Reply to s/o - DC privates are not filled with gifted kids

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[quote=Anonymous]OP, thanks for spinning off this thread.  I was one of the posters on the other thread - I've reprinted it at the very bottom of this post so that those who keep asking "What's the point" can perhaps understand better what we're discussing.

I'm interested to hear that your data about the IQ distributions in Lower Schools squares with what I heard from administrators at two other schools.

We love almost everything about our very good school, but they do very little to adequately challenge the top percentile kids we are talking about.  It is particularly frustrating for us, since there are at least 3-4 of these kids in the grade and they are all bored with the slow pace of things.   For us, the biggest worry is that these kids are not learning how to actually try.  They coast through easily and therefore never learn the resilience that comes from picking yourself up and trying again after a failure.  (I thought this weekend's Sunday NYT Magazine had a great article on this).

There is so much animosity and misunderstanding on this board on this topic, which makes me sad.  I'm glad for the chance for a civilized discussion of where people agree and disagree.

My post from the other board:
These last few posts are helpful and moving the discussion forward. I've got a few points to toss in:

1. Most DC private schools are not selecting on academic ability in the lower schools. So the "top" privates are in fact widely varied in the children they serve, with kids ranging from the 70th (and even lower) percentile and up. The bulk of kids in the lower schools of these schools are clustered around the 80th percentile, from the data I have seen administrators share. (Please correct me if you have knowledge otherwise; I'd be genuinely interested). I am not measuring by WPSSI scores here, which can be unreliable and skew by parent coaching, but on Olsat/ERB/etc results.

2. By high school, these schools are selecting heavily on academic ability and are heavily tracked.

3. A curriculum that serves the 80th percentile well is way too easy and slow for kids with IQs of 130ish and up (98%+ percentile)

4. Thus in discussing "gifted" kids needs in the classroom, I think most parents are complaining about lower and early middle school, where teachers in all the big DC privates are asked to teach the same course to kids with a wide range of abilities.

5. I totally agree with the teacher who said that kids in these schools with IQs in the 95-99th percentile are not uncommon.

6. But I totally disagree with her/him that those children are currently adequately served by DCs private schools. They are, for the most part, seriously underchallenged until they hit high school. That's a lot of years of being bored at school.
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