Carlsbad has a GATE program and tests in 2nd grade. My daughter is in 2nd and just tested into it. It doesn’t really matter though because I homeschool my kids. But I had her tested as a back up plan in case she ever does go into Carlsbad’s public schools. My kids go to Carlsbad’s homeschool program. They physically go into school 2 days a week there and also do field trips, oral presentations, and standardized testing with that group of kids. The homeschool class is 95% GATE students and the teacher does classroom projects accordingly.
Personally I don’t think GATE is that big of a deal. I’m a product of GATE from Orange County schools. For some reason I was tested in Kindergarten (have never heard of anyone else who was tested in K). I was pulled out of class with one other kid in 2nd grade 2 days a week (which by the way, I hated that, I didn’t like being singled or I guess doubled out) to join the 3rd grade GATE class. 3rd grade started full time GATE classes and some of my friends were in the class so I was happy. I would say the only benefit of GATE is that you don’t wait around in class for others to catch up. But as an adult who has lived in the real world, you live and work with people of various levels of intelligence and hopefully come to the realization that intelligence comes in many forms and is not the only factor that makes a person someone you want to be around.
