Can anyone explain the GT programs at elementary schools

[Anonymous]

I grew up overseas and have never attended school in the US, so I am not familiar at all with the education system here. My baby is still small and there will be years before he is to apply to the elementary school. But I read here often about the GT programs at various elementary schools and how important they are.

What is this GT program all about? Do they test kids to determine if they are gifted?
what is this based upon and at which age does such testing take place?
Does GT mean that a child will be skipping a grade or starting elementary school earlier than others?
If you live in the area zoned for the non-GT school, does your child first start going to that school and then they determine whether he/she needs to be in the GT program?
Does the zoned elementary school then send your child away to another school and what determines where?

We are not living near any GT program elementary school, so, we would like to know how this whole thing works to maybe relocate if need be to the area with the GT school. Please, no sharkey remarks, I am not suggesting in any way that my child is gifted or will be, he is only 18 month old, I just want to prepare when it is time to find the best fit school for him. If he has special needs such as GT or learning disability we want to live near the school that has such programs to avoid having to add 30 min extra commute time to drop off our kid to the far away school. It is a very strange concept to me to have to send your child to the far away school as where I grew up we just went to the neighborhood school closest to us and all schools were the same following same program. It sounds like it is much more complicated in the US.

[Anonymous]

First of all, it varies by location. I can only answer for Fairfax County. In Fairfax, there is a documented process. It is not that complicated. Basically, in the first and second grade the county gives a couple of tests: the NNAT and CogAT. The county uses these as proxy for IQ tests, but they are not really.

If the child scores above a threshold (currently 130) in any subgroup of the test,the are in the AAP evaluation pool. In addition, any FCPS parent can refer their child for AAP evaluation. So, in reality, the pool means very little.
There are multiple criteria that are used: test scores, school evaluation of gifted behavior (call GBRS), parental evaluation (you evaluate your kid), recommendations, references, and work samples.

In reality, probably the quantitative measures matter the most: test scores and GBRS (scale of 4-16...and it is somewhat subjective).

Now, here is where it get complicated. If you are not happy with your kids test scores, there are a series of tests that can be privately done. Most common is the WISC.

So, you apply, and hear usually around May 1. If you are not happy with the outcome, you can appeal by supplying new information. Typically, this is when people submit the WISC, but you can submit anything.

The reality is a WISC seems to be viewed as more reliable than any other measure, so a WISC of 130 will probably get the kid in regardless of the GBRS or other work.

Once in, you can chose to go to an AAP center. There are multiple centers in Fairfax County, and I expect there is no place more than 20 min from a center. In addition, some schools have local level IV, which in theory, give the same curricula as the centers.

There are advantages and disadvantages for the centers. The primary advantage is there will be multiple classes of smart kids as a peer group. (some will be genius, most will be very smart, but not genius).

About 15% of the third grade students are in AAP.

For me, my DD is in 4th grade AAP at a center which is also our base school. She scored about 120 on the standardized tests, but got in anyway.