Has anyone received an HGC letter yet?!

[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?

They have Math and Reading Advanced Groups in most ES. Kids can also do higher grade math if the school accepts (for example kid in 4th grade to join 5th grade math classes).

[Anonymous]

DD got accepted into Oak View. Haven't gotten the test score yet, though.

[Anonymous]

can't imagine local mail takes this long!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can't imagine local mail takes this long!

MCPS and USPS. A lot of things can go wrong!
MCPS should challenge the gifted kids with an online system for gifted applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't imagine local mail takes this long!

MCPS and USPS. A lot of things can go wrong!
MCPS should challenge the gifted kids with an online system for gifted applications.

LOL!

DP who still had not gotten a letter. Our mail is terrible anyway.

[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!

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??

I agree completely.

My kid is on the Wait List. That means that he had the scores/grades to attend, but there were not enough seats. That means the Committee thought if he does attend, he would do well. Then, why is he not able to attend?? Him (and some of his friends who did not get in) are just as qualified and simply are denied the challenge because there is not enough space. Obviously tons of other families in the same boat.

My kid is at a Focus School and just like PP, there are kids in his 3rd grade class who can't read. My kid's 'advanced' reading group with 3 other kids rarely meets. I understand the teacher has to help the kids who need the extra attention (who also get pulled out by either the ESOL or Reading Specialist), but this has been the case for the past 3 years. Even the kids who are 'average', just kind of float on by if they don't cause trouble.

It's crazy that this wealthy county can't afford to support this huge population of talented youth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

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??

I agree completely.

My kid is on the Wait List. That means that he had the scores/grades to attend, but there were not enough seats. That means the Committee thought if he does attend, he would do well. Then, why is he not able to attend?? Him (and some of his friends who did not get in) are just as qualified and simply are denied the challenge because there is not enough space. Obviously tons of other families in the same boat.

My kid is at a Focus School and just like PP, there are kids in his 3rd grade class who can't read. My kid's 'advanced' reading group with 3 other kids rarely meets. I understand the teacher has to help the kids who need the extra attention (who also get pulled out by either the ESOL or Reading Specialist), but this has been the case for the past 3 years. Even the kids who are 'average', just kind of float on by if they don't cause trouble.

It's crazy that this wealthy county can't afford to support this huge population of talented youth.

My kid is on the waiting list too but I see it differently. For me the waiting list is like being on the bench (really smart kids but somehow not as gifted as those that made it). If one of the players quits another one is getting in.
The lottery process is however strange for me. Basically the scores of waiting list kids don't matter any more. They will just randomly choose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

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??

I agree completely.

My kid is on the Wait List. That means that he had the scores/grades to attend, but there were not enough seats. That means the Committee thought if he does attend, he would do well. Then, why is he not able to attend?? Him (and some of his friends who did not get in) are just as qualified and simply are denied the challenge because there is not enough space. Obviously tons of other families in the same boat.

My kid is at a Focus School and just like PP, there are kids in his 3rd grade class who can't read. My kid's 'advanced' reading group with 3 other kids rarely meets. I understand the teacher has to help the kids who need the extra attention (who also get pulled out by either the ESOL or Reading Specialist), but this has been the case for the past 3 years. Even the kids who are 'average', just kind of float on by if they don't cause trouble.

It's crazy that this wealthy county can't afford to support this huge population of talented youth.

My kid is on the waiting list too but I see it differently. For me the waiting list is like being on the bench (really smart kids but somehow not as gifted as those that made it). If one of the players quits another one is getting in.
The lottery process is however strange for me. Basically the scores of waiting list kids don't matter any more. They will just randomly choose.

I'm the PP and that's why I said that. It's a lottery. Meaning that they must think of all these kids on the Wait List are adequately qualified. Otherwise, how could they just randomly choose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

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??

I agree completely.

My kid is on the Wait List. That means that he had the scores/grades to attend, but there were not enough seats. That means the Committee thought if he does attend, he would do well. Then, why is he not able to attend?? Him (and some of his friends who did not get in) are just as qualified and simply are denied the challenge because there is not enough space. Obviously tons of other families in the same boat.

My kid is at a Focus School and just like PP, there are kids in his 3rd grade class who can't read. My kid's 'advanced' reading group with 3 other kids rarely meets. I understand the teacher has to help the kids who need the extra attention (who also get pulled out by either the ESOL or Reading Specialist), but this has been the case for the past 3 years. Even the kids who are 'average', just kind of float on by if they don't cause trouble.

It's crazy that this wealthy county can't afford to support this huge population of talented youth.

I agree with all your sentiments. I just found out my 3rd grader got into the Cold Spring HGC. My kid is generally bright, works hard because it's part of our work ethics but he is also unfocused (maybe bored?). He has many peers at his current home school who are incredibly bright and would definitely benefit from acceleration/enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Is it an MCPS responsibility or individual schools that are responsible to provide enrichment or acceleration for all kids who need it? My son has been in 3 MCPS elementary schools and in each one of them was in an accelerated reading and math group and this was before HGC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it an MCPS responsibility or individual schools that are responsible to provide enrichment or acceleration for all kids who need it? My son has been in 3 MCPS elementary schools and in each one of them was in an accelerated reading and math group and this was before HGC.

It's an MCPS responsibility, but that doesn't mean it happens...
My son tells me he doesn't even have a reading group at school - they never meet. The kids struggling to read get 1 on 1 attention, though (to be expected, but still...)

[Anonymous]

Got results 62 percentile but no rejection/admit letter. Uhh wtf mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone post scores?

SAS was 128

Letter said median SAS of the applicant pool was 116 for Barnsley HGC

[Anonymous]

I have received both letters. I find it interesting that some are reporting percentages. On my child's score sheet, there was no percentage just the median score of those tested and his score. Are there different score sheets being sent home? We are cold spring.

[Anonymous]

Those of you who did not get a letter but called, what number did you call (and who did you talk to)?