Has anyone received an HGC letter yet?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

You didn't even have to apply this year. The selection process changed radically AFTER people had already started submitting applications. On March 9th, my child's teacher told me that this was the first year that teachers were not asked to provide recommendations. Without applying, I have a child on the wait list. It's bizarre.

THis happened with my friend's kid! Her daughter doesn't do great with change so she did not even want to have her apply. Ends up it's at a school where they test all kids this year. Kid is on the wait list.

Not all kids were tested. They used some data to decide who should be tested-- many more than usually apply and then parents were able to decline testing. The big difference was that parents didn't have to initiate the process, the school system did. This was only for a few schools, a field test, this year. I think they want to do it for all schools next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

Oh come on. No need for being nasty.

I think the poster was just trying to say that there are probably a lot of kids who are qualified for the HGC but who don't get in because there aren't enough seats and that regardless, MCPS should do a better job of meeting the needs of every student.

Home school or HGC, if your child is highly gifted, smart, etc they should be given the work they need to reach their potential.

As for the differences between highly gifted and smart/high-achieving, maybe the former do belong in the center and the latter in the home school, either way, MCPS must meet their needs. It seems that many parents don't feel that their smart kids are getting enough and are looking to the HGC as a solution. It is a legitimate concern even if the HGC is the wrong solution.

[Anonymous]

Any idea where the extra slots were added? Were slots added at each center? New centers? If new centers, were they regional?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember teacher recommendations are important. If a teacher thinks your child's needs are being met, and will continue to be met, in the home school they won't recommend a move. It isn't always about being the smartest.Home schools can handle smart. HGC is about thinking differently too. It is not for everyone. Congrats to those families that got in and sorry to those that are disappointed.

There is more to it. Per definition the program is for EXCEPTIONALLY and HIGHLY gifted children.
It is not for HIGH ACHIEVERS. Those are just smart students. MCPS is filled with them
to the brim due to the profile of the families that are in the county. There is at least 30% very good students
per class and in some areas even 50% and more. Not every child is gifted.

If your child is not gifted and for some reasons you will manage "to beat the system" and have a kid
in the gifted program, you are hurting a kid at the end. Here is how. Every other, or most other kids
will be highly gifted and the contrast between the truly gifted students and those who are not became
painfully and quickly obvious among the center students. The bottom of the scale students starting
having problems with everything,the learning style is different there and requires tons of quick and
creative thinking and it has to be done on the fly, those kids do not have time to go home and cram
and prepare for discussions or problems. They have to think and they think like a wind.
When they write, they write like a wind. Gifted kids will have written a few pages paper before the teacher
ends reading the topic of the paper, they don't even have to go home to finish it.
A kid who is barely managing quickly became the "dumb" kid in the class and those kids
aside from being gifted are not sincerely nicest in the world. It can hurt your child in the most profound way,
because one thing is to get into a gifted program, another is to survive there and t hrive.
If a kid won't advance from that program to the next level, middle school level, which, if you think
was hard to get to the elementary gifted, then think again. (Elementary gifted has 6 centers,
middle gifted program for the same area has 2 Gifted centers, and anyone can apply again).

I saw a lot of kids who either dropped out of the Gifted program, or did not even apply to middle gifted program,
or applied and did not pass the exams. Each of them is devastated through the process to a degree.
Imagine being labeled as "gifted" and then all of the sudden you are not gifted anymore.
It takes huge toll on those kids. Huge. When a kid form a gifted program comes back to the main
stream, they feel like they did not delivered, that they are inferior, and the rest of the kids also
see them as some form of a looser. This is very unhealthy at the end.

Many parents try for gifted program even if they have so so students. May of those kids get
hurt by this. It depends on the personality of a kid but every kid more less takes a hit.
Smart parents who know that their kid does not have a chance in the run or at the center,
do not subject kids to this. Many parents prefer a kid who has self esteem and believes
that they could get in if they wanted but they don't want rather then the same kids being
put to the test and fail. Some kids will happily try and fail and go on with their life happily
thinking if I did not try I would not know. But most kids take the failure to their hearts.
It is not easy to get over the fact that you were "rejected" from the program.
It still hurt less in any case then getting into the center and then dropping off not being
able to keep up. It also hurts a lot when kids form elementary gifted did not make
to the middle gifted. It hurts plenty because the middle of the pack kids who are doing
so so in the center also hope to get further but the bar is very very high .

Anyway, this is just to make you realize that if your kid did not get into gifted program
not to take it to the heart as it is better not to get accepted then fail. The people who
select kids, they know who will have best chance in the run.
There is not much preparation that you can really do to get into the program because
those things that truly matter are nothing you can prepare yourself to.
All those crammers from Kumon sooner or later drop off the game. It only can get
you this far. Gifted centers are NOT about crammers.


This should be helpful to see how your kid measures up for the game:
Page 10 - Smart vs. Gifted
Page 11- High Achiever vs. Gifted Learner

http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cms/lib09/UT01001306/Centricity/Domain/73/Learning%20Distinctions%20Between%20High%20Achievers%20and%20Gifted.pdf

This is the best comment on this thread. I am in education and I can't tell you how many people do not understand this difference and it is a big difference.

Kids can be smart, motivated, high achievers but that doesn't make them gifted. In this area especially, the former are a dime a dozen but a truly gifted student is still truly rare.

So an A student who is confident, bright, organized, on task etc....is not the student who should be in this program. They are excellent students who will be successful throughout school but it still doesn't make them gifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

Oh come on. No need for being nasty.

I think the poster was just trying to say that there are probably a lot of kids who are qualified for the HGC but who don't get in because there aren't enough seats and that regardless, MCPS should do a better job of meeting the needs of every student.

Home school or HGC, if your child is highly gifted, smart, etc they should be given the work they need to reach their potential.

As for the differences between highly gifted and smart/high-achieving, maybe the former do belong in the center and the latter in the home school, either way, MCPS must meet their needs. It seems that many parents don't feel that their smart kids are getting enough and are looking to the HGC as a solution. It is a legitimate concern even if the HGC is the wrong solution.

I'm the first PP that the nasty PP responded to.

Thank you for clarifying. That is exactly what I was saying. There are lots of bright, high-achieving, motivated kids who do not get into the HGC because there are not enough seats. I really wish MCPS would do more for those kids. Fine if you don't want to label them as 'highly gifted'. Not worried about the label.

But MCPS is not making enough effort to engage these bright kids and they just kind of bide their time in 'regular classes'.

Look at the scores of kids on the Wait List! These are bright kids! Thw county should want to support these kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

Oh come on. No need for being nasty.

I think the poster was just trying to say that there are probably a lot of kids who are qualified for the HGC but who don't get in because there aren't enough seats and that regardless, MCPS should do a better job of meeting the needs of every student.

Home school or HGC, if your child is highly gifted, smart, etc they should be given the work they need to reach their potential.

As for the differences between highly gifted and smart/high-achieving, maybe the former do belong in the center and the latter in the home school, either way, MCPS must meet their needs. It seems that many parents don't feel that their smart kids are getting enough and are looking to the HGC as a solution. It is a legitimate concern even if the HGC is the wrong solution.

I'm the first PP that the nasty PP responded to.

Thank you for clarifying. That is exactly what I was saying. There are lots of bright, high-achieving, motivated kids who do not get into the HGC because there are not enough seats. I really wish MCPS would do more for those kids. Fine if you don't want to label them as 'highly gifted'. Not worried about the label.

But MCPS is not making enough effort to engage these bright kids and they just kind of bide their time in 'regular classes'.

Look at the scores of kids on the Wait List! These are bright kids! Thw county should want to support these kids.

Could you elaborate on what you expect the county to do to support high achievers who are not "gifted"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that the HGC curriculum was made available on the MCPS website so that if more people wanted their students to follow along they could do that. They also need to open more HGC centers.

1. There is no "HGC curriculum." There are suggested themes/units, but no "curriculum" per se.
2. They are opening more Centers.

And you realize when there are more centers the caliber of the program will drop..it will be like middle schools offering only the advanced curriculum...which means it is not actually advanced.

Yes. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Having had a kid go through the HGC program (and who's now in a magnet MS), and another one just accepted into the HGC, I agree with the posters above that plenty of the HGC cohort (or MS cohort) don't qualify as "truly gifted." I get that "truly gifted" students are rare. I'm not going to claim that my kids are "truly gifted," but I think the focus on the distinction between the "truly gifted" vs. the merely "incredibly bright" student begs the question of whether the latter should apply or will do well in the HGC or magnet environment as it actually exists in MoCo.

The nomenclature notwithstanding, I don't believe the "gifted" programs in MoCo that my kids have been in (HGC and MS only) are actually geared towards meeting the needs of truly gifted students. Yes, the curricula are accelerated, but they are not any more so than challenging curricula in other school districts.

What my kid has gotten in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade in the HGC and MS magnet is not any more advanced or more challenging than what her older sibling got in a great public school system in an out-of-state district before we moved. The drop in the quality of the curriculum -- and the quality of the instruction -- between my kids' old schools vs. their new schools here in MoCo (in a W cluster) was shocking.

I think the immediate PP at 10:33 is right -- the MoCo system is failing to do nearly a good enough job at educating the confident, bright, organized, on-task, smart, and high-achieving kids. The HGC and magnet programs are labeled for the gifted when really they're much more like an honors/accelerated track. I don't think any parent whose child needs more challenge than she or he is getting at the home school should be deterred from applying to the HGC should be deterred by the "only the most special of the special snowflakes" trope of the "truly gifted" posters above. And regardless of HGC acceptance status, none of us should accept that the home schools are "good enough" to "meet our children's needs" at the level currently provided.

[Anonymous]

Could you elaborate on what you expect the county to do to support high achievers who are not "gifted"?

Offer more levels of differentiated instruction like Fairfax County does. Differentiate classes in schools. There is no reason there shouldn't be advanced math or English classes in the lower grades. Beef up the curricula as well as the teacher training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

Oh come on. No need for being nasty.

I think the poster was just trying to say that there are probably a lot of kids who are qualified for the HGC but who don't get in because there aren't enough seats and that regardless, MCPS should do a better job of meeting the needs of every student.

Home school or HGC, if your child is highly gifted, smart, etc they should be given the work they need to reach their potential.

As for the differences between highly gifted and smart/high-achieving, maybe the former do belong in the center and the latter in the home school, either way, MCPS must meet their needs. It seems that many parents don't feel that their smart kids are getting enough and are looking to the HGC as a solution. It is a legitimate concern even if the HGC is the wrong solution.

I'm the first PP that the nasty PP responded to.

Thank you for clarifying. That is exactly what I was saying. There are lots of bright, high-achieving, motivated kids who do not get into the HGC because there are not enough seats. I really wish MCPS would do more for those kids. Fine if you don't want to label them as 'highly gifted'. Not worried about the label.

But MCPS is not making enough effort to engage these bright kids and they just kind of bide their time in 'regular classes'.

Look at the scores of kids on the Wait List! These are bright kids! Thw county should want to support these kids.

Could you elaborate on what you expect the county to do to support high achievers who are not "gifted"?

So much more than they are doing now!

There are several kids in my DD's class who read way above grade level. Their reading group barely ever meets. Teacher knows they will read independently and she needs to work with the lower reading groups to get them up to level. My kid (and others) spend hours each week simply reading independently.

Kid has also scored very high on MAP testing in math. There is NO enrichment in our school. Kids below level do get pulled out. Kids above level just get the same lessons/same homework as everyone else.

We would never do that to kids in sports. Saw they have to swim slower because the rest of the team swims slow?? We encourage them to move on to the next level, learn the next stroke once the basic ones have beeen mastered. Heat we let these other bright kids languish in the classroom. Seems like a waste of potential talent.

[Anonymous]

PP I agree with you 1000%

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else still waiting to receive a letter? The delay has been a bit frustrating, even more so seeing the many posts about letter arrivals. Reading this thread has calmed my nerves a lot about the overall outcome, but I'd still like to get confirmation of DC's results one way or the other.

Also, does anyone know when the CCES open house is? I want to make sure I'm not still checking the mailbox when it occurs.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else still waiting to receive a letter? The delay has been a bit frustrating, even more so seeing the many posts about letter arrivals. Reading this thread has calmed my nerves a lot about the overall outcome, but I'd still like to get confirmation of DC's results one way or the other.

Also, does anyone know when the CCES open house is? I want to make sure I'm not still checking the mailbox when it occurs.

Thanks!

Still waiting here, although I'm hoping it's in my mailbox at the end of the day. Frustrating, since my neighbors down the block received their letters yesterday!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else still waiting to receive a letter? The delay has been a bit frustrating, even more so seeing the many posts about letter arrivals. Reading this thread has calmed my nerves a lot about the overall outcome, but I'd still like to get confirmation of DC's results one way or the other.

Also, does anyone know when the CCES open house is? I want to make sure I'm not still checking the mailbox when it occurs.

Thanks!

Still waiting here, although I'm hoping it's in my mailbox at the end of the day. Frustrating, since my neighbors down the block received their letters yesterday!

So frustrating! Our mail already arrived for the day, so our next shot is tomorrow. Patience is a virtue. I'm guessing the kids will start discussing it soon, so it would be nice to have an answer one way or another so it doesn't become a thing for DC. We've avoided discussing it at home, but not sure that holds at school where lots of kids applied.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone post scores?