Nysmith question

[Anonymous]

They want kids who are at or above grade level, so they don't do any remediation or LD issues. And to be frank, they want kids whose parents can afford to send them there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:120? Really? Isn't that below 90th percentile? I thought "gifted" was essentially 130 and above.

I can't speak on behalf of Nysmith...I don't have a child there.

But, you are correct....130 is what's considered gifted. HOwever, there are many children with uneven strengths. They could test well about 130 in verbal or spatial skills and have closer to average processing speed for example. This would result in a full scale IQ that may be a bit lower than 130 but the child would certainly still benefit from this type of curriculum. I bet this may be why they are willing to accept some children with 120+ FSIQ. Again, I'm speculating....

I meant well above 130....

[Anonymous]

Odds are, one big segment of the market here is parent's whose kids just missed the public school cut-off for gifted. That, too, could explain the lower threshhold.

[Anonymous]

You are correct 14:37. That's why we went there. Our kids were 133 and 128, didn't get in FCPS and weren't challenged enough. They also have ADD and we thought the smaller class sizes would help. I really wish I'd used the money for something else, like private tutoring, outside supplementation, whatever. It is a good school, but not great IMO.

[Anonymous]

14:46 what are the cutoffs for FCPS, an IQ of 133 is 99% no?

Still considering this school for future years, why do you say it is not great?

[Anonymous]

A couple of years ago there was a serious bullying issue there, where a child was badly hurt by another child. The school administration did not handle it well - to put it mildly. That was enough to keep us from applying.

[Anonymous]

I guess there are always one or two bad ancedotes about schools-keep in mind almost anywhere you go you can find a parent to say bad things about any school.

We are new to the school, but most of the parents I have talked to really LOVE the school-and you can't argue with their 8th grade HS placements-they go to top notch privates and to TJ, so they must be doing something right.

Agree with the PP who mentioned that most schools, even the elite DC privates do not have a strong math and science curriculum early on. Nysmith teaches REAL math, not the Everyday math crappy program many other privates do.

FCPS cutoff for GT is 130. Also, they expect giftedness across the board, which most gifted kids just aren't-lots of the future engineer types aren't great language arts students, for example.

I think Nymith tries to look at the whole student, not just a test score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
FCPS cutoff for GT is 130. Also, they expect giftedness across the board, which most gifted kids just aren't-lots of the future engineer types aren't great language arts students, for example.

FCPS cuttoff is NOT 130 and they do NOT expect giftedness across the board. FCPS baseline for the 2nd grade screening pool is USUALLY about 130 but parents can refer their children, as a student can have a bad test day, have test anxiety in a group setting, may perform better on a WISC-IV vs. NNAT/CoGAT, etc.

[Anonymous]

The most dismal thing about FCPS GT are the class sizes-at least, at our elementary magnet they pack 30-35 kids in a GT class with one teacher-I guess the rationale is that the kids are smart and can handle being in a larger class. I disagree.

[Anonymous]

To the poster whose Nysmith child has ADD - is your child on meds? How does the school manage ADD students?
Our child has ADHD(mild) and mild sensory issues but is gifted. He's not on meds though. We didn't even apply. We only called and spoke to the woman who answers the phone at Nysmith. She clearly told me Nysmith did not want children with any issues, that one child had a noise sensitivity and had covered his hands in the cafteria due to the volume of the noise and his parents were called to take him home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the poster whose Nysmith child has ADD - is your child on meds? How does the school manage ADD students?
Our child has ADHD(mild) and mild sensory issues but is gifted. He's not on meds though. We didn't even apply. We only called and spoke to the woman who answers the phone at Nysmith. She clearly told me Nysmith did not want children with any issues, that one child had a noise sensitivity and had covered his hands in the cafteria due to the volume of the noise and his parents were called to take him home.

Wow! Sounds like they only want the "easy" kids for $20K year or whatever the tuition is. Those kids could probably be successful at any school. So I wonder, is Nysmith really worth it?

[Anonymous]

Wow! Sounds like they only want the "easy" kids for $20K year or whatever the tuition is. Those kids could probably be successful at any school. So I wonder, is Nysmith really worth it?

Something to keep in mind: Some of the private schools, including a number of suburban ones & the "progressive leaning" schools - not just the ones with DC social cache - offer an interesting curriculum with smaller classes than public. While they are not targeted for gifted kids, the "average" kid is well above average. Your child may not be catered to as "gifted" but will often share a class with other very bright kids, and there's much to gain from that. Depends what you want, of course. Everything doesn't work for every child.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that Nysmith is a "for profit" school unlike the majority of others so their rules and philosophy are different. Their grad placement is extremely impressive with a large chunk going to TJ.

[Anonymous]

PP with ADD kids here. Both on meds.
Nysmith cannot deal with kids with learning issues. They are upfront about this. We had hoped that the small classroom size, medication, along with some helicopter parenting on our part would get our kids ready for high school. We planned for re-entering public, and have done so for HS. One kid was mild ADD, and did pretty well, but not worth the money IMO. She loved Nysmith, don't think she learned more than she would have in public (has mild working memory and processing issues with IQ of 133), and she has agreed with this on recent conversations, although like I said, she liked most of the teachers and the school. Her peers who remained in public now get slightly better grades than she does, don’t have ADD, and DD and these peers are in all honors courses. Our DS has same diagnosis, but has moderate executive function issues as well, IQ high 120s. Nysmith unfortunately didn’t help him at all, but we tried. It was an expensive lesson. Tuition is above 28K now for upper grades, and it goes up a lot every year. I think Nysmith is great for some, okay for others, and not so helpful if your kid has any issues. Hope this info helps.

[Anonymous]

To the PP, if your child loved Nysmith and was happy going there-isn't that kind of what it is all about?

BTW, ANY DC private is going to try and seek kids with no "issues"-they don't want parents complaining that they are sending their child there for 24K+ a year and have to deal with any problematic kids-which I think is BS and a frustrating part of the whole application/vetting process. Many will tell you they have no problem "counceling out" families if your child is not up to snuff-Potomac and Norwood come to mind as examples.

Nysmith did not strike us as being that way at all-gifted kids often come with their own bag of issues, and they seem to understand and embrace that quality of the kids. At least, in our experience so far. I'd be interested to hear from more parents with children there that have ADD on meds and executive functioning issues and what your experience has been.