I’ve written about this issue many times and won’t stop until there’s parity for these kids. Ha, I know.

What I started to realize is it would be better if all kids were just at or below what is expected individually based on their progress (not some arbitrary standard), and to continue to move the target in a way that pushes them to their maximum potential. Anything less is a failed system IMHO.

I understand the plight of the gifted student. I was one. In fact, my teachers (at the Catholic elementary school I attended) thought I had a learning disability (LD) because I was unable to pay attention in class (and had disciplinary problems). My mother - who teaches LD and multiply-handicapped (MH) kids - strongly disagreed with that assessment based on my out-of-school performance (I was reading before I ever went to preschool, and in fact nearly floored my mother when I walked up to her and read her a book for the first time). So I was tested, and it turns out I had a different kind of learning “disability” - I was gifted.

The Catholic school was unable to meet my educational needs. I was bored out of my mind at school, and it was effecting my classroom performance and behavior. Thankfully, our community had a very strong public school district, with an advanced pull-out program for gifted kids, so my parents offered me a choice, and I decided to transfer to the public school system starting in 4th grade.

I did much better. We had once-a-week days where we were pulled from our classes, bussed to a different facility, and given various enrichment programs designed to challenge us. And while I still struggled with boredom in regular classes, I excelled in the enrichment program, and later in the honors classes offered at the high school (another thing that wasn’t widely available at the Catholic HS my brother attended).

Gifted children really do need the same kind of personalized attention that kids on the other end of the scale need. If NCLB has any measurable benefit, it certainly isn’t there for special-needs students. Special needs students are being left behind.

While I’m not yet a parent, I empathize with you Eric, and I certainly understand the position your daughter is in, ’cause I was right there.

There is a method known as “hardest first” or some such. Idea is the child works the hardest problem first. If they get it right. They are done. If not, they have to finish the rest of the homework.

Nice, right? They’ve met the standard. Go sit over there while we work on Billy who appears to need help getting to where you are. There is supposed to be “extension work”, but there really is no emphasis on it. The clear emphasis is whatever the standard has been set at. Students above it appear to be on their own.