Has anyone received an HGC letter yet?!

[Anonymous]

We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just called and got results. They will give it to you with student id number. DS was accepted to Piney Branch.

So there is now a HGC at Piney Branch for 4 and 5 grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just called and got results. They will give it to you with student id number. DS was accepted to Piney Branch.

So there is now a HGC at Piney Branch for 4 and 5 grade?

OP again: forgot to ask are you zoned for TPMS or SSIMS?

[Anonymous]

So it sounds like many people have received their letters already. It's Thursday and we have not gotten anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

Did the parents take the test and get ranked too at your school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

Did the parents take the test and get ranked too at your school?

Oh come on. Stop being petty. A child's education, at this stage in life, should involve the parents so I don't blame if parents feel attached. It's not like a child is an adult interviewing for a job and parents can't cut the umbilical cord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

Did the parents take the test and get ranked too at your school?

Oh come on. Stop being petty. A child's education, at this stage in life, should involve the parents so I don't blame if parents feel attached. It's not like a child is an adult interviewing for a job and parents can't cut the umbilical cord.

+ 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

The competition is stiff because of paucity of seats. There are MANY students who will benefit from HGC curriculum. When will MCPS wake up to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

That's strange, since other people (both accepted and declined) are reporting getting the SAS score. Are you in one of the pilot areas? Wondering if they are sending different info to different groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

6200 kids applying appears to be about half of the 3rd graders in the county (based on info here, which shows ~12,300 2nd graders last year: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/demographicpdfs/Demo_OfficialEnrollment2016Revised120215.pdf).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We got a letter telling a percentile rank only no specific SAS score. So our percentile rank is 97, we still haven't gotten into our HGC!

The competition is stiff because of paucity of seats. There are MANY students who will benefit from HGC curriculum. When will MCPS wake up to this?

This. To those that say more seats will water down the curriculum, I disagree. There are children who are exactly like your children (perhaps even smarter!) who did not get into the HGC due to shortage of seats. After going through this experience for the first time, I now believe there should be at least double the seats there currently are. Clearly, many parents in the county feel their child isn't being challenged enough. There needs to be less differentiation and more tracking and enrichment/acceleration. In a classroom where several 3rd graders can't even read (in my son's school) how is a gifted child supposed to get any attention??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

6200 kids applying appears to be about half of the 3rd graders in the county (based on info here, which shows ~12,300 2nd graders last year: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/demographicpdfs/Demo_OfficialEnrollment2016Revised120215.pdf).

So, for those of you disappointed lets get some facts

1. Total number of students in the 3rd grade: 12,300 (approx)
2. Number of kids that took the test: 6,200 (~50% of total)
3. Number of students that got accepted: 576 (9.3% of tested or 4.7% of total)

For the particular case of Lucy Barnsley center. There were approx. 85 gifted kids accepted last year. MCPS website lists Lucy Barnsley as covering 4 high schools regions (Richard Montgomery, Walter Johnson, Rockville and Wheaton) and 18 elementary schools. That means on average 4.7 kids from each ES got accepted to this particular center. Considering there are 5 to 6 classes per grade on most of the ES we get a less then 1 kid/class average. In other words you get the smartest kid in most of the 3rd grade classes from each school and you form the HG program.

Just to get an idea of how "easy" it is to get in the program.

Congrats for kids (and parents) that get accepted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

6200 kids applying appears to be about half of the 3rd graders in the county (based on info here, which shows ~12,300 2nd graders last year: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/demographicpdfs/Demo_OfficialEnrollment2016Revised120215.pdf).

So, for those of you disappointed lets get some facts

1. Total number of students in the 3rd grade: 12,300 (approx)
2. Number of kids that took the test: 6,200 (~50% of total)
3. Number of students that got accepted: 576 (9.3% of tested or 4.7% of total)

For the particular case of Lucy Barnsley center. There were approx. 85 gifted kids accepted last year. MCPS website lists Lucy Barnsley as covering 4 high schools regions (Richard Montgomery, Walter Johnson, Rockville and Wheaton) and 18 elementary schools. That means on average 4.7 kids from each ES got accepted to this particular center. Considering there are 5 to 6 classes per grade on most of the ES we get a less then 1 kid/class average. In other words you get the smartest kid in most of the 3rd grade classes from each school and you form the HG program.

Just to get an idea of how "easy" it is to get in the program.

Congrats for kids (and parents) that get accepted!

The problem is what happens to the handful of children who are bright and hardworking but did not make it into the HGC? What will MCPS do with them to ensure they continued to be appropriately challenged?

[Anonymous]

Yes - there is a new HGC at Piney Branch for 4th/5th beginning 2017-2018

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wait list letter said they had 6200 kids apply and something like 576 spots. They are celebrating the fact that they had so many more kids apply this year. Excellent, I guess. It it just means you're rejecting more 3rd graders who are interested in being challenged further! What in the world??

This should not be like college applications. MCPS should be trying to accommodate ALL of these kids - most likely all very hard working and bright and motivated.

Hear Hear!

So any kid whose parent sends the form in should be considered gifted?? If that is what you are looking for stay in your home school...that is where they accommodate all kids. And image how many more than 6K would apply if acceptance was guaranteed.

6200 kids applying appears to be about half of the 3rd graders in the county (based on info here, which shows ~12,300 2nd graders last year: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/demographicpdfs/Demo_OfficialEnrollment2016Revised120215.pdf).

So, for those of you disappointed lets get some facts

1. Total number of students in the 3rd grade: 12,300 (approx)
2. Number of kids that took the test: 6,200 (~50% of total)
3. Number of students that got accepted: 576 (9.3% of tested or 4.7% of total)

For the particular case of Lucy Barnsley center. There were approx. 85 gifted kids accepted last year. MCPS website lists Lucy Barnsley as covering 4 high schools regions (Richard Montgomery, Walter Johnson, Rockville and Wheaton) and 18 elementary schools. That means on average 4.7 kids from each ES got accepted to this particular center. Considering there are 5 to 6 classes per grade on most of the ES we get a less then 1 kid/class average. In other words you get the smartest kid in most of the 3rd grade classes from each school and you form the HG program.

Just to get an idea of how "easy" it is to get in the program.

Congrats for kids (and parents) that get accepted!

The problem is what happens to the handful of children who are bright and hardworking but did not make it into the HGC? What will MCPS do with them to ensure they continued to be appropriately challenged?

Do you believe they aren't challenged in their home school? At all? My understanding based on observation is that there is differentiation within the classroom (at least at our ES).