Any programs for gifted in Takoma Park or nearby area?

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the ignorant question.

We are currently in DC and very familiar with the (lack of) gifted programming or support for advanced students in elementary and middle school, etc. And even high school.

What is available should we move over the border?

Ideally, this should be a bilingual Spanish option as well.

Thank you for any helpful responses.

[Anonymous]

How old are your children?

[Anonymous]

MCPS is smack in the middle of proposed changes to some of the programs, including criteria-based middle and high school programs. But for now:

In 3rd grade kids take a test, and then a lottery is used for placement in the Center for Enriched Studies (CES). Piney Branch ES in Takoma Park has its own CES, so your child's likelihood of "winning" the lottery is higher. That program is focused on the humanities, so English and Social Studies.

For middle school, Takoma Park Middle School hosts the down-county STEM magnet, and again there are (for now) seats set aside for kids who are in-bounds.

In high school, we know changes are coming. Takoma Park would be in "Area 1" so the criteria based programs would be spread across the south of the county. With that said, HS level is less about "gifted" programs and more about access to IB/AP classes and whether a "gifted" kid is also a kid who can handle a heavy courseload.

At all levels, you can be accelerated in math without being in a magnet. The standard accelerated math pathway is Algebra in 7th headed to Calculus in 11th.

[Anonymous]

There are immersion schools with selection by lottery, but it is generally an either/or between that and any of the formal gifted offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are immersion schools with selection by lottery, but it is generally an either/or between that and any of the formal gifted offerings.

Yes, although the immersion options are not completely without differentiated instruction.

[Anonymous]

We came from DCPS to MCPS, and the curriculum for ES at least is much stronger in MCPS, especially now that there is CKLA. They also begin math acceleration here sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is smack in the middle of proposed changes to some of the programs, including criteria-based middle and high school programs. But for now:

In 3rd grade kids take a test, and then a lottery is used for placement in the Center for Enriched Studies (CES). Piney Branch ES in Takoma Park has its own CES, so your child's likelihood of "winning" the lottery is higher. That program is focused on the humanities, so English and Social Studies.

For middle school, Takoma Park Middle School hosts the down-county STEM magnet, and again there are (for now) seats set aside for kids who are in-bounds.

In high school, we know changes are coming. Takoma Park would be in "Area 1" so the criteria based programs would be spread across the south of the county. With that said, HS level is less about "gifted" programs and more about access to IB/AP classes and whether a "gifted" kid is also a kid who can handle a heavy courseload.

At all levels, you can be accelerated in math without being in a magnet. The standard accelerated math pathway is Algebra in 7th headed to Calculus in 11th.

The IB program at BCC is excellent; it will be very competitive to get in, I expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5. But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes? Not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5. But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes? Not sure.

TPMS: no. It’s the same math class anyway- the only thing different is the cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5. But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes? Not sure.

Wait, so if you move into the area with documentation on gifted abilities etc, you can't join these cohorts anyway?

But, it's a lottery system so in any case, there is some type of acceleration available normally? That's still better than grades 4-6 here. Would my third grader be able to still go into the magnet middle school later? He is more in need of this, my 6th grader would probably benefit from accelerated literacy or bilingual education more, or just a cohort of kids who are advanced and enthusiastic readers and writers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5. But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes? Not sure.

Wait, so if you move into the area with documentation on gifted abilities etc, you can't join these cohorts anyway?

But, it's a lottery system so in any case, there is some type of acceleration available normally? That's still better than grades 4-6 here. Would my third grader be able to still go into the magnet middle school later? He is more in need of this, my 6th grader would probably benefit from accelerated literacy or bilingual education more, or just a cohort of kids who are advanced and enthusiastic readers and writers.

Yes, correct, you can't join the magnet programs late, regardless of how gifted you are (it's not really for the most gifted anyway, it's for a random sampling of the top 15%)-- only a fraction of qualified kids already here get into these programs in the first place, so they're definitely not guaranteeing spots to new transfer students. I suppose there may be some way I don't know of that you could join the waitpool for vacancies if kids transfer out, but even if so, that would be joining a very large waitpool for a very low number of slots, so I would not base anything on that.

But yes, you are also correct that there is acceleration and enrichment available in all schools to some extent. More straightforward in math-- people have differing opinions about how good the enriched literacy options in 4th-5th and the enriched social studies class in 6th-8th is, but they exist. Also all teachers are theoretically supposed to be differentiating and providing enrichment to all students who need it during regular class time, but that is pretty hit or miss (mostly miss.) And all elementary schools have a 30 minute per day FIT/WIN period that is supposed to be used to regroup kids for enrichment or intervention for kids who need it (it varies a lot from school to school, but this is only the first year of it so perhaps it will become more consistent and stronger in future years.)

And yes, if your current 3rd grader is enrolled in MCPS by fall of 5th grade they should be considered for the middle school magnets just like any other student. (Unless something changes-- they are making changes to HS magnets and there has been some talk about assessing whether to make changes to MS magnets as well, but nothing is currently planned on that.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the ignorant question.

We are currently in DC and very familiar with the (lack of) gifted programming or support for advanced students in elementary and middle school, etc. And even high school.

What is available should we move over the border?

Ideally, this should be a bilingual Spanish option as well.

Thank you for any helpful responses.

Don't move to Takoma Park. The taxes are sky-high and look to get even higher, since, as a municipality of 17,000 (for the past 30 years), the city council built the only municipal library in Maryland ($22 million) and now, it is planning to build a municipal rec center. It has the highest property tax rate in the county. Rock Creek Forest is an excellent ES with a Spanish Immersion. It is in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children?

Currently in third and sixth grade.

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5. But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes? Not sure.

TPMS: no. It’s the same math class anyway- the only thing different is the cohort.

It definitely is not. It moves faster and is deeper.