APS - Are all students identified as gifted?

[Anonymous]

Escuela Key is 56% Hispanic. Yet less than 8% of Hispanic students at Escuela Key are identified as gifted, while 33% of white students are identified as gifted. That doesn't seem right, especially at a school that's taught half in Spanish with Spanish speaking teachers so language shouldn't be a barrier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Escuela Key is 56% Hispanic. Yet less than 8% of Hispanic students at Escuela Key are identified as gifted, while 33% of white students are identified as gifted. That doesn't seem right, especially at a school that's taught half in Spanish with Spanish speaking teachers so language shouldn't be a barrier.

I mean what if it is though...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but it varies by school. You can see how
Many gifted kids there are at each using the APS student demographics dashboard. It’s under summary numbers.

https://analytics.apsva.us/public/equity/aps_membership.html

This is helpful. At our elementary, if you assumed only grades 3-5 are identified, then only 50% of those kids are "gifted"

That's hardly "all" students, but yeah, 50% is a lot.

There are 2nd graders who were IDed after the NNAT, but yeah. If you assume that an immaterial number of K and 1st graders are tagged, somewhere like ATS is identifying 201 out of 406 2-5 graders as gifted (49.5%). Meanwhile over at Carlin Springs, they have identified 40 out of 311 2-5 graders (12.9%).

[Anonymous]

We have one gifted child (reading and writing and art) who is also adhd, so 2E. He struggles somewhat academically in other subjects as well as socially.

Our second child hasn't been identified as gifted in anything, but he's good at all subjects and has no learning disabilities. Overall, school (both academics and social) have been much easier for him. He's also a strong athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have one gifted child (reading and writing and art) who is also adhd, so 2E. He struggles somewhat academically in other subjects as well as socially.

Our second child hasn't been identified as gifted in anything, but he's good at all subjects and has no learning disabilities. Overall, school (both academics and social) have been much easier for him. He's also a strong athlete.

Who identifies a child is gifted in art? Also how are reading skills described as gifted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one gifted child (reading and writing and art) who is also adhd, so 2E. He struggles somewhat academically in other subjects as well as socially.

Our second child hasn't been identified as gifted in anything, but he's good at all subjects and has no learning disabilities. Overall, school (both academics and social) have been much easier for him. He's also a strong athlete.

Who identifies a child is gifted in art? Also how are reading skills described as gifted?

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-2027-APS-Gifted-Services-Local-Plan-Final-.pdf

Scroll down to page 4- so not reading and writing, English. He read at a 12th grade level in 1st grade when he started in APS. And, you'll see that visual arts is also listed.

[Anonymous]

Bragging rights to answer OP.

[Anonymous]

One of my kids taught for several years in several APS elementary schools. They now teach high school. They say there’s a huge and unfair discrepancy in gifted designations depending on the race and income level of the kid. It’s pretty disgusting.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid at a north arlington school identified as gifted and I have seen very little evidence of differentiation (despite much advocating from said child's parents) this year. That child really is gifted and capable of work many years above the current grade level, but has been bored to tears for months. I honestly do not know what this distinction means - I would not be surprised if it was a full 50% of the population, because it is meaningless afaik.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids taught for several years in several APS elementary schools. They now teach high school. They say there’s a huge and unfair discrepancy in gifted designations depending on the race and income level of the kid. It’s pretty disgusting.

Can you explain this a bit more? I’m not trying to be snarky, but if the rich white kids happen to get higher grades on the standardized tests, then how else should they designate who is gifted besides the test scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can be identified as gifted in one area but not another. DD2 is gifted in math but nothing else. DD1 is gifted in every single category. Who cares really? Out of all thing to hate about APS this isn’t one of them.

I agree the label in APS means nothing, other than your kid is not behind. The main reason to obtain the identification, however, is to enforce more challenging material, or as you go into middle and high school, placement in higher level classes. Still won't ensure an appropriate level of challenge for your child in every subject/class; but it can be helpful when arguing - I mean advocating - for your kid when it really matters.

The designation also makes you eligible for the governor’s schools in HS, which is the only real tangible reason to pursue it. The rest is just a mash-up of parental anxiety and weird competitiveness. But to answer the original question, yes, the vast majority of kids in APS have the designation. Especially North Arlington. Just think about the kinds of people attracted to the DC area for work and can afford to own a house in one of the most expensive counties in the country. This is their offspring.

Mind you, most of the kids with the designation aren’t actually *gifted* like in the sense of being prodigies. They’re bright, high-achievers with solid home resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at a north arlington school identified as gifted and I have seen very little evidence of differentiation (despite much advocating from said child's parents) this year. That child really is gifted and capable of work many years above the current grade level, but has been bored to tears for months. I honestly do not know what this distinction means - I would not be surprised if it was a full 50% of the population, because it is meaningless afaik.

Gifted children don’t get “bored to tears.”

[Anonymous]

So is it better to have more gifted kids or less? Its kinda of opaque, as if they are truly gifted, more kids raises the level of study at the school -- if its just pushy parents asking for them to be gifted it is less helpful, but does serve as a proxy for parental involvement which has value as well.

Teachers spent the vast majority of their day focusing on the high need kids to make sure they succeed as SOLs, that's what the incentives are aligned for. Identifying if a kid is gifted or not just doesn't benefit them in anyway, and in fact having more gifted kids in the class generates MORE work for the teacher since we use the pushin model (ie, a GT resource teacher comes by every week and says "here's the extra work for you to help the GT kids with on top of reading the high need kids for passing SOLs").

GT work does not threaten the schools accreditation unlike SOLs.

It's interesting that HBW has 400 gifted students out of a 700 student body. WL is 800 out of 2400. ATS is the highest I could find of the elementary, 200 out of 600 students.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at a north arlington school identified as gifted and I have seen very little evidence of differentiation (despite much advocating from said child's parents) this year. That child really is gifted and capable of work many years above the current grade level, but has been bored to tears for months. I honestly do not know what this distinction means - I would not be surprised if it was a full 50% of the population, because it is meaningless afaik.

Gifted children don’t get “bored to tears.”

I'm tired of this trope. Many teachers don't let the GT kids go off and do their own thing, or even read independently. They have to just sit quietly when work is completed and stare off into space.

Now I was GT, and I had a wild daydreaming during those times, that was how I handled it, but I want better for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can be identified as gifted in one area but not another. DD2 is gifted in math but nothing else. DD1 is gifted in every single category. Who cares really? Out of all thing to hate about APS this isn’t one of them.

I agree the label in APS means nothing, other than your kid is not behind. The main reason to obtain the identification, however, is to enforce more challenging material, or as you go into middle and high school, placement in higher level classes. Still won't ensure an appropriate level of challenge for your child in every subject/class; but it can be helpful when arguing - I mean advocating - for your kid when it really matters.

The designation also makes you eligible for the governor’s schools in HS, which is the only real tangible reason to pursue it. The rest is just a mash-up of parental anxiety and weird competitiveness. But to answer the original question, yes, the vast majority of kids in APS have the designation. Especially North Arlington. Just think about the kinds of people attracted to the DC area for work and can afford to own a house in one of the most expensive counties in the country. This is their offspring.

Mind you, most of the kids with the designation aren’t actually *gifted* like in the sense of being prodigies. They’re bright, high-achievers with solid home resources.

The “vast majority” of kids in APS? So, you are claiming that well over half the kids in APS are identified as gifted? This is, of course, false.