If 30% of kids in a school qualify for "gifted" why don't they address it in the home school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There is nothing in the MCPS model that allows an advanced student to help a struggling student. Its a teacher centric model. The kids struggling just see that others can do something that they can't, they get no benefit other than a hit to self esteem. The only person in the room that benefits from the way MCPS is doing this is the teacher. She gets a class where at least 30% of the students require no instruction and hands her positive test scores. She just has to discipline them to stay in their seats. She only has to teach the rest of the class.

What school are you in? That's not how it works at our school.

Not PP, but what school do you go to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what level? The HGC level?

The 30% who test as gifted (MCPS terminology) cannot work at the HGC level. That is not what the designation means.

Actually I think that a lot more than 3% could work at the HGC level. For every child at my child's school who got into the HGC, there was at least one child who would have done fine at the HGC but didn't get in.

Some kids need to be in the HGC (and hopefully they get in). Some kids could probably do the work but don't need to be there. I think that is an important factor in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what level? The HGC level?

The 30% who test as gifted (MCPS terminology) cannot work at the HGC level. That is not what the designation means.

Actually I think that a lot more than 3% could work at the HGC level. For every child at my child's school who got into the HGC, there was at least one child who would have done fine at the HGC but didn't get in.

Agreed. But I am quite sure that 30% could not work at that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what level? The HGC level?

The 30% who test as gifted (MCPS terminology) cannot work at the HGC level. That is not what the designation means.

Actually I think that a lot more than 3% could work at the HGC level. For every child at my child's school who got into the HGC, there was at least one child who would have done fine at the HGC but didn't get in.

Some kids need to be in the HGC (and hopefully they get in). Some kids could probably do the work but don't need to be there. I think that is an important factor in admissions.

Yes, that is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what level? The HGC level?

The 30% who test as gifted (MCPS terminology) cannot work at the HGC level. That is not what the designation means.

Actually I think that a lot more than 3% could work at the HGC level. For every child at my child's school who got into the HGC, there was at least one child who would have done fine at the HGC but didn't get in.

Some kids need to be in the HGC (and hopefully they get in). Some kids could probably do the work but don't need to be there. I think that is an important factor in admissions.

+1

And sometimes families make the call regardless of what the county says. I have one who got into HGC and we didn't send him. He needs acceleration, but didn't need or want all the extra work. It would have been a daily fight. His brother ABSOLUTELY needs it. Little brother is heading to the HGC in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Who cares, the focus is on bringing up the bottom, not challenging every level including the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares, the focus is on bringing up the bottom, not challenging every level including the top.

That seems true. I actually think that the system is fine. HGC is available for the kids who really need it and I've seen no evidence that the other bright kids aren't accommodated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares, the focus is on bringing up the bottom, not challenging every level including the top.

I have seen no evidence of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares, the focus is on bringing up the bottom, not challenging every level including the top.

That seems true. I actually think that the system is fine. HGC is available for the kids who really need it and I've seen no evidence that the other bright kids aren't accommodated.

There is a lot of evidence that bright kids aren't accommodated at our school, and it's one of the "best" in the county. Wish I understood that back when the HGC forms came home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares, the focus is on bringing up the bottom, not challenging every level including the top.

That seems true. I actually think that the system is fine. HGC is available for the kids who really need it and I've seen no evidence that the other bright kids aren't accommodated.

There is a lot of evidence that bright kids aren't accommodated at our school, and it's one of the "best" in the county. Wish I understood that back when the HGC forms came home.

Could someone actually offer up this evidence? I hear all the time from people "my kid reads on a 12th grade level" followed almost immediately by "MCPS isn't meeting their needs". It seems to me that either they gained those skills in part due to instruction, or they are a child who learn well without needing instruction. Either way, it seems that MCPS is meeting their needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There is a lot of evidence that bright kids aren't accommodated at our school, and it's one of the "best" in the county. Wish I understood that back when the HGC forms came home.

I am putting this in my column of reasons to believe that the "best" schools are not necessarily the best.

[Anonymous]

Or put it into your column of "curriculum 2.0 is awful"

[Anonymous]

If you judge best by test scores you are just judging by the wealth of the neighborhood...so it is easy to believe that your "best" school does not have anything so special beyond kids that come to school prepared and able to learn. Some of the "worst" schools may actually have great teachers and programs since they have to work hard to get the numbers they need. They may be providing more differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or put it into your column of "curriculum 2.0 is awful"

PP at 5:25 here. No, actually, I do not have a column for this. Overall my experience of Curriculum 2.0 has been good.

[Anonymous]

In Baltimore County, all kids identified as gifted are taught in their home school. There are no highly gifted centers. It seems like it must cost MCPS and other districts a lot of money to keep HGC open. Don't they have to provide transportation for all of the students to attend these centers?