Is there such a thing as an advanced academic program in Arlington public schools?

[Anonymous]

Push-in is a joke and doesn't work, but the GT teachers praise it at meetings and tell us they don't pull out kids b/c it would be bad for their social standing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't some Arlington schools switch for classes based on ability?

That's different than gifted. Think of that switch as S M L, and the pull out is supposed to be for the XXL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does APS identify giftedness?

In the early grades, they don't really distinguish it from an odd combination of precocious mixed with pleaser, so mostly clever girls who like school get picked and kids who don't like school do not.

[Anonymous]

We went through a lot of trouble, twice to fill out the materials for gifted designation after the school contacted me. (Two different schools, two areas).

Waste of time since no resources or monitoring ever followed. Gifted teacher in hs didn't even know who he was.

[Anonymous]

My personal opinion is that it’s a joke in APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through a lot of trouble, twice to fill out the materials for gifted designation after the school contacted me. (Two different schools, two areas).

Waste of time since no resources or monitoring ever followed. Gifted teacher in hs didn't even know who he was.

Our gifted teacher in HS was fabulous, she did so much for my son (id'd math and music) and many other students. We were able to get much information on classes and multitude of opportunities. Attended her meetings about the program. There were hundreds of gifted kids and unfortunately only one of her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't some Arlington schools switch for classes based on ability?

That's different than gifted. Think of that switch as S M L, and the pull out is supposed to be for the XXL

AAP is not that advanced. Similar to L.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to know how services are delivered unless you attend an info session and the gifted services teacher gives a thorough presentation. I have been through three of these presentations at two elementary schools and one middle. Only one of them gave a good, thorough insight into how services are delivered, including many samples of materials given to the kids- both “general population” and gifted services materials.

One of the objectives of gifted services in APS is that the differentiations are not made obvious to the kids. It can therefore be doubly difficult for parents to see the differentiation that is happening on a daily basis. The kids don’t know, generally, that the work that they are given in their groups/workshops are any different than the work given to other groups because they are usually on the same topic, just much more in-depth.

Yeah, that's not true. Kids know.

Maybe some, but the system is designed to not draw attention to it. I have a friend whose 4th grader has been receiving gifted services in all academic areas since second grade and the girl doesn’t realize it. She knows that there are different reading groups, etc, but does not know that the materials she receives are for gifted kids, or that she herself was identified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't some Arlington schools switch for classes based on ability?

That's different than gifted. Think of that switch as S M L, and the pull out is supposed to be for the XXL

What schools still do pull outs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to know how services are delivered unless you attend an info session and the gifted services teacher gives a thorough presentation. I have been through three of these presentations at two elementary schools and one middle. Only one of them gave a good, thorough insight into how services are delivered, including many samples of materials given to the kids- both “general population” and gifted services materials.

One of the objectives of gifted services in APS is that the differentiations are not made obvious to the kids. It can therefore be doubly difficult for parents to see the differentiation that is happening on a daily basis. The kids don’t know, generally, that the work that they are given in their groups/workshops are any different than the work given to other groups because they are usually on the same topic, just much more in-depth.

Yeah, that's not true. Kids know.

Maybe some, but the system is designed to not draw attention to it. I have a friend whose 4th grader has been receiving gifted services in all academic areas since second grade and the girl doesn’t realize it. She knows that there are different reading groups, etc, but does not know that the materials she receives are for gifted kids, or that she herself was identified.

I don’t think you can really be as inside the head of someone else’s child as you seem to think you are. At some level, a fourth grade student knows she is doing more challenging work than others.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's called private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to know how services are delivered unless you attend an info session and the gifted services teacher gives a thorough presentation. I have been through three of these presentations at two elementary schools and one middle. Only one of them gave a good, thorough insight into how services are delivered, including many samples of materials given to the kids- both “general population” and gifted services materials.

One of the objectives of gifted services in APS is that the differentiations are not made obvious to the kids. It can therefore be doubly difficult for parents to see the differentiation that is happening on a daily basis. The kids don’t know, generally, that the work that they are given in their groups/workshops are any different than the work given to other groups because they are usually on the same topic, just much more in-depth.

Yeah, that's not true. Kids know.

Maybe some, but the system is designed to not draw attention to it. I have a friend whose 4th grader has been receiving gifted services in all academic areas since second grade and the girl doesn’t realize it. She knows that there are different reading groups, etc, but does not know that the materials she receives are for gifted kids, or that she herself was identified.

I don’t think you can really be as inside the head of someone else’s child as you seem to think you are. At some level, a fourth grade student knows she is doing more challenging work than others.

Nor can you. Just passing on what the parent has observed. I have no reason to believe your speculation over her first person observations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to know how services are delivered unless you attend an info session and the gifted services teacher gives a thorough presentation. I have been through three of these presentations at two elementary schools and one middle. Only one of them gave a good, thorough insight into how services are delivered, including many samples of materials given to the kids- both “general population” and gifted services materials.

One of the objectives of gifted services in APS is that the differentiations are not made obvious to the kids. It can therefore be doubly difficult for parents to see the differentiation that is happening on a daily basis. The kids don’t know, generally, that the work that they are given in their groups/workshops are any different than the work given to other groups because they are usually on the same topic, just much more in-depth.

Yeah, that's not true. Kids know.

Maybe some, but the system is designed to not draw attention to it. I have a friend whose 4th grader has been receiving gifted services in all academic areas since second grade and the girl doesn’t realize it. She knows that there are different reading groups, etc, but does not know that the materials she receives are for gifted kids, or that she herself was identified.

I don’t think you can really be as inside the head of someone else’s child as you seem to think you are. At some level, a fourth grade student knows she is doing more challenging work than others.

Nor can you. Just passing on what the parent has observed. I have no reason to believe your speculation over her first person observations.

You're hilarious, not to mention clueless.

[Anonymous]

This is off topic, but why does every Arlington thread devolve into people being mean to each other? Not sure whether I should read too much into this, but it does gives me the impression that egos are slightly inflated in that area...

[Anonymous]

We've given up on our kid in terms of APS Gifted and Talented - yes, DC qualified, but it is a limited program. Our DC has a math tutor, and as a 3rd grader is working on 6th-grade math outside of school. Still love our public school, but realized DC needed more of a challenge than you can get at APS.