Gifted in DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My gifted kid was challenged at Wilson. AP classes kept DC busy. Senior year DC was enrolled at Georgetown through HISCIP and took three classes, one fall semester, two in the spring. DC was able to transfer 12 credits from Georgetown freshman year of college.

This is great to know this is possible, thanks for posting! How often are students able to do this? Was your child an outlier?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I love it. A 36-month-old can now be in a grade. With a curriculum.

And yes, I know that really is the case in dcps but I think it's stupid.

-- mom of talented 5th grader who was pooping his pants occasionally at age 3, squeezing play dough, building free-form towers and so on. It's so weird to me that a dc resident now has to PAY serious cash to get that kind of developmentally appropriate nursery school experience in a private preschool. "I want my kid to fingerpaint all day, so that means tuition!"

But this goes right to the heart of it. DC is a historically struggling school district. Thus almost every dollar is focused on remedial work, and that's why there is a curriculum at 3 yrs old yet no gifted magnet for MS or HS.

The public preK3/4 program wasn't designed to provide free daycare as a perk to affluent DC residents. It exists because of the high % of impoverished, female-headed households in the district.

The charter schools weren't designed to provide a free alternative to private school for the wealthy. They were a solution to a broken public school system with off the charts drop-out rates and poor test scores.

None of this was designed with the DCUM segment in mind.

Well-adjusted people in affluent school districts don't worry terribly about their 3 yo olds - they just let them play (with some pre-reading, pre-numeracy). That's a key aspect of privilege in america: not having to worry too much about things, because you know they will work out. DC's parents historically have not had that luxury, and the system as a whole is not built around that luxury.

I totally agree with you (PP) from a parenting perspective, BTW.

They aren't doing terribly well on remediation either, but I guess the logic is that with this as an excuse, it's fine to underserve ALL kids in DCPS.

I'd agree that most parents don't worry about their 3 year olds... And let's get off of this stale, cheesy old "special snowflake" kick that's underpinning the latest bunch of posts to this thread.

But, if when they are 5 years old, they are reading at a college level, going through one thick volume after another, and when they are 7 years old, can point you to a map and walk you through very complex and detailed things like the historical geopolitics of the Balkans from recent times, through the Cold War, to WWII and back to the Ottoman Empire - then you need to start paying attention. Your standard DCPS history lesson about Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, in comparison and complexity, is cartoonish fluff (not to mention, the teacher will probably be embarrassed when the student corrects her on the historical inaccuracies). Or, if your kid is capable of doing calculus in middle school and can explain things like string theory and Higgs bosons, and why they are significant, you have to recognize that your standard DCPS Everyday Math lattices and multiplication worksheets are just not going to cut it - nor will in-class differentiation or a once-a-week pullout for that matter. These kids exist, there are probably far more of them than you realize, and if you think DCPS is meeting their needs, you are sorely mistaken. They need direction, focus and mentoring in order to develop, but there's only so much parents can do - most parents are not experts in pedagogy or all areas of subject matter, and even the student's advancement can rapidly overcome a parent, and parents don't always have the resources to be able to deal with it - if they did, they'd probably be homeschooling G&T kids or sending them to CTY and other programs. So they do the best they can - most of them pulled out of DCPS or avoided DCPS altogether knowing DCPS is unwilling to meet their needs and instead are pursuing charters and other options in the hope that while not perfect, it at least holds a greater hope of being able to provide a suitable environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gifted kid was challenged at Wilson. AP classes kept DC busy. Senior year DC was enrolled at Georgetown through HISCIP and took three classes, one fall semester, two in the spring. DC was able to transfer 12 credits from Georgetown freshman year of college.

This is great to know this is possible, thanks for posting! How often are students able to do this? Was your child an outlier?

HISCIP is a program available to all DCPS students. You apply junior year. Georgetown, GWU, Howard, Trinity, AU, Catholic, and UMD all participate. No, DC was not really an outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gifted kid was challenged at Wilson. AP classes kept DC busy. Senior year DC was enrolled at Georgetown through HISCIP and took three classes, one fall semester, two in the spring. DC was able to transfer 12 credits from Georgetown freshman year of college.

This is great to know this is possible, thanks for posting! How often are students able to do this? Was your child an outlier?

HISCIP is a program available to all DCPS students. You apply junior year. Georgetown, GWU, Howard, Trinity, AU, Catholic, and UMD all participate. No, DC was not really an outlier.

Thanks! Funny, I have read a fair bit of DCUM, at least recently, but had never heard of this program.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to find info about HISCIP. Individual schools usually have a link to the application/program. http://www.swwhs.org/students/hiscip/ Walls has more info on their website than Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I have a child in PK3 whose teachers are working with her a grade or two ahead on some things. What is the CTY program?

Is this a joke?

Another new poster, my PK4 kid is several grade levels ahead of his peers (reading at 3rd/4th grade level). It happens. And his teachers work with him on it. And, yes, PK3 and PK4 are GRADES in public schools in the district.

Thank you. Yes, this is a DC public schools forum and PK3 is a grade in DC public schools.

I love it. A 36-month-old can now be in a grade. With a curriculum.

And yes, I know that really is the case in dcps but I think it's stupid.

-- mom of talented 5th grader who was pooping his pants occasionally at age 3, squeezing play dough, building free-form towers and so on. It's so weird to me that a dc resident now has to PAY serious cash to get that kind of developmentally appropriate nursery school experience in a private preschool. "I want my kid to fingerpaint all day, so that means tuition!"

Your post is so myopic I don't even know where to begin.

Well, why don't you try anyway? And before you castigate the poster for not understanding that universal pk3 was implemented to boost the odds for poor District residents in lieu of HeadStart .....

keep in my that the pk3 is, in practice, used as free childcare by huge swaths of DC residents EOTP but west of the river, people who could afford preschool (because they used to pay for it, natch) and whose kids aren't the least bit disadvantaged.

It's a spillover bennie for a big-ass chunk of middle-class DC parents. Which is fine, but their kids don't require intensive academics and would be better served by a FULL DAY of creative play. So says child development research.

[Anonymous]

But, if when they are 5 years old, they are reading at a college level, going through one thick volume after another, and when they are 7 years old, can point you to a map and walk you through very complex and detailed things like the historical geopolitics of the Balkans from recent times, through the Cold War, to WWII and back to the Ottoman Empire - then you need to start paying attention.

If this is your kid, PP, then he (and I am certain it's a "he") is profoundly gifted and his IQ is likely northward of 165. This type of child appears in the population at a rate of about one child for every 100,000 children.

I disagree with your assertion that a child like this appears "more often than you think" -- even in the District of Columbia. While I have a certain amount of sympathy for you (it's your son, right?), I respectfully disagree that DCPS should be doing more on an ongoing, structured basis to prepare for the 1:100.000 children entering kindergarten and already reading The Divine Comedy. I mean, come on. Is that really a good use of resources? Even FFX doesn't have a program in place for this kid (it's ad hoc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gifted kid was challenged at Wilson. AP classes kept DC busy. Senior year DC was enrolled at Georgetown through HISCIP and took three classes, one fall semester, two in the spring. DC was able to transfer 12 credits from Georgetown freshman year of college.

This is great to know this is possible, thanks for posting! How often are students able to do this? Was your child an outlier?

HISCIP is a program available to all DCPS students. You apply junior year. Georgetown, GWU, Howard, Trinity, AU, Catholic, and UMD all participate. No, DC was not really an outlier.

Thanks for mentioning this program! This is good to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington DC has one of the highest concentrations of the bright and talented in the nation. Tons of analysts, researchers, and others come from all parts of the country and the world to work in Washington DC. The highest concentration of PhDs in the nation is right here in DC.

Accordingly, it stands to reason that many DC kids come from these brilliant parents are benefiting from growing up in households where academics and intelligence are highly valued.

Yet DC resists adoption of robust G&T programs, it resists magnets or test-in schools to support the clear need that exists, for one and only one reason: because it's political. It's because they fear it will skew white - a fear that is probably true, given how white students scored far above national averages per NAEP.

It's a fear, purely over optics - but it's ultimately a fear that ends up holding ALL students back, and it ends up holding DCPS itself back, as many of those bright and talented families who came to DC end up pulling out of DCPS or avoiding DCPS altogether to instead send their kids to privates, to charters, or moving to the burbs, and DCPS ends up cutting off its own nose to spite its face.

DCPS has a problem accepting reality.

The bright and talented kids are in the DCPS schools and they are NOT being held back.

Yes, they are. In 3rd, DS was told to stop reading ahead, for fear that he would become bored later. This was by both a teacher and a counselor.

DS is now at BASIS in 6th -- first time in his life that he has only been hold back a little bit.

There are quite a few stories like his.

What school? I have a very bright third grader at a JKLMM and I have not experienced this happening.

At JKLM. Some teachers are better than others at identifying kids with needs. Some assume that bored kids just have bad parents. DS fell into the latter category, and was not offered any pull-out services. Is one of the best behaving kids at BASIS, with a 99 avg last period, including Alg. 2 in 6th... He is finally being fed!

Younger DS is receiving a little extra attention, which is ok (considering it's 1st grade), but not quite satisfying. He asked about when they would begin discussing trochees in poetry, and was told to learn about it on his own time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But, if when they are 5 years old, they are reading at a college level, going through one thick volume after another, and when they are 7 years old, can point you to a map and walk you through very complex and detailed things like the historical geopolitics of the Balkans from recent times, through the Cold War, to WWII and back to the Ottoman Empire - then you need to start paying attention.

If this is your kid, PP, then he (and I am certain it's a "he") is profoundly gifted and his IQ is likely northward of 165. This type of child appears in the population at a rate of about one child for every 100,000 children.

I disagree with your assertion that a child like this appears "more often than you think" -- even in the District of Columbia. While I have a certain amount of sympathy for you (it's your son, right?), I respectfully disagree that DCPS should be doing more on an ongoing, structured basis to prepare for the 1:100.000 children entering kindergarten and already reading The Divine Comedy. I mean, come on. Is that really a good use of resources? Even FFX doesn't have a program in place for this kid (it's ad hoc).

I would rather pay to help this one child than pay for a bunch of new iPads for elementary kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My gifted kid was challenged at Wilson. AP classes kept DC busy. Senior year DC was enrolled at Georgetown through HISCIP and took three classes, one fall semester, two in the spring. DC was able to transfer 12 credits from Georgetown freshman year of college.

This is great to know this is possible, thanks for posting! How often are students able to do this? Was your child an outlier?

HISCIP is a program available to all DCPS students. You apply junior year. Georgetown, GWU, Howard, Trinity, AU, Catholic, and UMD all participate. No, DC was not really an outlier.

Thanks! Funny, I have read a fair bit of DCUM, at least recently, but had never heard of this program.

NP. It's been around since I was in HS back in the 80's. Most people on DCUm only like to talk about what DCPS does not have, and rarely mention anything positive. It is for that reason this may be the first time you've heard about the high school college internship program.

[Anonymous]

Thanks 17:31! Agree DC has lots to offer, it is just all so piecemeal.

[Anonymous]

Is HISCIP available to charter students?

[Anonymous]

check out the link above from the PP

[Anonymous]

I thought that Stoddert in Glover Park was providing pull-out programs for accelerated students.