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Schools and Education General Discussion
WWYD. African American student, academically gifted, socially awkward, thinking of schools.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
New Hope Academy |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Can't believe that anyone who is a parent wouldn't agree with you wholeheartedly! |
Anonymous
| No, the point to make is that on occasion an AA kid is labeled as disruptive in classes and a behaviour issue. In instances when this description seems inconsistent with the child you know I advise parents to rule out lack of academic challenge and stimulation that leads some kids to finish exercises and class assignments well ahead of others with nothing left to do but to fidget. Preconceived notions about achievement capability of AA color the expectations of some teachers who misdiagnose/typeset/pigeon hole these children as average or below and not candidates for academic acceleration, stretch, differentiation and grade skips when applicable. If parents are not on the scene their kids will be successful pigeon-holed and will accommodate to the school's low bar and expectations for them. This phenotype will be a pattern that will be reinforced and these kids may carry this for the rest of their academic careers. The Kindergarten teacher of my then 5-year-old son graded him consistently average in Kindergarten Math. She was completely unaware (clueless) that he had mastered multiplication and division and was learning fractions and decimals despite having him for 6 hours/day for 1/2 year. She stubbornly refused to accept the lack of challenge in her class might explain his ennui and "disruptive" classroom behaviour. She refused to allow him to do his own workbooks and independent reading if unchallenged. She humorously retorted he could go to private school if we desired. Well 6 months later with IQ test in hand (99.9 percentile), 9 months later (Davidson Young Scholar) and 1 1/2 year later nati onal award winner CTY at JHU talent search the school accelerated him 5 grades in Math. His disruptiveness is now miraculously cured! |
Anonymous
| OP, I live in Prince George's County, and my child attends a school that has a Talented and Gifted Program starting in 2nd grade. The class is majority African American. We have been extremely pleased with the caliber of the school, the staff, and the students. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like you've got the right fit for your child. |
Anonymous
| It appears your child is less likely to run into "clueless" teaching issues when teachers mirror more closely the demographic mix of the student body, rather than the situation in regions of certain counties where the demographics are diametrically opposed and preconceived notions about immigrants, AA etc may run amok (even unconsciously). |
Anonymous
Agree mostly. My ds is gifted, but his nursery school teacher in PG county has not recognized it. She is not very experienced though. |
Anonymous
| I am not an educator, however, my experience has been that truly gifted children, the ones that NEED a gifted environment in order to thrive, are severely under-served, regardless of their background. I find the process for public school placement to be incredibly flawed; and, the overall understanding as to what qualifies being " gifted " to be incredibly misunderstood - by both parents and the classroom teachers critical to the placement. Gifted identification should not be about "being able to do the work", however, that is how the program is largely used in the public schools. I find the whole process incredibly flawed, as the kids that need it most are incredibly under served (I know this first hand). I urge you to learn as much as you can about "gifted" children - once you understand who your child is, you will see that it is a very different reality than what many perceive it to be - and how important your advocacy (and yes, "proof", will be to ensure proper placement). |
Anonymous
| OP here. This is not about my child being gifted, or about schools mistreating black children. I am more concerned about influence. When I look at test scores for AA students in my cluster, they are very low. I can't imagine what those students that are scoring that low are doing or not doing. There are other clusters that have smaller gaps. Who will my son identify with? |
Anonymous
| You may be making a mountain out of a mole hill. Some clusters have very few AAs. If you major educational concern is having AAs for your child to identify with then I suggest your child attend a cluster with majority AAs. In the latter, circumstance the child will have a much higher statistical chance of finding other AAs to identify with. It's a numbers game ... pure and simple. |
Anonymous
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OP -- I wouldn't stretch financially for a school if you have a great public school that will meet your child's academic and emotional needs, just based on scores of other African America kids in the school or "cluster".
At least not for the first few grades -- not until you see what is going on in the school, and talk with the teachers and principals to see what expectations are. Do the African American kids in your child's cluster come from similar socio-economic backgrounds as the white and Asian kids? As your kids? |
Anonymous
| OP, I don't have time to read the whole thread so someone may have brought this up before. Of course you're concerned the influence of his peers at school but an even bigger issue for me would be what are the expectations of the teachers? Do the teachers at either school expect (even subconsciously) African-American boys to underperform? That can be a powerful influence on your son as well. |
Anonymous
| OP, as the parent of an boy, I share your concern about your child attending a school where the AA children have poor test results, especially if your child tends to be drawn to the more "challenging" kids (mine is) This is one of the reasons that I sent my child to a DCPS where he would not stand out or be made to feel "different" for getting good grades, and also one of the reasons that we opted to go private after elementary school. I simply was not going to risk my child feeling like he had to "dumb himself down" to fit in with other AA children, and I also worried about the low expectations that many teachers and administrators seem to have for AA boys. Sure, I worry about him getting an attitude of entitlement, but we deal with that at home, and so far it hasn't been an issue. The most important thing for us is that our child gets a great education from teachers who have high expectations for him. And his classmates are similarly excited about school and learning. Unfortunately, it comes with a hefty price tag. (Although I'm hearing great things about Deal). |