Centers for the Highly Gifted

[Anonymous]

Having a parent who is an MCPS teacher seems to help, from what we've noticed. Much like in the privates!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a parent who is an MCPS teacher seems to help, from what we've noticed. Much like in the privates!

Nope, not here. My spouse teaches in MCPS, and our child was not admitted. I can assure you from my spouse's personal experience that spouse has zero input into or influence over the selection process.

[Anonymous]

Are there any prep courses for the test?

[Anonymous]

If indeed it is the SCAT as a previous poster said, you can buy books that claim to prep a kid for it.

That said, if your child requires a lot of practice to do well enough to get in, I would not recommend applying. This is NOTHING against your child.

But as a parent with a kid in the program, I can tell you that it is extremely demanding and fast-paced. I would not want to send a child there who wasn't 100% able to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If indeed it is the SCAT as a previous poster said, you can buy books that claim to prep a kid for it.

That said, if your child requires a lot of practice to do well enough to get in, I would not recommend applying. This is NOTHING against your child.

But as a parent with a kid in the program, I can tell you that it is extremely demanding and fast-paced. I would not want to send a child there who wasn't 100% able to keep up.

As a parent of a child in the Center program, I have to say I disagree with this advice. There are many bright children who do not test well, but who can do very well in the classroom environment. Many children test poorly because they get anxious during exams, have never seen questions similar to the exam questions, or are not used to going through a test booklet and bubbling in answers. Others have language or attention disabilities that make performing on a timed abstract test difficult, but these disabilities can be well-managed in the classroom. There are a number of kids in our Center program who have learning disabilities yet do very well in the program and enjoy it. Some practice on similar questions or tests can be helpful.

In fact, the application process for the Centers is a tacit acknowledgment that the test in and of itself is not determinative of performance in the Center. The application process also requires teacher and parent recommendations and demonstrated above grade level achievement in reading and/or math. In particular, from our experience, I would say it's necessary to be a strong reader, but even one only two grade levels ahead could probably manage the program.

While our experience is that the Center has been more demanding and faster-paced than the regular program, I wouldn't say it is overwhelmingly so. There is plenty of time for kids to do work and research in class. Our child still has relatively little homework (less than 1/2 hour a day). Any long-term projects are carefully structured by the teachers so that the kids have to meet multiple internal deadlines and have plenty of time during class for research and writing.

As a case in point, I know of at least one child in the Center whose test scores were below the mean of accepted students. This child has done very well in the Center program, and you could not have predicted from the child's performance this year that that child was among the low scorers of accepted students.

I would strongly encourage any parent who thinks their child could benefit from the program to apply.

[Anonymous]

@11:49 PP here. I think you are absolutely right, and I wasn't trying to imply that only test scores are a good predictor of success and that kids who don't test well can't do well.

I also agree with you about the workload, although my own child finds the projects hanging over his head to be fairly stressful. The actual work doesn't take him a long time, but the procrastinating does.

At the same time, I can imagine that the pace would really be hard for a child who was struggling. And I think the curriculum, as presented, is demanding. Any program that asks kids to write a 5 - 10 page paper with proper bibliography in 4th grade has high expectations.

I guess what I was trying to say was, don't put a lot of time and anxiety into trying to prep your kid for the test. People get so crazed about getting in -- and while I am very glad we did and my child is doing really well, I don't think it's for everyone.

[Anonymous]

There are many bright children who do not test well, but who can do very well in the classroom environment. Many children test poorly because they get anxious during exams, have never seen questions similar to the exam questions, or are not used to going through a test booklet and bubbling in answers. Others have language or attention disabilities that make performing on a timed abstract test difficult, but these disabilities can be well-managed in the classroom. There are a number of kids in our Center program who have learning disabilities yet do very well in the program and enjoy it. Some practice on similar questions or tests can be helpful.

I am in VA, so I have no dog in this race. But I wish I had done more to prep my DD for the SCAT (we took it for CTY). She did very well on the verbal, but got very confused on the math portion and only ended up completing about 35 of 50 questions. (She got almost all of those right.) The SCAT format is quite different than what many kids are used to, so a little bit if test prep is a good thing IMO. My DD is anxious, so I didn't want to freak her out by prepping too much, but it really backfired for us in the math. If the SCAT they use for MCPS is similar to the SCAT used for CTY, I would definitely prep for it. I would also emphasize to your child that 1) it is better to skip or guess at a problem they don't know than to spend a long time on a problem and 2) they should not have to do much if any computation on the math section if they think about the problems logically.

[Anonymous]

Are we sure that it's the SCAT though? I had never heard that before.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe it's the SCAT test that they use. Those scores are three digit, and the scores they gave us were two digit -- not percentiles, but raw scores.

[Anonymous]

When will we find out? Can't take the waiting ...

[Anonymous]

I've just received our child's acceptance letter - woohooo! Very excited for him - it will be a great fit and solve a lot of the challenges we've been having vis-a-vis his current school.

[Anonymous]

Do schools release Terra Nova and Raven test scores to parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do schools release Terra Nova and Raven test scores to parents?

Yes, if you call and ask they'll tell you over the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools release Terra Nova and Raven test scores to parents?

Yes, if you call and ask they'll tell you over the phone.

In MoCo, if you applied to a magnet program, your acceptance/rejection letter should come with your child's test scores and some reference point (like what the mean or median scores of those accepted were...) Or if your child was tested in the 2nd grade "Global Screening" (for gifted and talented identification) you will receive a letter with the raw test scores and a report of what the minimum test score necessary was to be screened as having "passed" on that marker.

If you don't understand these or have more questions, I have found the MoCo people in charge of sending these out very willing to answer questions, but you shouldn't need to call them just to get the scores themselves -- they are sent to you eventually.

[Anonymous]

What is the "Global Screening" (for gifted and talented identification) test? In MCPS I am aware of only the Raven test and Terra Nova test for 2nd graders.