Principal and home teacher's affect on GT admission

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The rumor from parents with older kids is that she makes a pitch to the admissions team and pressures the teachers not to recommend kids or to provide recommendations that say the child's enrichment needs can be met within the home school. Her pitch to the admissions team is that since there are so many high scoring students they already have a peer group. She makes a big deal about the enrichment at our school - which is non-existent. Its such a specific rumor I'm wondering if a 3rd grade teacher outed her practices to another parents.

I find is very fishy that she makes such a point of saying how she has no involvement with the admissions committee and that there are no teacher recommendations. This clearly doesn't sound true according to other schools. Its also fishy that our school has such low HGC admissions and such high scoring students.

Our school has enrollment problems so losing even a few students would affect staffing. She's bonkers for test scores too.

Is this Wyngate? Not my kids' ES, but we are close by and since DC were at HGC, we hear some of the talk and this fits the rumors we here about Wyngate.

[Anonymous]

I had heard from reliable sources that in my dc's home school, the recommendation was a "panel recommendation". I will not identify the school - because different schools do it differently, and I do not want to get into a flaming war here.

Once the students qualified the admissions exam, their files were evaluated by the principal, all the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as well as the counselors. They also looked at the various scores of the student (MSA, Terranova, Raven) from the 2nd grade onwards. I thought this was a fair way of doing things.

This particular school is known for sending large number of their students to HGC. They do not hold back bright kids because their own MSA scores will suffer - mainly because they offer quite a bit of enrichment in school anyways.

Neither do they use HGC as a place to send their extremely bright students with behavioural issues. They actually evaluate which student is a good fit for HGC.

BTW - it is not a school in the "W" cluster... in a very affordable part of MoCo, and it is a great gem of a school.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the previous post is accurate because the school has to make its recommendations before the testing is done. The decisions are made by the county, not the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The rumor from parents with older kids is that she makes a pitch to the admissions team and pressures the teachers not to recommend kids or to provide recommendations that say the child's enrichment needs can be met within the home school. Her pitch to the admissions team is that since there are so many high scoring students they already have a peer group. She makes a big deal about the enrichment at our school - which is non-existent. Its such a specific rumor I'm wondering if a 3rd grade teacher outed her practices to another parents.

I find is very fishy that she makes such a point of saying how she has no involvement with the admissions committee and that there are no teacher recommendations. This clearly doesn't sound true according to other schools. Its also fishy that our school has such low HGC admissions and such high scoring students.

Our school has enrollment problems so losing even a few students would affect staffing. She's bonkers for test scores too.

Is this Wyngate? Not my kids' ES, but we are close by and since DC were at HGC, we hear some of the talk and this fits the rumors we here about Wyngate.

Can't be. This year at Barnsely there are at least 6 or 7 kids from Wyngate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had heard from reliable sources that in my dc's home school, the recommendation was a "panel recommendation". I will not identify the school - because different schools do it differently, and I do not want to get into a flaming war here.

Once the students qualified the admissions exam, their files were evaluated by the principal, all the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as well as the counselors. They also looked at the various scores of the student (MSA, Terranova, Raven) from the 2nd grade onwards. I thought this was a fair way of doing things.

This particular school is known for sending large number of their students to HGC. They do not hold back bright kids because their own MSA scores will suffer - mainly because they offer quite a bit of enrichment in school anyways.

Neither do they use HGC as a place to send their extremely bright students with behavioural issues. They actually evaluate which student is a good fit for HGC.

BTW - it is not a school in the "W" cluster... in a very affordable part of MoCo, and it is a great gem of a school.

I am a teacher and this is what happens at my school.

[Anonymous]

That sounds pretty lame OP.
At our school the principal was very open about her involvement and the number who were recommended and the number that got in. I think it was maybe a third?

Last year apparently a number of those admitted ended up staying at our home school, which speaks really highly of the school.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Wyngate to me - we live in the area but go to private. The principal gave the spiel to us years back about how families don't bother going to the HGC because of the level of the Wyngate peer group and their needs being met locally.

[Anonymous]

PS - as for the high numbers this year from Wyngate - I would suspect this is in response to 2.0 and families being fed up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

ask if the teacher can send it directly to the people who make the decisions, bypassing the principle

BWAHAHAHA! Not in MCPS. If the principal is actively screwing up the HGC admissions from her school to protect scores and enrollment then there is no way that a teacher is going to put her neck on the line in a way that is traced back to her. The principal will find out and retaliate against the teacher. The child that gets to go to HGC may send a thank you note but that's about it. There's no benefit to the teacher and only risk in doing this.

Agree. The principal sounds manipulative and insecure.

I'd dual track it and apply to privates and the MoCo HGC (half knowing it's rigged or a totally crapshoot).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Effect is the noun. Affect is the verb.

I agree it should have been "effect on GT admission" -- effect is usually (but not always) a noun. Normally it refers to the impact something has on something else. Sometimes effect can be used as a verb, as a synonym for bringing out change -- i.e., to effect change. Affect is almost always a verb -- to impact something else. In this case, the possessive "teacher's" means that the next word should be a noun. To use affect properly here, you could ask, "How do the Principal and home teacher affect GT admissions?" Affect can also be used as a noun, but it refers to an attitude that someone has, like, "He put on an upperclass affect when he was around them." Or, "the Principal and home teacher adopted a sour affect when I talked to them about GT admissions."

Sorry...couldn't resist.

So am effect has an affect on something?

[Anonymous]

So the affect of the principal's recommendation is that it effects the student's chances of getting into the GT class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like Wyngate to me - we live in the area but go to private. The principal gave the spiel to us years back about how families don't bother going to the HGC because of the level of the Wyngate peer group and their needs being met locally.

So you actually have no first-hand experience with Wyngate or MCPS...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the affect of the principal's recommendation is that it effects the student's chances of getting into the GT class?

No, the effect of the principal's recommendation is that it affects the student's chances of getting in. That's the usual; effect is the noun, affect is the verb.

However, if the principal is constantly belittling the teachers in the school and making them feel and act unhappy, then then principal's actions can effect a change in the affect of the teachers. But in my opinion, effect as a verb is usually business jargon (at the end of the day, we need to effect a proactive paradigm shift to leverage our exit strategy for the low-hanging fruit), and affect as a noun is for psychologists and psychiatrists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had heard from reliable sources that in my dc's home school, the recommendation was a "panel recommendation". I will not identify the school - because different schools do it differently, and I do not want to get into a flaming war here.

Once the students qualified the admissions exam, their files were evaluated by the principal, all the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as well as the counselors. They also looked at the various scores of the student (MSA, Terranova, Raven) from the 2nd grade onwards. I thought this was a fair way of doing things.

This particular school is known for sending large number of their students to HGC. They do not hold back bright kids because their own MSA scores will suffer - mainly because they offer quite a bit of enrichment in school anyways.

Neither do they use HGC as a place to send their extremely bright students with behavioural issues. They actually evaluate which student is a good fit for HGC.

BTW - it is not a school in the "W" cluster... in a very affordable part of MoCo, and it is a great gem of a school.

I am a teacher and this is what happens at my school.

So at your school the teachers do not make recommendations until after the students take the HGC test? That timing does't make sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had heard from reliable sources that in my dc's home school, the recommendation was a "panel recommendation". I will not identify the school - because different schools do it differently, and I do not want to get into a flaming war here.

Once the students qualified the admissions exam, their files were evaluated by the principal, all the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as well as the counselors. They also looked at the various scores of the student (MSA, Terranova, Raven) from the 2nd grade onwards. I thought this was a fair way of doing things.

This particular school is known for sending large number of their students to HGC. They do not hold back bright kids because their own MSA scores will suffer - mainly because they offer quite a bit of enrichment in school anyways.

Neither do they use HGC as a place to send their extremely bright students with behavioural issues. They actually evaluate which student is a good fit for HGC.

BTW - it is not a school in the "W" cluster... in a very affordable part of MoCo, and it is a great gem of a school.

I can tell you from personal experience that it doesn't work that way. The student's teacher and principal are part of the application process, yes - but once the student has taken the exam, the decisions are in the hands of the entrance committee for that HGC, and not those of the home school administration.