How does your DCPS help advanced students?

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is an official policy, as evidenced by the incredibly varied replies.

We found that our kid needed "more" as early as K, given that her cohort's needs were markedly different than hers. Yes, we tried to lottery - it did not work out for us.

Unfortunately, we were at a loss and getting increasingly frustrated. So we moved by 2nd to a neighboring district that provides structured enrichment as a matter of routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don't call it GT because it isn't. SEM is the School-wide Enrichment Model and can be great. We are lucky to have it at our school. But it is intended as enrichment for all the students at a school, gifted/advanced or not. It is not a GT program.

The truth is any GT student in DCPS is at the mercy of the people who run their particular school. If your principal wants to and has the resources to go the extra mile, then the kids at that school will get advanced work. There is no city-wide program like the ones in surrounding counties where these kids, be they black, white, brown or purple, can have an opportunity work up to their greatest potential with a planned, thoughtful curriculum over an extended period.

They really need to fix this. That's one of the main reasons why there's so much bleed-off to charters and privates.

[Anonymous]

One of the problems with acceleration in the lower grades at schools like Brent is that it won't be supported in the upper grades. Even Walls wants kids who come in with advanced math skills to go back and retake stuff they've already mastered. They have a half-baked math placement test but it's a joke, basically it's cover for the fact that they can't handle accelerated students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't call it GT because it isn't. SEM is the School-wide Enrichment Model and can be great. We are lucky to have it at our school. But it is intended as enrichment for all the students at a school, gifted/advanced or not. It is not a GT program.

The truth is any GT student in DCPS is at the mercy of the people who run their particular school. If your principal wants to and has the resources to go the extra mile, then the kids at that school will get advanced work. There is no city-wide program like the ones in surrounding counties where these kids, be they black, white, brown or purple, can have an opportunity work up to their greatest potential with a planned, thoughtful curriculum over an extended period.

They really need to fix this. That's one of the main reasons why there's so much bleed-off to charters and privates.

EVERYONE knows this including the dimwits in central office. But, there is a fear that any tracking, test in etc would lead to classes that would be predominately white, therefore this is a no-go in DC. Never gonna happen unless there is a change in leadership or high income kids reach a tipping point in school age population.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you can write to President-Elect Trump to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't call it GT because it isn't. SEM is the School-wide Enrichment Model and can be great. We are lucky to have it at our school. But it is intended as enrichment for all the students at a school, gifted/advanced or not. It is not a GT program.

The truth is any GT student in DCPS is at the mercy of the people who run their particular school. If your principal wants to and has the resources to go the extra mile, then the kids at that school will get advanced work. There is no city-wide program like the ones in surrounding counties where these kids, be they black, white, brown or purple, can have an opportunity work up to their greatest potential with a planned, thoughtful curriculum over an extended period.

They really need to fix this. That's one of the main reasons why there's so much bleed-off to charters and privates.

EVERYONE knows this including the dimwits in central office. But, there is a fear that any tracking, test in etc would lead to classes that would be predominately white, therefore this is a no-go in DC. Never gonna happen unless there is a change in leadership or high income kids reach a tipping point in school age population.

Every time they whine about losing kids to privates, charters and families moving to the burbs they need to understand this is part of the reason why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't call it GT because it isn't. SEM is the School-wide Enrichment Model and can be great. We are lucky to have it at our school. But it is intended as enrichment for all the students at a school, gifted/advanced or not. It is not a GT program.

The truth is any GT student in DCPS is at the mercy of the people who run their particular school. If your principal wants to and has the resources to go the extra mile, then the kids at that school will get advanced work. There is no city-wide program like the ones in surrounding counties where these kids, be they black, white, brown or purple, can have an opportunity work up to their greatest potential with a planned, thoughtful curriculum over an extended period.

They really need to fix this. That's one of the main reasons why there's so much bleed-off to charters and privates.

EVERYONE knows this including the dimwits in central office. But, there is a fear that any tracking, test in etc would lead to classes that would be predominately white, therefore this is a no-go in DC. Never gonna happen unless there is a change in leadership or high income kids reach a tipping point in school age population.

Every time they whine about losing kids to privates, charters and families moving to the burbs they need to understand this is part of the reason why.

Whiners whine.

The question is when we can get a more open-minded local government in our nation's capital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the problems with acceleration in the lower grades at schools like Brent is that it won't be supported in the upper grades. Even Walls wants kids who come in with advanced math skills to go back and retake stuff they've already mastered. They have a half-baked math placement test but it's a joke, basically it's cover for the fact that they can't handle accelerated students.

I believe it. Looks to me like push will come to shove over math placement at Walls in the next couple of years, with dozens of BASIS kids who took algebra before 8th grade (including half a dozen who took it in 5th!) testing in. Walls is going to come under new pressure to give serious math placement tests, and to permit advanced math classes where most of the students are white or Asian. If they continue to balk, parents may well sue. I hope that a class action suit is the result, one that will embarrass DCPS nationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the problems with acceleration in the lower grades at schools like Brent is that it won't be supported in the upper grades. Even Walls wants kids who come in with advanced math skills to go back and retake stuff they've already mastered. They have a half-baked math placement test but it's a joke, basically it's cover for the fact that they can't handle accelerated students.

I believe it. Looks to me like push will come to shove over math placement at Walls in the next couple of years, with dozens of BASIS kids who took algebra before 8th grade (including half a dozen who took it in 5th!) testing in. Walls is going to come under new pressure to give serious math placement tests, and to permit advanced math classes where most of the students are white or Asian. If they continue to balk, parents may well sue. I hope that a class action suit is the result, one that will embarrass DCPS nationally.

So much hyperbole and silliness.

Dozens at Walls from BASIS? There are only 120 kids per grade at BASIS at most; half stay for high school, and not all 60 who leave wind up at SWW.

Parents can't sue DCPS over this - there is no right to anything of the sort.

Don't threaten - convince the SWW principal that more advanced classes will help their USNews rankings and so forth. You will get much more traction.

[Anonymous]

To answer the subject question, I'd say quite simply that it doesn't. It caters to the kids with problems and the advanced kids look at the ceiling. I believe they call this "differentiation".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To answer the subject question, I'd say quite simply that it doesn't. It caters to the kids with problems and the advanced kids look at the ceiling. I believe they call this "differentiation".

What school were your kids at? That hasn't been my experience with differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the subject question, I'd say quite simply that it doesn't. It caters to the kids with problems and the advanced kids look at the ceiling. I believe they call this "differentiation".

What school were your kids at? That hasn't been my experience with differentiation.

Mine either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the problems with acceleration in the lower grades at schools like Brent is that it won't be supported in the upper grades. Even Walls wants kids who come in with advanced math skills to go back and retake stuff they've already mastered. They have a half-baked math placement test but it's a joke, basically it's cover for the fact that they can't handle accelerated students.

I believe it. Looks to me like push will come to shove over math placement at Walls in the next couple of years, with dozens of BASIS kids who took algebra before 8th grade (including half a dozen who took it in 5th!) testing in. Walls is going to come under new pressure to give serious math placement tests, and to permit advanced math classes where most of the students are white or Asian. If they continue to balk, parents may well sue. I hope that a class action suit is the result, one that will embarrass DCPS nationally.

Honestly, I say why give the placement test for students from BASIS or other schools if they have a C or better in their grades i highschool level math classes? BASIS has used Saxon math in all of their schools for well over a decade if not longer with a very good track record for having their students do well on math standardized tests and AP Calculus exams. I say place the student in the correct level based on transcripts and not on placement testing and it should be obvious whether they are placed correctly or not within a few weeks of starting course.

Also, DCPS is dropping the ball by insisting that BASIS students who pass the AP world History exam in 8th grade repeat the AP World history class at Walls. This is just wrong and goes against the supposed differentiation which DCPS touts as the answer to meeting advanced kids needs which is bullshit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the problems with acceleration in the lower grades at schools like Brent is that it won't be supported in the upper grades. Even Walls wants kids who come in with advanced math skills to go back and retake stuff they've already mastered. They have a half-baked math placement test but it's a joke, basically it's cover for the fact that they can't handle accelerated students.

I believe it. Looks to me like push will come to shove over math placement at Walls in the next couple of years, with dozens of BASIS kids who took algebra before 8th grade (including half a dozen who took it in 5th!) testing in. Walls is going to come under new pressure to give serious math placement tests, and to permit advanced math classes where most of the students are white or Asian. If they continue to balk, parents may well sue. I hope that a class action suit is the result, one that will embarrass DCPS nationally.

So much hyperbole and silliness.

Dozens at Walls from BASIS? There are only 120 kids per grade at BASIS at most; half stay for high school, and not all 60 who leave wind up at SWW.

Parents can't sue DCPS over this - there is no right to anything of the sort.

Don't threaten - convince the SWW principal that more advanced classes will help their USNews rankings and so forth. You will get much more traction.

It is my understanding that Walls is giving math placement tests and making kids repeat AP World History because of DCPS central office calling the shots and not because of the principal who must follow their guidelines in regards to this.

I will just say that DCPS is losing potential students over this stupid policy and therefore DCPS should not complain about losing students to charters. Differentiation, my ass! How about keep the students down so that we don't have to many kids exceeding!

[Anonymous]

At my kids' JKLM they have reading groups by level starting in K, then they have pullouts for math as well as differentiated reading groups from 1st onward.