Yes, it does. (Score 1)

I've come to the US in fourth grade from Hungary. Somehow something happened and I was extremely ahead of everyone else in the US schools. They were learning how to multiply in the first quarter, and how to do long devision in the second quarter. In Hungary we've learned basic skills like that in second grade. There was a group of kids that were considered "gifted and talented", and they all went to one teacher instead of their usual English/Math/Science teachers, where they learned everything one year ahead of everyone else. When I found out about such a class I begged to be in it, but wasn't allowed because I was still in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. And they really think that kids that came from these third world countries are complete idiots so they didn't really care. Somehow at the end of fifth grade they transfered me to there GT classes. When the time for middle school came around I had to move to a different district, and was once again put into the regular classes. I also didn't know that there were "gifted courses" in this new school, because they called them TAG (Talented and Gifted). Finally in seventh grade I found out about this program and begged to be placed into it. My math teacher must've seen something in me and recommended me and another kid (from a "third world country" as well), and we took the test. I think the administrators thought that I cheated or something like that, because they had me retake is a couple of times. When 8th grade started and I received my schedual for the year I marched into my "TAG" classes with pride. Only to find out that in math we were learning Algebra 1 (which in Hungary I've already learned in 3rd grade), the Science class only differed from the regular one by requiring the "gifted" students to do a science fair, and the History class followed the exactly same ciricilum except we were given half hour lectures about leadership and current events. Bummer. So in the end I think the whole system should be changed, because right now the gifted students are the ones that actually want to learn and do something with their future and the kids in the regular classes are just their because they have to be. And then there are kids like I was, that because their English was bad at the time, they were categorized as complete morons. This is just my point of view, and a little history about what happened and still happens to kids like me right now all over the US.