APS - Are all students identified as gifted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can be identified as gifted in one area but not another. DD2 is gifted in math but nothing else. DD1 is gifted in every single category. Who cares really? Out of all thing to hate about APS this isn’t one of them.

I agree the label in APS means nothing, other than your kid is not behind. The main reason to obtain the identification, however, is to enforce more challenging material, or as you go into middle and high school, placement in higher level classes. Still won't ensure an appropriate level of challenge for your child in every subject/class; but it can be helpful when arguing - I mean advocating - for your kid when it really matters.

The designation also makes you eligible for the governor’s schools in HS, which is the only real tangible reason to pursue it. The rest is just a mash-up of parental anxiety and weird competitiveness. But to answer the original question, yes, the vast majority of kids in APS have the designation. Especially North Arlington. Just think about the kinds of people attracted to the DC area for work and can afford to own a house in one of the most expensive counties in the country. This is their offspring.

Mind you, most of the kids with the designation aren’t actually *gifted* like in the sense of being prodigies. They’re bright, high-achievers with solid home resources.

The “vast majority” of kids in APS? So, you are claiming that well over half the kids in APS are identified as gifted? This is, of course, false.

Well the majority of HBW are gifted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at a north arlington school identified as gifted and I have seen very little evidence of differentiation (despite much advocating from said child's parents) this year. That child really is gifted and capable of work many years above the current grade level, but has been bored to tears for months. I honestly do not know what this distinction means - I would not be surprised if it was a full 50% of the population, because it is meaningless afaik.

Gifted children don’t get “bored to tears.”

Huh? Yes they do, if they are well-behaved and not given challenge. They are bored, and they are gifted. That’s a weird statement to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at a north arlington school identified as gifted and I have seen very little evidence of differentiation (despite much advocating from said child's parents) this year. That child really is gifted and capable of work many years above the current grade level, but has been bored to tears for months. I honestly do not know what this distinction means - I would not be surprised if it was a full 50% of the population, because it is meaningless afaik.

Gifted children don’t get “bored to tears.”

Huh? Yes they do, if they are well-behaved and not given challenge. They are bored, and they are gifted. That’s a weird statement to make.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'm curious what, if anything, a school does for a child designated as gifted in art?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can be identified as gifted in one area but not another. DD2 is gifted in math but nothing else. DD1 is gifted in every single category. Who cares really? Out of all thing to hate about APS this isn’t one of them.

I agree the label in APS means nothing, other than your kid is not behind. The main reason to obtain the identification, however, is to enforce more challenging material, or as you go into middle and high school, placement in higher level classes. Still won't ensure an appropriate level of challenge for your child in every subject/class; but it can be helpful when arguing - I mean advocating - for your kid when it really matters.

The designation also makes you eligible for the governor’s schools in HS, which is the only real tangible reason to pursue it. The rest is just a mash-up of parental anxiety and weird competitiveness. But to answer the original question, yes, the vast majority of kids in APS have the designation. Especially North Arlington. Just think about the kinds of people attracted to the DC area for work and can afford to own a house in one of the most expensive counties in the country. This is their offspring.

Mind you, most of the kids with the designation aren’t actually *gifted* like in the sense of being prodigies. They’re bright, high-achievers with solid home resources.

Is this true? Do you have to be designated gifted to get into Governor's School???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a thing that you guys talk about with other parents? We're an APS family and really have no idea who is who among the "gifted"

You figure it out as they group classes with the gifted kids together. There’s not enough staff resources to go into each individual class for enrichment.

They don't put all the gifted kids in one class. They make sure there's a critical mass of them (so there won't be just one or two in a classroom). But in a school like ours with 4-5 classes per grade in a N. Arlington elementary, you're going to have several classes with gifted kids in them, because there are so many kids who score well on tests.

I have a child identified as gifted in 4 subjects and have told exactly *one* other parent who is a very close friend and has an older child who was identified as gifted, so we've had a lot of discussions about it. I don't talk about it with other parents and have never heard another parent bring it up with me, except for a coworker who has a child at a different school who trots out the fact all the time, and who is generally regarded as obnoxious by everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids taught for several years in several APS elementary schools. They now teach high school. They say there’s a huge and unfair discrepancy in gifted designations depending on the race and income level of the kid. It’s pretty disgusting.

Can you explain this a bit more? I’m not trying to be snarky, but if the rich white kids happen to get higher grades on the standardized tests, then how else should they designate who is gifted besides the test scores?

Standardized tests are known to be racist and classist. A lot of the questions assume a certain lived experience that exposed kids to a vocabulary and life style that informs their vocabulary and ability to make inferences. A 3rd grader from a poor, immigrant family for example may not be familiar with the vegetable eggplant or staying at a hotel on vacation. They may then fail a reading comprehension assessment, not because they can’t read, but because those topics are foreign to them. And yes. A lot of kids (17-30%) are identified as gifted because it’s an affluent area and a lot of kids have educ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a thing that you guys talk about with other parents? We're an APS family and really have no idea who is who among the "gifted"

You figure it out as they group classes with the gifted kids together. There’s not enough staff resources to go into each individual class for enrichment.

They don't put all the gifted kids in one class. They make sure there's a critical mass of them (so there won't be just one or two in a classroom). But in a school like ours with 4-5 classes per grade in a N. Arlington elementary, you're going to have several classes with gifted kids in them, because there are so many kids who score well on tests.

I have a child identified as gifted in 4 subjects and have told exactly *one* other parent who is a very close friend and has an older child who was identified as gifted, so we've had a lot of discussions about it. I don't talk about it with other parents and have never heard another parent bring it up with me, except for a coworker who has a child at a different school who trots out the fact all the time, and who is generally regarded as obnoxious by everyone.

We don’t talk about it. We didn’t even tell our kid. And yet he came home one day in 3rd grade to show me a “special project” he worked on with the GT Resource teacher. He described it as “I did an extra thing with the talented kids” and proceeded to name the kids in his group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids taught for several years in several APS elementary schools. They now teach high school. They say there’s a huge and unfair discrepancy in gifted designations depending on the race and income level of the kid. It’s pretty disgusting.

Can you explain this a bit more? I’m not trying to be snarky, but if the rich white kids happen to get higher grades on the standardized tests, then how else should they designate who is gifted besides the test scores?

Standardized tests are known to be racist and classist. A lot of the questions assume a certain lived experience that exposed kids to a vocabulary and life style that informs their vocabulary and ability to make inferences. A 3rd grader from a poor, immigrant family for example may not be familiar with the vegetable eggplant or staying at a hotel on vacation. They may then fail a reading comprehension assessment, not because they can’t read, but because those topics are foreign to them. And yes. A lot of kids (17-30%) are identified as gifted because it’s an affluent area and a lot of kids have educ

APS uses a test that is nonverbal. The NNAT has puzzles and asks kids to identify patterns using shapes and the like. However, I think it is helpful for kids to have seen or practiced this test (or any test, since they give it so young kids may not have ever tested at all before), and only affluent parents are prepping kids for this particular test or taking tests in general.

[Anonymous]

My oldest got an 88 on the NNAT, but was still found gifted by APS based on other evidence. I think I like their approach in that you can still have some differentiation, and the stakes aren't as high so people don't lose their brains over some test or going to weird lengths to have their kids receive a certain designation. Reading that AAP forum gives me the willies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids taught for several years in several APS elementary schools. They now teach high school. They say there’s a huge and unfair discrepancy in gifted designations depending on the race and income level of the kid. It’s pretty disgusting.

Can you explain this a bit more? I’m not trying to be snarky, but if the rich white kids happen to get higher grades on the standardized tests, then how else should they designate who is gifted besides the test scores?

Standardized tests are known to be racist and classist. A lot of the questions assume a certain lived experience that exposed kids to a vocabulary and life style that informs their vocabulary and ability to make inferences. A 3rd grader from a poor, immigrant family for example may not be familiar with the vegetable eggplant or staying at a hotel on vacation. They may then fail a reading comprehension assessment, not because they can’t read, but because those topics are foreign to them. And yes. A lot of kids (17-30%) are identified as gifted because it’s an affluent area and a lot of kids have educ

So then it's more a systemic issue that you have with the identification of "gifted" kids and not necessarily APS, who is just a part of that existing system.

[Anonymous]

Is this conversation resurfacing because the notifications are going out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest got an 88 on the NNAT, but was still found gifted by APS based on other evidence. I think I like their approach in that you can still have some differentiation, and the stakes aren't as high so people don't lose their brains over some test or going to weird lengths to have their kids receive a certain designation. Reading that AAP forum gives me the willies.

I agree, AAP seems to cause sooo much stress and ridiculousness.

[Anonymous]

The designation also makes you eligible for the governor’s schools in HS, which is the only real tangible reason to pursue it. The rest is just a mash-up of parental anxiety and weird competitiveness. But to answer the original question, yes, the vast majority of kids in APS have the designation. Especially North Arlington. Just think about the kinds of people attracted to the DC area for work and can afford to own a house in one of the most expensive counties in the country. This is their offspring.

Mind you, most of the kids with the designation aren’t actually *gifted* like in the sense of being prodigies. They’re bright, high-achievers with solid home resources.



Is this true? Do you have to be designated gifted to get into Governor's School???

Yes, it's true.

[Anonymous]

When do notifications on gifted placements come out typically? The letter we got earlier this year said by 6/16. Should we expect it that day or earlier? School is Claremont fwiw.