Which school best supports children who are advanced academically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there just two magnets in MoCo middle school then? How many children are accomodated in these two magnets? It seems that the potential is high for pretty smart children to go to the regular middle schools. Are parents pleased with these, or as pleased as you're going to be with any middle school. I guess I am wondering whether middle school is the time when some MoCo parents wish they sent their kids to private school. Is the somewhat accurate or not at all?

To answer this and the last question: the "highly gifted" magnets are for 4th and 5th graders. At MS and HS, they aren't called "gifted" magnets, instead they are called "math/science/computer" or "communication arts" or "Richard Montgomery IB". But since kids have to test into these programs, taking what is partially an IQ test that appears to be proprietary to MoCo (although somebody else could set me straight on the test itself), they are effectively for the gifted kids. Although MoCo also does some things to get diversity, if they can figure it out in the absence of being able to ask it straight out on the application forms. Also, MoCo is quite specific about wanting geographic diversity, i.e. not just kids from Bethesda in the magnets.

The "lottery" schools, like Loiederman MS for the arts, are by lottery....

Our kids do magnets, after doing private for elementary. About 80-100 kids get into each magnet program. So lots of talented kids are left out. We know some kids who probably should have gotten in ahead of ours, but who knows what their test scores were.

MoCo definitely needs to do more for gifted kids. Apparently they think that people will buy into the MoCo school system on the hopes that their kid will get into a magnet when they get older. And then when the kid doesn't get in, the family's probably stuck anyway, because not so many families can balance private school tuition with that big Montgomery County mortgage.... Weast is making noises about cutting magnet and lottery programs, not expanding them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there just two magnets in MoCo middle school then? How many children are accomodated in these two magnets? It seems that the potential is high for pretty smart children to go to the regular middle schools. Are parents pleased with these, or as pleased as you're going to be with any middle school. I guess I am wondering whether middle school is the time when some MoCo parents wish they sent their kids to private school. Is the somewhat accurate or not at all?

To answer this and the last question: the "highly gifted" magnets are for 4th and 5th graders. At MS and HS, they aren't called "gifted" magnets, instead they are called "math/science/computer" or "communication arts" or "Richard Montgomery IB". But since kids have to test into these programs, taking what is partially an IQ test that appears to be proprietary to MoCo (although somebody else could set me straight on the test itself), they are effectively for the gifted kids. Although MoCo also does some things to get diversity, if they can figure it out in the absence of being able to ask it straight out on the application forms. Also, MoCo is quite specific about wanting geographic diversity, i.e. not just kids from Bethesda in the magnets.

The "lottery" schools, like Loiederman MS for the arts, are by lottery....

Our kids do magnets, after doing private for elementary. About 80-100 kids get into each magnet program. So lots of talented kids are left out. We know some kids who probably should have gotten in ahead of ours, but who knows what their test scores were.

MoCo definitely needs to do more for gifted kids. Apparently they think that people will buy into the MoCo school system on the hopes that their kid will get into a magnet when they get older. And then when the kid doesn't get in, the family's probably stuck anyway, because not so many families can balance private school tuition with that big Montgomery County mortgage.... Weast is making noises about cutting magnet and lottery programs, not expanding them.

Yes, that's right - the magnet programs are terrific, but there are far more qualified candidates than slots.

My child is in one of the middle school magnets, after not having been accepted at the highly gifted center in fourth grade. We appealed, and learned that DC's test scores were higher than the median of the kids who were admitted, and that on the other hand, DC's teacher screwed DC (sorry, there is no other word for it) in her comments on the teacher reference form which was part of the application. (She had told us during the p/t conference that year that she "didn't believe in giftedness." That said it all.) It was crystal-clear that the reason DC was not admitted was that one form/her remarks.

Theoretically it is more difficult to get into the middle school magnets than the HG centers because of sheer numbers. In practice however, I think the application process for both is a bit of a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Do middle schoolers in MCPS who don't do magnets get accelerated instruction in the way described by other PPs for elementary school?

Thanks for those who've posted about magnets. A more nuanced picture is emerging, and I am profoundly grateful for the information. Its hard to get this from scattered conversations and certainly not from MCPS websites.

[Anonymous]

Do middle schoolers in MCPS who don't do magnets get accelerated instruction in the way described by other PPs for elementary school?

Thanks for those who've posted about magnets. A more nuanced picture is emerging, and I am profoundly grateful for the information. Its hard to get this from scattered conversations and certainly not from MCPS websites.

This is the case for the middle schools in the Wootton and Churchill clusters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do middle schoolers in MCPS who don't do magnets get accelerated instruction in the way described by other PPs for elementary school?

Thanks for those who've posted about magnets. A more nuanced picture is emerging, and I am profoundly grateful for the information. Its hard to get this from scattered conversations and certainly not from MCPS websites.

This is the case for the middle schools in the Wootton and Churchill clusters.

This also happens at Pyle (feeder to Whitman). I don't have a child at Pyle yet, but I just learned that they can get high school credit while at Pyle if they are doing high school level math. Not sure how this works or how I feel about it, but there are definitely enough "advanced" children that this seems to be somewhat normal.

Currently, my child is in 4th grade and is in a 6th grade level math class. DC's math class is a mixture of mostly 5th graders and about nine 4th graders (there may be 25 kids in the class). So, it's not as if my DC is the only person in 4th grade that is "advanced academically". Plenty of smart fish in the sea - and lots of them in public school.

When we toured private schools, none of them differentiated for math at the elem. school level. We felt like it would be extremely boring for our DC to repeat curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like to hear only from parents whose children have gone through or are currently going through elementary school in Beauvoir, Maret, GDS, and Sidwell. I am also interested in hearing specifically from parents whose children are fairly advanced academically (above grade level in one or more areas), and how the school in question dealt with this. Did you feel your child was sufficiently supported, engaged, and accelerated? How much advocacy did you need to undertake versus the teachers "getting" it and acting proactively to provide enrichment and acceleration to your child? Did you find that things got better in terms of school support for your child as the child got older - or did it get more difficult? Conversely, if you had a particularly poor experience with one of these schools on this count, I want to hear that too. Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure that comparing Beauvoir to the lower schools at Maret, GDS, and Sidwell is apples to apples. Because Beauvoir only goes to 3rd grade, it is not the same type of elementary school (not going up to higher elementary grades). My experience at Beauvoir is that there are a lot of very smart kids and that the teachers will give the more advanced students extra work in 2nd and 3rd to challenge them more, but overall the focus of the school is to develop a well rounded, well educated child who thinks about respect, kindness etc. I don't think they focus on accelerating "academics" in pre k, k, even first grade. I think a lot of educators think that the focus of the very early grades should be on play, social skills etc. Obviously they don't ignore academics but it is not an academically difficult school and I think that's because it is focused on young kids. By third grade you might want your child more challeged, especially in math, but there are other excellent benefits to the school (global studies etc). I think there is a reason that the GT programs don't start until 4th grade. I guess my point is that I wouldn't worry about acceleration in the lower grades. I think Beauvoir provides a very engaging environment, full of great art, computer, library, PE, music, spanish, global studies, reading, word study, and math. If your child goes on to STA or NCS they will be academically challenged. I don't know how NCS/STA works with truly gifted kids, but I know there are a lot of extremely smart students there.

[Anonymous]

I can't really see how somebody who sent their gifted child to public schools is going to be on a "Private/Idp't schools" Forum to be able to even read the original question.

Personally I'd love to be the parent sitting next to you when you ask the AD that question at Sidwell. I can hear the groans just thinking about it.

Sorry to digress, I know you want the question answered. And I'm not sure how they do it now, but I do know that when I was in high school here we went and took advanced math classes, for example, over at Georgetown. I know its not MIT, but it certainly was sufficient and I didn't feel "held back" by my private school.

[Anonymous]

Lots of us have kids in both private and public (horrors!) and read both threads.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it seems some posters have less dense synaptic activity and can't figure this out.

[Anonymous]

Also, lots of people just look at the "recent topics" thread without even noticing which forum the question is posted in.

[Anonymous]

Another mom with kids in both private and public. Does our mixed status mean we aren't qualified to read the thread headers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do middle schoolers in MCPS who don't do magnets get accelerated instruction in the way described by other PPs for elementary school?

Thanks for those who've posted about magnets. A more nuanced picture is emerging, and I am profoundly grateful for the information. Its hard to get this from scattered conversations and certainly not from MCPS websites.

This is the case for the middle schools in the Wootton and Churchill clusters.

We had a kid in language immersion who did math two years ahead.

We have another kid in private (just establishing bona fides for my ability to post on this thread )

[Anonymous]

The advantage that the public schools have over the privates for this situation is that they offer multiple levels (4 or 5) for each subject area. The privates, which have a much lower population, can not possibly afford to offer so many classes for each level to students in a grade.

[Anonymous]

Selective admissions means some privates don't have to offer as many levels on the low end. If we're talking support for highly advanced or gifted kids, the relevant question generally isn't "how many levels?", but how high is the highest level?

[Anonymous]

That said, tracking starts earlier in the publics. So where the high is highest may change over time.