ahead-of-grade-level. In science it was chosen in 8th grade. English was "sorted out" for leveled learning in 5th**, but people switched levels throughout school until senior year. OP, I would move before the end of elementary school if the other district operates the way mine did. New students were almost never put in the most advanced tracks their first year, and in the case of math that permanently left them out of the highest class. (It's nearly impossible for an above-average student to just skip from pre-algebra to Alg. 2).
**Thank God for leveled learning tracks. Saved my sanity as a 10 year old. We went back to mixed English/Reading classes in 7th grade, and we spent a month learning about Verbs, read A Christmas Carol out loud with students who couldn't sound out words like "looked". I learned patience and tolerance that year, but not English.
Edited to fix some spelling mistakes, though I won't say there may not be more of them in there :p
Thanks so much for your reply and perspective. I would probably guess based on how many of my kids' friends who I have found out are in the gifted program that he was just like you -- on the cusp but didn't make the cut. This has all thrown me for a huge loop. I'm guessing that my larger, highly ranked school district had these types of programs 30 years ago and I was just blissfully unaware that I didn't fit into their category. I might add, that I graduated second in my class and took multiple AP courses, went on to an elite private university and now have a Ph.D. Obviously not being labeled "gifted" at a young age didn't hold me back. But I'm glad I didn't know of this designation at the time. Unfortunately, I don't imagine that my child will be able to remain as blissfully unaware of the categories and labels that have already been given to him and his classmates, since our district is very small.
I know for people who teach and are in the system that this kind of thing becomes very normalized. But I am really, really bothered by such stratification. I sent my child to a public school, because I believe in the public school system. I knew that as a bright kid, he would likely be bored a lot in school, but I thought that was okay. Now that I am learning that egalitarianism and equal opportunity are really shams anyway, I'm not sure why I haven't considered other private options for my kids. We have three and likely can't afford sending all of them to private schools. But if I start to feel that one or more of my kids are not being challenged or held back in any way by program limits or other things? Hell, yeah, now I'm going to check my former principals at the door and move them somewhere more exclusive or take them under my wing at home. Fuck the common good.
This is interesting to me. When I was a kid, I was in the gifted program. So was my husband. In the 70s, at our schools, it wasn't a big thing. We had one hour a week or so where we were split out. Some of the stuff was interesting, but...there were only 3 kids in my grade in gifted. You were chosed based on an IQ test in 1st grade. They never tested after. Well, long story short, yeah I graduated #1 in my class (of about 100), but the next four people were tied, and NONE of them were gifted. It wasn't a very useful designation or program.
So in my son's school, they changed the rules district-wide.
ALL students are tested in 2nd grade. It used to be you were only tested if you were recommended by a teacher or requested by a parent.
There is one school with a magnet gate program, where it's 100% GATE kids in one classroom per grade. So they may have 4 third grade classrooms, and one of them is GATE only. Used to be that students in that public school attendance area got first dibs. But since it's a DISTRICT funded GATE program, they changed the rules. So ALL students in that grade who are identified as GATE and want to go to that program go into a lottery for the 25 spots. There are 10 public schools in the district, so that makes it a lot harder for the kids in that home school to get in. But also makes it much fairer for all the other students.
All other elementary schools can have GATE programs, and many do. In fact the school with the magnet program also has a school GATE program.
You are not allowed to take the GATE test more than 2x in a row. So if you don't make it in 2nd, you can take it in 3rd. But if you don't make it, you can't take it again.
No studying for the GATE test, that's cheating!
Whether or not you are selected DOES depend on your English proficiency and income. The standards for English learners are lower.
Aside from the GATE test, our school (as well as most schools), separate kids out by proficiency. Starting in 1st grade, they broke out the "accelerated readers" into a small group from all 3 classes.
For math, they did the same. Most teachers give two different sets of spelling lists and math homework, depending on your level.
My son's first grade teacher said this "When your son passes the gate test - and he will - PLEASE do not transfer him out. Too many parents do that, he will get a GREAT education here." And so, that's what we decided to do (plus we'd looked at the other school before kinder, and were kind of put off by it. Lots of rich families.)
Well, in the end, he didn't make GATE, so it was a moot point. We opted not to test him last year in 3rd and we won't test him this year either. He has plenty of opportunity in his regular classes to be challenged.
And any parent, really, has the opportunity to discuss these programs with the teachers. The teachers are more than happy to help. And it's fluid - the high level math and English groups change as kids get better. It's not like if you don't make the group you are never allowed in.
I'd recommend talking to your kid's teacher about all this.
Honestly we DO have a problem in my town with a lot of type-A parents wanting their kid in GATE and actually helping their kids study for the test so they can get these great opportunities. GATE doesn't necessarily mean "smart", it means GATE. There's a lot of strife. And the parents at the magnet program school were PISSED when they changed the procedure for getting into the program.
You know who I want the chance to get into GATE? That kid in my son's class whose parents speak only Spanish. That kid is SMART and hardworking, and his parents clearly support his education (many here do not).
