Emily, it's same problem, philosophically anyway, that we face when the parents with means place their kids in private schools. All too often, great schools are great (at least partially) because of the active involvement of parents. And those are the same parents, generally, who are more likely going to place their kids in private schools. So the public schools are even more deprived.

My grammar school (K-8) didn't have a gifted proram or anything, and there wasn't formal tracking until 7th grade. I was in some program at the Science Museum that happened when we had half-Wednesdays, but I think that's about it.

That said, I could have placed everyone in the groups we were put in for 7th/8th grade myself -- it's not like you didn't know who was smart or not.

I can't remember, Sara, is it on that same street?

Yup. One way on that section, northbound.

It has a garage in the alley.

I'm actually relieved for Bristol Palin, because now she doesn't have to be stuck with that guy.

I can provide the anecdata for my daughter's K class (Title 1 school, 80% minority, 80% low income): there are reading groups by ability in the classroom; all other activities in the classroom are done all together. There are pull-outs for kids whose native language is not English, pull-outs for gifted, and pull-outs that seem to target kids with socialization/behavioral issues (Casper calls this "manners class.") At age 5-6, it's hard to see to what extent the kids see the divisions. I know I saw them by 5th grade (reading groups were key there) but I don't remember much before that (and went to a really tiny rural school before that, too).

there are reading groups by ability in the classroom

They did do this in my kindergarten class back in 1971-2, but not until second semester (most kids didn't know how to read until they started school back then). My mom told me several years later about the meeting the teachers had with the parents in which they announced the groups. They made the announcement in order from lowest to highest, and when they got to the last group and my name was the only one in it, she said that there was a lot of muttering about "what makes her so special?!?" Mom wanted to point out that I already knew how to read before school started (thank you, Sesame Street and book-loving genes!), but decided to leave it alone.

Oh, in Kindergarten, I was totally taken out of the room while the other kids learned to read! I forgot about that. They had an older kid read with me instead, which seems really smart to me now -- I'm sure it helped the older kid, too.

getting me to compete with myself with SRA cards (see how high I could get my reading level)

I loved the SRA cards, because the class reading was boring and slow. I usually tore through them all by spring, though, and then I was bored, bored, bored. The bored part is why my first reaction to "should I put my child in the gifted program" is "hell, yes." None of the schools I went to had gifted programs, except that I did spend a wonderful summer in Georgia's summer gifted program. My experience was that the teachers assumed the smarter kids could be left alone and they concentrated on the ones who needed help. The result was that I was bored and generally disdainful of school in general. I've always thought I could have done better in college if I'd ever had to stretch before. Having to actually work was a terrible shock to me.

There was one other kid in Kindergarten who could read with me.

At our school they have a reading program where kids can get books with a point value and then take computerized comprehension tests to win the points. At certain point levels the kids get a prize like lunch with a teacher, or a free book. It seems to work pretty well giving the higher level readers a chance to work on their reading. On the downside the prizes tapped out way too low for our reading machine daughter so we have to add a few more prize levels to make up for it. We now owe her some Krispy Kremes.