Why does DCPS ignore advanced learners in ES?

[Anonymous]

there are G&T kids and behavioral problems at all SES levels.

I don't think it helps to complete among parents or to try to pin labels on kids in this way.

[Anonymous]

I see the school goals for my incoming PS3 child to be learn to love learning, learn how to "think" and of course social skills. I don't care about DD being challenged so much. But if my child was asked to do worksheet after worksheet to learn her letters when she is reading quite well, that would be annoying.

I hope my child's teacher will assess where she is and give appropriate "love of learning" activities where she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see the school goals for my incoming PS3 child to be learn to love learning, learn how to "think" and of course social skills. I don't care about DD being challenged so much. But if my child was asked to do worksheet after worksheet to learn her letters when she is reading quite well, that would be annoying.

I hope my child's teacher will assess where she is and give appropriate "love of learning" activities where she is.

BTW... are teachers "taught" how to do this (effective differentiation for the goal learning enjoyment) OR do they have to figure it out themselves? Do they get support to do this? I would think considering the huge need, it would be a HUGE component of training???

[Anonymous]

I think we've had this type of thread many, many times on here. The OP doesn't seem to be very familiar with DCPS because as it has been discussed there are quite a few things in place for advanced learners. No, they don't get labeled and put into special schools like OP probably wants but that doesn't mean there isn't anything in place for advanced learners. The label isn't important it's the programs that support it.

[Anonymous]

*the label isn't important except to some parents that is.*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not being challenged = my kid is around too many other kids with behavior issues. As a teacher what I love this year is that all my high SES parents threaten to leave because of lack of rigor- when the only truly advanced kid I have is FARMS. The real question is , if DCPs really did g&t how would all the parents react when they realized their kid was just average.

I appreciate your anecdotal evidence, PP. However, research demonstrates that gifted children are much more likely to come from middle class (more often) and wealthy (less often) families:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/2012/11/02/where-are-the-gifted-minorities/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not being challenged = my kid is around too many other kids with behavior issues. As a teacher what I love this year is that all my high SES parents threaten to leave because of lack of rigor- when the only truly advanced kid I have is FARMS. The real question is , if DCPs really did g&t how would all the parents react when they realized their kid was just average.

Just happens to be that Farms are G&T and others are just average?! Not even one G&T among non-FARMS? I don't need a person like you on FARM side.
Signed by a G&T farm kid mother.

At my school we have to aggregate the data by black, white, FARMS, and SPED. That is why I can easily tell you that the G & T kiddo is FARMS. Like it or not, its how the data is used/organized. My school has recently made a huge push for computer based testing (not talking about the PARCC), but I-ready and SRI. One main reason we did this is so that we can truly identify the advanced kids. Another reason DCPS cannot do G&T in ES is because of IMPACT. Holding teachers accountable to growth is great, I truly believe it. But if one teacher had a classroom full of G&T those kiddos would automatically grow- and that teacher would get great scores. Now, the teacher with the struggling students would have much worse scores- even if that teacher was really great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not being challenged = my kid is around too many other kids with behavior issues. As a teacher what I love this year is that all my high SES parents threaten to leave because of lack of rigor- when the only truly advanced kid I have is FARMS. The real question is , if DCPs really did g&t how would all the parents react when they realized their kid was just average.

I appreciate your anecdotal evidence, PP. However, research demonstrates that gifted children are much more likely to come from middle class (more often) and wealthy (less often) families:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/2012/11/02/where-are-the-gifted-minorities/

PP again, not in DCPS. Most of the higher SES kids have peeled off for charters, private, or the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not being challenged = my kid is around too many other kids with behavior issues. As a teacher what I love this year is that all my high SES parents threaten to leave because of lack of rigor- when the only truly advanced kid I have is FARMS. The real question is , if DCPs really did g&t how would all the parents react when they realized their kid was just average.

I appreciate your anecdotal evidence, PP. However, research demonstrates that gifted children are much more likely to come from middle class (more often) and wealthy (less often) families:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/2012/11/02/where-are-the-gifted-minorities/

Are they really gifted, or just more academically prepared due to their financial access to enriching activities. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does it matter to be 'challenged' at school as a kid?
I feel like I was never really challenged until grad school, and it was fine for me. I had more time to do other things, reading other books I liked, going places with my parents w/o stressing about homework, etc.

As a mom to kid who is not "challenged" enough at school - to me it means being invited to engage in the subject matter in different ways through extended learning and out of the box thinking. Some of that can be through homework and some through projects that follow the work thematically. My kid was not coming home with homework most days...I find that not only troubling but a lost opportunity to challenge and engage they kids to take ownership in what they are learning. We chose to assign reading from the news that was pertinent to social studies and current events as supplemental. Of course that was met with lots of eye rolling from DD but it also forces her to a) be accountable and find time to do the work b) read and extrapolate information and learn how to discuss what she is reading. She has several readings weekly and some writing to do with it. All of which totals about an hour a week of work plus the discussion and review of the articles at weeks end with us, so not really excessive amounts of work.
FYI we are at a school which considers itself on the forefront of educational progressiveness with expeditions etc and I find their lack of challenge problematic. We are on our way out needless to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much does it matter to be 'challenged' at school as a kid?
I feel like I was never really challenged until grad school, and it was fine for me. I had more time to do other things, reading other books I liked, going places with my parents w/o stressing about homework, etc.

As a mom to kid who is not "challenged" enough at school - to me it means being invited to engage in the subject matter in different ways through extended learning and out of the box thinking. Some of that can be through homework and some through projects that follow the work thematically. My kid was not coming home with homework most days...I find that not only troubling but a lost opportunity to challenge and engage they kids to take ownership in what they are learning. We chose to assign reading from the news that was pertinent to social studies and current events as supplemental. Of course that was met with lots of eye rolling from DD but it also forces her to a) be accountable and find time to do the work b) read and extrapolate information and learn how to discuss what she is reading. She has several readings weekly and some writing to do with it. All of which totals about an hour a week of work plus the discussion and review of the articles at weeks end with us, so not really excessive amounts of work.
FYI we are at a school which considers itself on the forefront of educational progressiveness with expeditions etc and I find their lack of challenge problematic. We are on our way out needless to say.

This is also middle school BTW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much does it matter to be 'challenged' at school as a kid?
I feel like I was never really challenged until grad school, and it was fine for me. I had more time to do other things, reading other books I liked, going places with my parents w/o stressing about homework, etc.

As a mom to kid who is not "challenged" enough at school - to me it means being invited to engage in the subject matter in different ways through extended learning and out of the box thinking. Some of that can be through homework and some through projects that follow the work thematically. My kid was not coming home with homework most days...I find that not only troubling but a lost opportunity to challenge and engage they kids to take ownership in what they are learning. We chose to assign reading from the news that was pertinent to social studies and current events as supplemental. Of course that was met with lots of eye rolling from DD but it also forces her to a) be accountable and find time to do the work b) read and extrapolate information and learn how to discuss what she is reading. She has several readings weekly and some writing to do with it. All of which totals about an hour a week of work plus the discussion and review of the articles at weeks end with us, so not really excessive amounts of work.
FYI we are at a school which considers itself on the forefront of educational progressiveness with expeditions etc and I find their lack of challenge problematic. We are on our way out needless to say.

Charter?

We moved from MA G&T program. We picked neighborhood due to one heading into MS and we wanted Deal, more than even the privates (have one in private high school). I feel our Deal feeder challenges my formerly G&T 3rd grader appropriately. She was more advanced than most of the kids but there are others who are just as advanced which surprised me since I was expecting much less from DCPS. Deal have been amazing too. Definitely on par with what is called G&T in our old district.

[Anonymous]

Deal has a very well-established International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not being challenged = my kid is around too many other kids with behavior issues. As a teacher what I love this year is that all my high SES parents threaten to leave because of lack of rigor- when the only truly advanced kid I have is FARMS. The real question is , if DCPs really did g&t how would all the parents react when they realized their kid was just average.

I appreciate your anecdotal evidence, PP. However, research demonstrates that gifted children are much more likely to come from middle class (more often) and wealthy (less often) families:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/2012/11/02/where-are-the-gifted-minorities/

PP again, not in DCPS. Most of the higher SES kids have peeled off for charters, private, or the burbs.

Not necessarily true--just about everyone at Janney, Key, Lafayette, Mann, Murch, Deal, Eaton, etc is from a high SES family--that's thousands of families right there. As for my "evidence"--check out the individual school profiles on the DCPS page and see what their percentage of FARM students is.

[Anonymous]

I think reading 2 grades above level is likely 'average' in high SES school districts and not exactly something to write home about.