Principal and home teacher's affect on GT admission

[Anonymous]

On another thread a poster wrote that their principal is very involved in the GT selection process and home teacher recommendations have a strong impact assuming the child scores high on the tests. Our principal tells people that she has nothing to do with the process and that the teachers do not even write recommendations. Her report was that it is only outside testers and she's glad she isn't part of the process.

She has a reputation for lying on other matters. There are rumors that she makes a big push to keep kids at the home school and not the GT program under the argument that there are enough high scorers to give them a peer group at the home ES. The rumor is that she wants to keep them to keep the high scores. Our ES scores at the top in the county and many kids at the top. Strangely, only 1 child was admitted to HGC this year and possibly 2 the year before.

We're trying to decide whether to wait it out and try for GT or just start applying for private schools for 3rd grade and forget about GT as an option. GT is hard enough to get into even for top scoring kids but if the principal obstructs admissions from our school the chances would be even lower.

[Anonymous]

How is she involved in the selection process? Do you think she gets in the way of the teacher's review of the applicant? I would talk to the people who handle the GT program -- the consortium people at MCPS. That would bug me too.

[Anonymous]

At our school the 3rd grade team meets with the principal. They discuss all applicants together and then make recommendations.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The rumor from parents with older kids is that she makes a pitch to the admissions team and pressures the teachers not to recommend kids or to provide recommendations that say the child's enrichment needs can be met within the home school. Her pitch to the admissions team is that since there are so many high scoring students they already have a peer group. She makes a big deal about the enrichment at our school - which is non-existent. Its such a specific rumor I'm wondering if a 3rd grade teacher outed her practices to another parents.

I find is very fishy that she makes such a point of saying how she has no involvement with the admissions committee and that there are no teacher recommendations. This clearly doesn't sound true according to other schools. Its also fishy that our school has such low HGC admissions and such high scoring students.

Our school has enrollment problems so losing even a few students would affect staffing. She's bonkers for test scores too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The rumor from parents with older kids is that she makes a pitch to the admissions team and pressures the teachers not to recommend kids or to provide recommendations that say the child's enrichment needs can be met within the home school. Her pitch to the admissions team is that since there are so many high scoring students they already have a peer group. She makes a big deal about the enrichment at our school - which is non-existent. Its such a specific rumor I'm wondering if a 3rd grade teacher outed her practices to another parents.

I find is very fishy that she makes such a point of saying how she has no involvement with the admissions committee and that there are no teacher recommendations. This clearly doesn't sound true according to other schools. Its also fishy that our school has such low HGC admissions and such high scoring students.

Our school has enrollment problems so losing even a few students would affect staffing. She's bonkers for test scores too.

Again, I would talk to the consortium people. Tell them what you've heard. Ask if you can use someone else to write the recommendation for your DC, or ask if the teacher can send it directly to the people who make the decisions, bypassing the principle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is she involved in the selection process? Do you think she gets in the way of the teacher's review of the applicant? I would talk to the people who handle the GT program -- the consortium people at MCPS. That would bug me too.

Yes, I would call the central-office HGC people and ask a very general question about the procedure -- i.e., is there a general procedure that all schools follow, or do different schools do things differently; and if there is a general procedure that all schools follow, what is it.

[Anonymous]

At our kids' home school, I wasn't aware the principal had a role in the recommendations. Our kids' teachers made recommendations out of their classes and told us about it at P-T conferences when we asked about extra enrichment for our kids. The contingents from their home school have always been quite large (7+). Small schools will have smaller numbers of acceptances, but 1-2 seems out of whack. I would check with the central office too.

[Anonymous]

ask if the teacher can send it directly to the people who make the decisions, bypassing the principle

BWAHAHAHA! Not in MCPS. If the principal is actively screwing up the HGC admissions from her school to protect scores and enrollment then there is no way that a teacher is going to put her neck on the line in a way that is traced back to her. The principal will find out and retaliate against the teacher. The child that gets to go to HGC may send a thank you note but that's about it. There's no benefit to the teacher and only risk in doing this.

[Anonymous]

"Effect"

[Anonymous]

For ESL here, I think affect is correct here.

If the sentence was "Can a principal affect GT admission" then yes, it would effect not affect.

The subject line is "Principal and home teacher's affect on GT Admission".

Effect is a verb. Affect is adjective or noun meaning influence or influenced, correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For ESL here, I think affect is correct here.

If the sentence was "Can a principal affect GT admission" then yes, it would effect not affect.

The subject line is "Principal and home teacher's affect on GT Admission".

Effect is a verb. Affect is adjective or noun meaning influence or influenced, correct?

You got it exactly wrong. Switch the two words, you would have been right.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. Effect is the noun. Affect is the verb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Effect is the noun. Affect is the verb.

I agree it should have been "effect on GT admission" -- effect is usually (but not always) a noun. Normally it refers to the impact something has on something else. Sometimes effect can be used as a verb, as a synonym for bringing out change -- i.e., to effect change. Affect is almost always a verb -- to impact something else. In this case, the possessive "teacher's" means that the next word should be a noun. To use affect properly here, you could ask, "How do the Principal and home teacher affect GT admissions?" Affect can also be used as a noun, but it refers to an attitude that someone has, like, "He put on an upperclass affect when he was around them." Or, "the Principal and home teacher adopted a sour affect when I talked to them about GT admissions."

Sorry...couldn't resist.

[Anonymous]

We are at a school also with low numbers of admittances this year but high MSA scores. I have no idea if the principal is involved or not in the selection I got impression that teachers just filled out a form? If your child nails the test they they will get in and it won't matter. This was the case with both students that got in from our school last year.

[Anonymous]

I think the same of the principal in our Bethesda-area school, but draw a different conclusion:
that at least I don't have to transfer my son to a different school when the high-performing peer group is staying right here for 4th and 5th!

Now that only works for "mildly" advanced students like my son (he scored right at the test median of accepted students and was not accepted into the HGC, thus the suspicion that the rec was less than stellar). With proper attention he can thrive in a normal classroom. The teachers do seem to adapt to these kids at our school.
I would hope that for off-the-chart gifted students, who absolutely cannot be accommodated in the normal classroom, the principal would make an effort.