smart kid not really being fostered at a JKLM; what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put him in the lottery for BASIS next year.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put him in the lottery for BASIS next year.

+1.

This isn't a bad idea - but juggling the travel sport with BASIS could be tough depending on which sport it is. The BASIS school day is long -- 8:45-4:00 and will be 45 minutes from your home best case scenario.

You can always return to Deal if you or DC doesn't like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder what it is that you are all pushing your children for. Life? It does not require being an overachiever at age 12. Life, even med school... Not really that complicated. Encourage interests, show them the world, and enjoy yourself.

As a teacher, I see a lot of "smart" kids lose interest in school after years of being bored. They develop a habit of phoning in their work. The parents can encourage them, but it's not really something they can monitor during the 6 hours the kids are at school. Most teachers are so concerned with making their growth numbers, that the kids who are on grade level or above are really an afterthought. Half the time they're partnered up with the kids who are struggling in order to help bring them up.

Thank you, teacher. That's exactly what happened with my son. We moved him to private and although he still was not the most motivated kid in the class, he's in a much better place after a few years of private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is getting 99% on parcc

of course they are. Just like someone is getting a 1%

But scores aren't reported that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is getting 99% on parcc

of course they are. Just like someone is getting a 1%

But scores aren't reported that way.

Yes, they are - - flip the page over, lol. It says "How Does Larla's Performance Compare?" To the point, no? Then it lists the percentile compared to the school (e.g., "better than 89% of Unicorn School students who took this test"), compared to DCPS ("better than 99% of DCPS students who took this test"), and compared to all of DC ("better than 99% of DC students who took this test").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is getting 99% on parcc

of course they are. Just like someone is getting a 1%

But scores aren't reported that way.

Yes they are. On the sheet among other things, there is a rundown of what percentile your child came in at in comparison to the rest of the kids in their grade at their school and in their grade throughout DCPS .

Wish I had your problem, OP. My kid considers it a personal affront to do math on scratch paper before giving the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder what it is that you are all pushing your children for. Life? It does not require being an overachiever at age 12. Life, even med school... Not really that complicated. Encourage interests, show them the world, and enjoy yourself.

This. A million times this.

I have a PhD in a "challenging" field (I don't know which other word to use). If you can teach your child critical thinking, you will do them a tremendous service. This is a legitimate if. Even if you think yourself smart, many people lack true depth-of-thinking abilities. I work with dozens of other PhDs; not all of us have this skill. Teach you child to maintain competing, even contradictory, thoughts in his head simultaneously. Challenge him to present arguments he does not support/believe. Ask him "why he thinks that" whenever he presents to you a seemingly unsubstantiated claim.

Do these things and your child will be more than fine.

OP here.
I think my issue is that at our JKLM there is an overwhelming sense that the goal is to bring the class cohort to the grade standard(s) at the end of the year and then NOTHING is fostered beyond this. I have a kid who sails through the grade objectives with no effort and no work needed outside of school. I wonder if in a different school his/her interest in math (he/she will tell you she/he LOVES math) would be nurtured a bit more or pushed. A teacher would say, "hey, you can do this material in your sleep, let's work with you on something more challenging. Or Have you ever thought about this?"
I.e. for this kid scoring at the top of the PARCC or meeting the objectives at school does not require critical thinking. How do I teach critical thinking or provide this for my child (preferably in the classroom)? And will they get it at Deal and Wilson in the later years? Or should we be looking at private school?

My opinion (and only my opinion) from 20+ years or schooling: rare is the teacher who is able to teach these skills. Far from an indictment of the teacher's ability (although this is a hurdle that must be cleared), the reality of teaching to 10-25 kids at once necessarily makes the back-and-forth dialogue needed to foster these skills largely impossible. That means, the skill will come from you, if not only you then mainly you.

Some teachers can help, but they need to be able to take one student's comment/claim/belief, translate it into terms all of the others can simultaneously interpret, ensure they each internalize the comment/claim/belief as if it were their own, and then somehow manage to get the entire class to engage with the idea at a sufficient level at the same time. This is a very tall order.

You can achieve the same thing much easier just speaking with your child in the car and at the dinner table. They'll find you annoying, but (trust me) they'll quickly impersonate your Socrates to their friends. And the rest of the time they can play on the trampoline, light things on fire, and generally be a kid. Your gift works in the background.

All great points. But also consider other schools. Many schools are doing this kind of 'Socratic method' thinking, looking at the whole child as a citizen and not just a student. Sidwell and Latin come to mind. Sure there are others.

[Anonymous]

"This. A million times this.

I have a PhD in a "challenging" field (I don't know which other word to use). If you can teach your child critical thinking, you will do them a tremendous service. This is a legitimate if. Even if you think yourself smart, many people lack true depth-of-thinking abilities. I work with dozens of other PhDs; not all of us have this skill. Teach you child to maintain competing, even contradictory, thoughts in his head simultaneously. Challenge him to present arguments he does not support/believe. Ask him "why he thinks that" whenever he presents to you a seemingly unsubstantiated claim.

Do these things and your child will be more than fine."

My gifted kid at a JKLM has these critical and deep thinking skills in droves, which is why every year we start out excited and by mid-year my kid is half checked out because, while there are some opportunities to work deeply, there also is a focus on getting everyone to a certain level.

But the other problem is that having these skills, while great for real life, don't get one into a challenging track/class in upper grades, or a challenging program in college, because good grades are required. And being gifted and able to think deep doesn't translate into getting good grade or test scores, especially for kids who are no longer motivated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is getting 99% on parcc

of course they are. Just like someone is getting a 1%

But scores aren't reported that way.

Yes, they are - - flip the page over, lol. It says "How Does Larla's Performance Compare?" To the point, no? Then it lists the percentile compared to the school (e.g., "better than 89% of Unicorn School students who took this test"), compared to DCPS ("better than 99% of DCPS students who took this test"), and compared to all of DC ("better than 99% of DC students who took this test").

PP said No one is getting 99% on parcc

That may or may not be true.

Scoring better than 99% of DC students is not the same as scoring a 99% on a test.

My kid scored 804/850 which translated to mean that he scored better than 99% of test takers for his grade.
His actual percentage on the test would have been 95%.

[Anonymous]

"Wish I had your problem, OP. My kid considers it a personal affront to do math on scratch paper before giving the answer."

LOL! Mine too. 99% kid whose PARCC scores were in the bottom 1/3 of the grade. Not sure whether to laugh or cry.

[Anonymous]

For PARCC %, for citywide do they combine DCPS and Charter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For PARCC %, for citywide do they combine DCPS and Charter?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

We have found with some teachers that they don't want students asking deeper questions, or trying to get ahead. It's frustrating, and I see how it could sap a kids' curiosity and genuine desire to learn more. Some teachers but very few are able to differentiate in a meaningful way for advanced learners.

[Anonymous]

I am not interpreting "did 99% better" as having gotten 99% of the content right ... And not sure why you out lol but... Lol!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had the exact same child (except no sport interest) and I can only give you the advice my child's 4th grade teacher at the JKL school told me: he will get left behind at Deal because teachers there are either dealing with troublemakers or highly motivated children, and his cohort of friends will be in that latter group and he will be left in the dust. That's all I needed to hear. We entered the lottery and got the charter we wanted, but private was absolutely our next move. Motivation matters a great deal as they leave elementary, and if your child doesn't have it and doesn't really fit into a category, the teachers will move on. The shear numbers dictate that. Great yeachers who are given a chance in a smaller setting can pull your child's potential out.

I have this child too and I can tell you that this is not at all what we have experienced at all at Deal. Mine went straight into very advanced math in 6th grade at Deal (and wasn't the only child in the class) and was happy with the ELA and science programs plus challenged by the language. We didn't need to supplement outside but only with Hopkins CYT programs. DC got into SWW and is one of the kids in the GW program. I still have kids at Deal and all have been pushed especially in math. In all the years we have spent at Deal we have found very few troublemakers but a ton of teachers willing to push kids and work with them afterschool or in the classroom to make sure their needs are being met.

+1 - ha, I went to one of the summer G&T programs at Hopkins... where nerds go to find love