<p>As so many have said, depends on the kid and the program. In some cases, these are little more than enrichment for bright, high achieving kids. My oldest is a fairly typical highly gifted kid, reading very young with strong unusual interests and, in his case, some social challenges. He was the kid that read the book in his lap in regular class and still knew almost all the answers. For him, the gifted program was a chance to be with like-minded kids. At that point the program was based on a variety of factors and expanded each year from 3-5th grade, with those that entered in 3rd grade the most “gifted”. That was about 5% of the grade. It was primarily enrichment and working on “higher level” thinking skills. That experience, along with a gifted camp, was the highlight of his elementary years.</p>
<p>My youngest is somewhat the opposite. He was not an earlier reader (and still does not love to read) and is very athletic and social. Quite honestly, his HG IQ score was a bit of a surprise. The program had changed by that time to be an HG program only so the number of kids was much smaller and extended into middle school. For him, as well, it was a very good thing. While his friends are generally not from the GT pool, it allowed him to stretch academically.</p>
<p>None of my children are super high achievers. I have come to believe that this is much more a function of personality than IQ. However, I find my son often gets the concepts quick easily but makes mistakes in execution. Some of this is focus, a bit of mind working faster than the pen, a bit of concentration issues, a bit of not being detailed oriented. The NMF kids in my oldest son’s year were all from the GT program. Not all of those former GTers were at the top of the class by GPA, particularly the boys, but all did quite well. </p>
<p>Properly run GT programs that target the correct students and provide enriched or replacement work, not just more work, can benefit many GT students. Unfortunately, many programs are poorly run or have very poor means of identifying the students. Just because a student has a “gifted” IQ, does not mean they are a star student or have no behavioral or social issues. In many cases, those are the kids that would benefit the most from a GT program.</p>