Gifted and talented program for 4th and 5th graders at MCPS

[Anonymous]

Sorry, if I'm asking a question that was previously posted. Is there such a thing? Also, is it a lottery system? Heard it was lottery in the pandemic? can you all clarify? Moved from Europe recently and I'm confused. Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

It’s called Center for Enriched Studies and they select in 3rd grade for 4th and 5th. It’s partially lottery - the top 15 percent are put in a pool and selection from that pool is via lottery.

[Anonymous]

Though I should add, that may change next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Though I should add, that may change next year.

This was the last year of the lottery experiment that started because of the pandemic, and they haven't discussed their findings or how that will impact future selections.

[Anonymous]

It’s CES or ELC
and compacted math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s CES or ELC
and compacted math.

To build this out a little, MCPS has introduced an Enriched Literacy Curriculum (ELC) for 4th and 5th grades at *most* elementary schools in the district. So this option is available whether or not you get "lucky" in the lottery. At the same time, MCPS has long offered compacted math in every elementary school. So, those kids do all of 4th grade and half of 5th grade math in 4th, then the rest of 5th and all of 6th grade math in 5th.

This means they take pre-algebra in 6th grade, algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th, algebra 2 in 9th, pre-calculus in 10th, etc.

So, don't despair if you've missed the cut-off for the lottery or your kid doesn't get a lucky number, because there are enrichment options beyond the centers.

[Anonymous]

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/programs/elementary

If they weren't so lazy I would create a shadow MCPS website the mirrors the official one but adds community annotations and corrections.

[Anonymous]

Self-reply correction: If I weren't so lazy I would create a shadow MCPS website that mirrors the official one but adds community annotations and corrections.

[Anonymous]

PPs have shared the reading and math enrichment that is available- but don’t confuse this with GT. In MCPS there is not a GT or gifted program, just a gifted designation, there are magnet programs or enriched courses. Many kids with the gifted designation are not in the magnet programs or advanced courses, and not all kids in the magnets or advanced classes have the gifted designation. They are different.



For the gt identification they look at a combination or reading and math scores, plus a teacher and parent survey. This happens for everyone in second grade and a lot of kids get “rescreened” in 3rd and 5th. For the CES (4th and 5th grade magnet) they only look at reading, writing and social studies. the past few years they looked at the grades from the 2nd marking period and the winter map r.

Compacted math or math 4/5 is not part of the CES. To decide who is in the class it sounds like they use map-m, grades, and the benchmark assessments (parents don’t see these unless they request it).