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T Murphy wrote:

I would like to hear about other families' experiences with
districts in the greater Seattle area. Good experiences are
preferred, but not-so-good are ok as well. Please give me
the school/district/city names as I'm just learning the area
and still don't know my way around. I've found the
Washington State School website, but it's all based on
district and school names.

I can give you an overview of the Seattle School District's gifted program. The
district has a two-tiered program for "advanced learners," as they call
"gifted" kids: APP and Spectrum. The program starts in the 1st grade with kids
who were tested in kindergarten. APP was designed to teach kids in the top 2
percent and is primarily based on an acceleration model of two year's
curriculum ahead. Elementary APP kids attend a separate school.

The Spectrum program is designed to teach those who are not accepted into APP
and are in the top 10 percent. These kids receive primarily enrichment
activities, although recently teachers have been pushed to accelerate
curriculum up to one year ahead. There is currently a variety of delivery
models being used (self-contained; Spectrum and "high achievers" mixed;
Spectrum pullouts) and controversy over how the Spectrum program should be
defined in the future. The original concept was that Spectrum would be a
self-contained class (filled entirely with kids who have tested into the
program).

Seattle School District is currently in the middle of the search for a new
superintendent. It's thought that the choice of superintendent could have a
profound affect on the future of the Advanced Learning program, especially on
the nature of Spectrum program.

For more information on Seattle School District's Advanced Learning program,
see http://www.seattleschools.org/area/a...ning/index.xml . The information
on the web site dates from a recent review of the program and suggestions made
to improve it. You may wish to keep in mind that the decisions documented on
the site have not necessarily been instituted. Right now, no single vision
exists for Advanced Learning in the Seattle School District.

From what I can tell, the APP program at Lowell Elementary School is very good,
although the school itself is getting overcrowded. The quality of Spectrum at
the elementary level varies by location. If your kids end up testing into
Spectrum, you'll want to get more information specifically about the school
they would be attending. I don't know much about Advanced Learning for middle
school students and above.

I hope this helps.

beeswing