How does your DCPS help advanced students?

[Anonymous]

There is actually an office of advanced instruction at DCPS now. They are working on this (although admittedly it isn't a priority at the higher levels).

I think 12:17 makes a good point, though. Your child may not be pursuing advanced work that the teacher is offering. Lots of kids say they are "bored" at school and that things are "too easy" (and try to figure out how much of you wants to hear that and how much you may be leading your child to say that). There are so many ways for teachers to give kids more advanced work but the kid has to want to do it....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Brent, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders can loop up one, or even two grades for math instruction. The excellent science teacher teaches 6th and 7th grade math pullouts for 4th and 5th graders. This year, a couple of 5th graders were taught 7th grade math (pre-algebra). Not bad at all.

The entire school had 15 total students testing advanced in math last year.

Right, valid criticism, yet several IB families whose kids were offered spots at BASIS have stayed at Brent for 5th, partly for the advanced math. More students will almost certainly earn 5s on PARCC math with each passing year (if PARCC math survives in the land of Trump). The science teacher is doing a fine job building an advanced upper grades math program, step by step. In a city without ES GT testing or funding in the public school system, some of us are impressed and pleased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of a formal program in DC for advanced students is very discouraging. OP should be able to go to the DCPS web site and tap right into information about a G&T/aap/etc. program. Instead, we trade bits of info anonymously like it's an underground black market for pre-algebra (or whatever).

DCPS has a division of advanced and enriched instruction within its office of teaching and learning. There is indeed a section on the dcps website about it where you can find information. They support the SEM programs that are at a dozen DCPS middle and elementary schools as well as provided resources and training to schools to work with advanced students. They don't call it GT though. This office is the one that also provides schools with Junior Great Books, M-Squared and M-Cubed enrichment math programs. To paraphrase the website, SEM (Schoolwide Enrichment Model) a nontraditional approach to gifted education is at West, Murch, JO Wilson, Stoddert, HD Cooke, Burrville, Hardy, Stuart-Hobson, Johnson, Kelly Miller, Sousa and Hearst. All of these schools has a trained SEM resource teacher or a trained SEM coordinator.

[Anonymous]

SEM at Hearst is pretty fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of a formal program in DC for advanced students is very discouraging. OP should be able to go to the DCPS web site and tap right into information about a G&T/aap/etc. program. Instead, we trade bits of info anonymously like it's an underground black market for pre-algebra (or whatever).

+1 very grateful to DCUM where we trade this bits of information

[Anonymous]

They don't call it GT because it isn't. SEM is the School-wide Enrichment Model and can be great. We are lucky to have it at our school. But it is intended as enrichment for all the students at a school, gifted/advanced or not. It is not a GT program.

The truth is any GT student in DCPS is at the mercy of the people who run their particular school. If your principal wants to and has the resources to go the extra mile, then the kids at that school will get advanced work. There is no city-wide program like the ones in surrounding counties where these kids, be they black, white, brown or purple, can have an opportunity work up to their greatest potential with a planned, thoughtful curriculum over an extended period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is actually an office of advanced instruction at DCPS now. They are working on this (although admittedly it isn't a priority at the higher levels).

I think 12:17 makes a good point, though. Your child may not be pursuing advanced work that the teacher is offering. Lots of kids say they are "bored" at school and that things are "too easy" (and try to figure out how much of you wants to hear that and how much you may be leading your child to say that). There are so many ways for teachers to give kids more advanced work but the kid has to want to do it....

It has actually been around for a while headed by Matthew Reif. Here is more information. Touch base with Matthew before the new Superintendent takes office.
http://dcps.dc.gov/page/schoolwide-enrichment-model-sem-faqs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SEM at Hearst is pretty fantastic.

Yes but it would be great to add a g&t component. We have not found much differentiation in three years there.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS helps advanced students by attracting boatloads of high SES kids. My kid's first grade class is not short on advanced students who read and compute above grade level, and, for that matter, can identify most of the buildings on the National Mall, because, hey, their parents are NASA engineers, senior Congressional staffers, college professors, non-profit communications directors, government lawyers and the like. If you're looking for decent offerings for advanced students in DC, you must find a way into a school with a FARMs rate in the teens or single digits. This is twisted, wrong, short-sighted, bad policy, and many other things none of us can like, but it's reality in a deeply troubled urban school system with poor leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is actually an office of advanced instruction at DCPS now. They are working on this (although admittedly it isn't a priority at the higher levels).

I think 12:17 makes a good point, though. Your child may not be pursuing advanced work that the teacher is offering. Lots of kids say they are "bored" at school and that things are "too easy" (and try to figure out how much of you wants to hear that and how much you may be leading your child to say that). There are so many ways for teachers to give kids more advanced work but the kid has to want to do it....

It has actually been around for a while headed by Matthew Reif. Here is more information. Touch base with Matthew before the new Superintendent takes office.
http://dcps.dc.gov/page/schoolwide-enrichment-model-sem-faqs

Wouldn't it probably better to contact the new chancellor as he is the one who controls the budget?

[Anonymous]

The Chancellor doesn't start until February. And no, contacting the Chancellor wouldn't be better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is actually an office of advanced instruction at DCPS now. They are working on this (although admittedly it isn't a priority at the higher levels).

I think 12:17 makes a good point, though. Your child may not be pursuing advanced work that the teacher is offering. Lots of kids say they are "bored" at school and that things are "too easy" (and try to figure out how much of you wants to hear that and how much you may be leading your child to say that). There are so many ways for teachers to give kids more advanced work but the kid has to want to do it....

It has actually been around for a while headed by Matthew Reif. Here is more information. Touch base with Matthew before the new Superintendent takes office.
http://dcps.dc.gov/page/schoolwide-enrichment-model-sem-faqs

Wouldn't it probably better to contact the new chancellor as he is the one who controls the budget?

[Anonymous]

The Chancellor is the one who calls the shots.

[Anonymous]

Unless you're at DCPS in an upscale area where the principal and PTA call the shots on spending the 200-400K parents raise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of a formal program in DC for advanced students is very discouraging. OP should be able to go to the DCPS web site and tap right into information about a G&T/aap/etc. program. Instead, we trade bits of info anonymously like it's an underground black market for pre-algebra (or whatever).

Agreed. It is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Chancellor is the one who calls the shots.

And they got the new Chancellor from one of the few districts in the nation still worse than ours, so I am guessing he will talk a lot about at risk students, do little to actually help them, and in the process jeopardize the education of everyone else, especially advanced students.