Gifted & talented programs and magnet school opportunities in the public schools?

[Anonymous]

DH is considering a job offer in the area and we are looking at possibly moving to Montgomery county with our 3 children (PK, K and 3rd). Oldest has been identified for our gifted and talented program here.

What programs are available in the Montgomery schools? Are they at all schools, or just certain ones?

[Anonymous]

This thread will turn ugly real fast so i will give you my two cents and jump out. Buy a house near good schools (i.e., rich areas - Potomac) so you can have reasonably good education until HS (even if your kid doesn't get into magnet).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH is considering a job offer in the area and we are looking at possibly moving to Montgomery county with our 3 children (PK, K and 3rd). Oldest has been identified for our gifted and talented program here.

What programs are available in the Montgomery schools? Are they at all schools, or just certain ones?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched

[Anonymous]

The elementary program is called Centers for Enriched Studies and is in 4th and 5th only. There are four local sites, meaning they only serve students who are zoned to those schools, so you have a greater chance of getting a spot:

Rachel Carson ES
Piney Branch ES
Spark M. Matsunaga ES
Stonegate ES

Then there are regional sites, which serve many schools so your child may have to change schools in 4th to attend them, and there is less likelihood of getting a spot:

Barnsley ES
Chevy Chase ES
Clearspring ES
Cold Spring ES
Drew ES
Fox Chapel ES
Milk Creek Towne ES
Oak View ES
Pine Crest ES

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/center-enriched-studies/

[Anonymous]

I would ignore any information about middle or high school programs at this point because everything is under review and could change in 2027.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would ignore any information about middle or high school programs at this point because everything is under review and could change in 2027.

True.

We moved here for the gifted programs. DC attended programs in ES and HS. MS was too far. DC is now in college, but I hope MCPS keeps the high caliber magnets. Would be a shame to dim the few highlights that MCPS has.

[Anonymous]

Be advised that MCPS allegedly has a very large gifted cohort. The use the term loosely. IMO, they conflate "high achievers" with gifted.

Having stated that, there is actually a sizeable "high achieving" group, and some truly gifted kids.

[Anonymous]

Gifted education has really changed in the last decade. It has expanded which has benefits, but for the truly gifted it is watered down. HS magnets are still good but similar changes are being discussed.

On the positive side, there are many high performing kids in the area so your child will definitely have a cohort!

[Anonymous]

Most school districts conflate gifted with high achieving. That said there is a large amount of high achieving students in MoCo, a smaller group of high achieving and amazingly driven(or pushed) students, and some gifted.

ES has Compacted Math available in 4th and 5th grade(complete 4th-6th grade math), the is also an Enriched Literacy Curriculum(how this is modeled is changing this school year by school. More to come).

There are MS and HS magnet and Special Programs. As others said these are under review and will be changing beginning Fall 2026. If you move here soon this would be worth paying attention on and being involved in.

Other than this, determine where you want to live in the county and then you can get more info. DO NOT rely on DCUM as your main source of info.

[Anonymous]

OP please check the archives and read about the programs on MCPS’s Accelerated and Enriched Instruction website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most school districts conflate gifted with high achieving. That said there is a large amount of high achieving students in MoCo, a smaller group of high achieving and amazingly driven(or pushed) students, and some gifted.

ES has Compacted Math available in 4th and 5th grade(complete 4th-6th grade math), the is also an Enriched Literacy Curriculum(how this is modeled is changing this school year by school. More to come).

There are MS and HS magnet and Special Programs. As others said these are under review and will be changing beginning Fall 2026. If you move here soon this would be worth paying attention on and being involved in.

Other than this, determine where you want to live in the county and then you can get more info. DO NOT rely on DCUM as your main source of info.

I think they’re trying to fix that. At least two board members correctly pointed out that giftedness should not be dependent on how much English you know. Yet CogAT and IQ tests are reliant on how much English you know, which is silly.

[Anonymous]

There is technically supposed to be differentiation/enrichment in class starting in kindergarten but in many (not all) cases it's pretty limited.

This year for the first time, all elementary schools are supposed to have 30 minutes a day of WIN (What I Need) time for all grades to offer enrichment and intervention, but it's a little TBD how that will play out, except that schools will be required (and given materials) to do literacy enrichment during that time for kids in grades 3-5.

Accelerated math starts in grade 4 and continues all the way through high school. There is enriched literacy in 4th and 5th during the ELA block, but this coming year some schools are doing it in cohorted classes and some in mixed-level classss. There is an enriched social studies class in middle school.

There are also limited spots in magnets for 4-5 (based on ELA scores) and middle school (one for ELA, one for math and science), done by lottery among the top 10-15% of kids based on test scores. There's also a variety of high school magnet program offerings, some of which pick the top kids based on applications. These programs are all being reviewed right now though so there's a chance they could change (for better or worse.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most school districts conflate gifted with high achieving. That said there is a large amount of high achieving students in MoCo, a smaller group of high achieving and amazingly driven(or pushed) students, and some gifted.

ES has Compacted Math available in 4th and 5th grade(complete 4th-6th grade math), the is also an Enriched Literacy Curriculum(how this is modeled is changing this school year by school. More to come).

There are MS and HS magnet and Special Programs. As others said these are under review and will be changing beginning Fall 2026. If you move here soon this would be worth paying attention on and being involved in.

Other than this, determine where you want to live in the county and then you can get more info. DO NOT rely on DCUM as your main source of info.

I think they’re trying to fix that. At least two board members correctly pointed out that giftedness should not be dependent on how much English you know. Yet CogAT and IQ tests are reliant on how much English you know, which is silly.

Board members pointing something out does not mean they will change anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most school districts conflate gifted with high achieving. That said there is a large amount of high achieving students in MoCo, a smaller group of high achieving and amazingly driven(or pushed) students, and some gifted.

ES has Compacted Math available in 4th and 5th grade(complete 4th-6th grade math), the is also an Enriched Literacy Curriculum(how this is modeled is changing this school year by school. More to come).

There are MS and HS magnet and Special Programs. As others said these are under review and will be changing beginning Fall 2026. If you move here soon this would be worth paying attention on and being involved in.

Other than this, determine where you want to live in the county and then you can get more info. DO NOT rely on DCUM as your main source of info.

I think they’re trying to fix that. At least two board members correctly pointed out that giftedness should not be dependent on how much English you know. Yet CogAT and IQ tests are reliant on how much English you know, which is silly.

Board members pointing something out does not mean they will change anything.

It doesn’t mean they “will” change anything but it does mean they are trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be advised that MCPS allegedly has a very large gifted cohort. The use the term loosely. IMO, they conflate "high achievers" with gifted.

Having stated that, there is actually a sizeable "high achieving" group, and some truly gifted kids.

It’s not surprising given that this area has historically attracted well-educated and ambitious parents.

I predict the pool may weaken over the next three years as the DOGEd depart the DC area.