Greetings fellow concerned parents. I'm the father of three boys (5th, 3rd, & 1st grades). My eldest two are already identified as gifted per California standards and they're currently enrolled in a great public school for gifted children. My youngest is also very bright and is following his older siblings' path.
But you all have only confirmed my fears that Alabama will set them back in thier academic progress. We're soon moving to the Madison, AL area and I'm very concerned as to what schools we should be considering. Is there a place where my boys can learn among a group of academic peers? Which schools will be receiving the newly state designated funds for gifted education?

Al in CAL

I grew up in Huntsville, but now I live in Trussville (outside of Birmingham). I was in a gifted program in the Huntsville system years ago. It was a pull-out enrichment program. We were in accelerated classes in middle school. It could have been better, but I got a great education and was challenged.

My two daughters (1st and 3rd grade) are currently being screened for the gifted program here. The screening system is screwy and not very individualized. Last year my 8-year-old did not pass screening, and we were shocked. However, she was given a visual-spatial IQ screener, and she's highly verbal. Her 3rd grade teacher was shocked that she wasn't already in the program. From what I hear from other parents and teachers, the program is good for some kids and bad for others. I think you just have to work with the particular school.

There are some magnet schools in the state that do a good job with gifted/talented kids. Isn't there one in Huntsville? For what it's worth, Madison schools have a good reputation. I teach at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. We have a math/science program with a lot of gifted kids. It's a public school, and we have a dorm. The program serves grades 7-12 (8-12 in math/science). It's worth checking out when your kids are older and if you're willing to let them go to school out of town.

Good luck! You will love the Madison/Huntsville area!

I had the exact same experience with my child last year when he entered kindergarten.
My advice to you is to first have him tested by a psychologist to determine that he is gifted. The fact is that if you don't have a piece of paper from a doctor or some other indisputable source, you are just another parent who thinks their child is special. If you have formal testing results to back you up, then they have to do something.
Next, request a conference with the gifted resource teacher assigned to your childs school (you can contact your county BOE to find out who this is), the school psychometrist, and the principal. Have testing results in hand.
The best thing you can hope for is for your child to be placed in an inclusion class where there is a special ed teacher and an assistant. This allows individualized attention for your child. Also, special ed teachers work with gifted kids, too.
Your child can have gifted instruction at any grade, but gifted resource pull-out will not begin until 3rd grade. The gifted reaource teacher can help your childs teacher with creating challenging and engaging assignements.
Don't despair. My child was also reading at age two and can read and comprehend material at a 7th grade level. He also does multiplication and solves for varialbes in math.
Just stay on top of it. At the end of the day, the parent is responsible and it sounds like you are doing the right things.

I don't know where you are in Alabama. I am in Shelby County. I have some resources for this area if you need them.

First grade is much better for my son. He is doing great! He is very challenged. It took very proactive parents to make this happen for him.

Best of Luck and stay in touch!

Devon

Please share your experience with private testing. I live in the Birmingham area, and my daughter has been screened (not formally tested) twice and has not passed the school screening. She is very close to the system cut-off. Our system uses the NNAT for screening, but visual-spatial is my daughter's weakest area, IMO. My husband and I feel that the process is not giving her a fair shake, and her teachers continue to argue that she's gifted.

Our best hope within the system is the OLSAT in the spring. I suspect my daughter will do well on it since it's much more verbally loaded.

Hi! I'm new to this board. I was Googling for info on testing giftedness in Alabama when I came across this. We have a daughter who just turned 4 in Nov. and has been reading since before her 3rd birthday. We are in the process of researching schools (a little late, I've found) and have her on the waiting list at Advent, but I was hoping for some more resources and opinions of area programs or schools. We live in Alabaster and work downtown B'ham. I wondered if testing my daughter would give her any advantage as we apply to schools. I would love some of the information you said you had for the Shelby Co. area.

Thanks!

My daughters went to Advent for 4K and 5K. One of them stayed through 1st grade. We loved Advent, and now my daughters are way ahead in their current public school(Trussville). The only reason we left Advent was the expense.

I don't think gifted testing will matter for trying to get in Advent. They do have a screening process of their own (which is pretty easy to pass, I think), but the waiting list is really long. My oldest daughter was put on the waiting list when she was 2 and just barely made it in.

Good luck!

My 4 year old is ready to attend K this year, and we were denied in the public and even the private school in our town in North Alabama. We are going out of town to a great private school that is primarily interested in the individual student and their development.

This, in my opinion, is at the heart of developing a child, be they gifted or not. They need individual attention that meets them where they are developmentally, and they need social interaction with their peers for learning interpersonal skills and for the acceleration that comes out of friendly competition. (I don't get this from any kind of professional training, but from being an observant mom and one who reads and works with kids as a volunteer.) It is difficult to choose where to put your child because there are tradoffs for each venue. Homeschooling accelerates academics while seemingly denies the child proper social interaction. The public schools offer diversity of people and activities, but wanes on the academics because the teacher just doesn't have enough time with each child to reach their full potential (or in our case, they deny the child altogether). Private schools fall somewhere in between and I guess that's where we are now in our own quest.

Hi,
I'm new here. I wil be moving to Mobile, AL, end of this year.
I have 2 boys, 5 and 7, who are pretty advanced for their age. Can someone recommend a private school that caters to gifted kids (accelerated learning, skipping grades, flexibility, etc) in Mobile area.

Thks.