APS: gifted identification

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can figure out the gifted percentages at each school from the APS budget proposal. There are school profiles in the back of that document. What really stands out is how inconsistent the percentages are, even across schools with similar parent demographics. For example, Discovery only has 17% tagged, while Nottingham is 21% and Tuckahoe is 23%. Another set of schools with comparable demographics are Ashlawn/Glebe/McKinley, where Ashlawn has 16% tagged, McKinley has 19% tagged, and Glebe has 25% tagged. (In fact, Glebe Elementary has consistently had the highest percentage of kids tagged of all the elementary schools for as long as I can remember.)

My sense from talking to parents at other schools is that some principals really keep down the number of kids tagged before the Cogat is given in 4th grade, while others are more generous about allowing self-referrals in K and 1st even before the NNAT is given in 2nd grade. As someone said above, once the Cogat is given in 4th grade, there ends up being a lot more kids tagged. I would not be surprised if some elementary schools have 50% of their 5th grade class tagged at GT in at least one subject, even if the overall school-wide percentages are only around 20%. There are a lot of smart kids who get missed for identification pre-Cogat because they just have more laid back personalities (or more laid back parents) and are therefore viewed as not needing more challenging work. I suspect this is why APS is moving to push the Cogat down to 3rd grade now. By the time the 4th graders take the Cogat and are formally identified, elementary school is almost over.

Here’s the most recent GSAC report I could (quickly) find with the data all in one place.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2016-17-GSAC-Recommending-Year-Report.pdf

Why Glebe would increase what was already a very high percentage of kids receiving gifted services at the time of this report is curious to me.

On a related note, I do get the sense that some parents of kids who weren’t identified after taking the NNAT prep them hard for the Cogat and generally push for identification if “missed” in that grade 2 window. The 5th grade identification numbers at some schools are insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does clusters work in APS?

My 1st grader just switched to a new teacher since school reopened, so the new teacher barely knows her. Since they are not screening 1st grade this year, shall we do the parent referral? If there aren't much benefit, then I'd rather not bother.

I have a feeling that clusters may be slightly different at each school. At ours, my “gifted cluster” class (not just the GT-identified kids) gets a special lesson with the gifted teacher in math and reading in alternating weeks.

[Anonymous]

Our son is in K in an APS school - I don't know anything about the G&T program in APS, but his teacher did send us special assignments for him to do. We didn't ask for it, but she sent it because she does not want him to get bored / wants him to stay engaged. So, not exactly what you're asking about but we have found it helpful to support his skills and interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle School is the worst of all the levels for GT support. Other than math APS has consistenly refused to offer intensified classes for English, Science or Social Studies so it's up to each teacher to scaffold the curriculum or not.

Don't bother with referral in K. PPs pointed out, if your child truly is potentially gifted the teacher will have seen that.

It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal. It means nothing in the long game anyways. Most of those kids had behavior problems and were disruptive. The “oh he acts out because he is so bored BS”. Ah, no.

I feel like these posts are written by total loonies. How would you know anything about who was "picked," and that the principal did picking and choosing, and what their parents were like and ..... ?????? I mean, maybe you would think this about one or two families, but out of a school of 600-700 kids, what do you really know?

That said, my older kid is really good at math, was identified by his teacher in K as being gifted in math, got pull-out/push-in throughout elementary, was on the Math Dice team, did CTY in the summers, etc. He is now bombing math in high school, so.......

And he is "good at math" the way his father and I were "good at math"--we got 750 and 790 on the SATs. But we aren't like my best friend, who was gifted in the sense of God gifted her with something that most people don't have. She came up with a new math theorem while we were in college that is now in the textbooks, and she got a job at NASA when she was a sophomore. Another friend of mine graduated from Duke in 2 1/2 years, when she was 19. One kid in my son's class did math problems at recess, lunch, and extended day and was teaching himself calculus in fifth grade--he is gifted. The rest of us are better at math than the average person. I get that "gifted" is the term the schools use, but its a little silly to get worked up over whether or not the teacher gives your kid some additional worksheets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle School is the worst of all the levels for GT support. Other than math APS has consistenly refused to offer intensified classes for English, Science or Social Studies so it's up to each teacher to scaffold the curriculum or not.

Don't bother with referral in K. PPs pointed out, if your child truly is potentially gifted the teacher will have seen that.

It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal. It means nothing in the long game anyways. Most of those kids had behavior problems and were disruptive. The “oh he acts out because he is so bored BS”. Ah, no.

I feel like these posts are written by total loonies. How would you know anything about who was "picked," and that the principal did picking and choosing, and what their parents were like and ..... ?????? I mean, maybe you would think this about one or two families, but out of a school of 600-700 kids, what do you really know?

That said, my older kid is really good at math, was identified by his teacher in K as being gifted in math, got pull-out/push-in throughout elementary, was on the Math Dice team, did CTY in the summers, etc. He is now bombing math in high school, so.......

And he is "good at math" the way his father and I were "good at math"--we got 750 and 790 on the SATs. But we aren't like my best friend, who was gifted in the sense of God gifted her with something that most people don't have. She came up with a new math theorem while we were in college that is now in the textbooks, and she got a job at NASA when she was a sophomore. Another friend of mine graduated from Duke in 2 1/2 years, when she was 19. One kid in my son's class did math problems at recess, lunch, and extended day and was teaching himself calculus in fifth grade--he is gifted. The rest of us are better at math than the average person. I get that "gifted" is the term the schools use, but its a little silly to get worked up over whether or not the teacher gives your kid some additional worksheets.

There is someone who says this kind of thing pretty much any time there’s an APS gifted services thread. It smacks of bitterness.

[Anonymous]

Gifted identification means absolutely nothing and doesn’t even accurately line up to future success in high school or college, much less life.

My son is on track to be valedictorian at his private HS this year (they only have 1) and he was not labeled until the last month in 8th grade in APS even though he was on his way out the door and he scored very high in all testing, CogaT, inventories, etc. and was a very well behaved kid in class. He was always a straight A student and never needed our help or a tutors help. I never even checked his assignments or even knew what they were by 5th grade. He was all self-sufficient and self-motivated. I had never been in Canvas or parentvue.

My husband scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs back in 1990 and was never gifted id. It’s a joke. He had all 5 on AP exams too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gifted identification means absolutely nothing and doesn’t even accurately line up to future success in high school or college, much less life.

My son is on track to be valedictorian at his private HS this year (they only have 1) and he was not labeled until the last month in 8th grade in APS even though he was on his way out the door and he scored very high in all testing, CogaT, inventories, etc. and was a very well behaved kid in class. He was always a straight A student and never needed our help or a tutors help. I never even checked his assignments or even knew what they were by 5th grade. He was all self-sufficient and self-motivated. I had never been in Canvas or parentvue.

My husband scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs back in 1990 and was never gifted id. It’s a joke. He had all 5 on AP exams too.

What it means in APS is that the school has to offer your kid extension work. For my 5th grade daughter’s class how this plays out is that certain kids (“extension group”) are expected/required to do additional and/or higher level work in all academic areas, most or all days. Projects are more detailed, assigned books are higher level, etc. General Ed kids can be offered some of these things as well, but it’s not required.

I don’t care if identification is otherwise meaningless. My daughter is extending herself on a regular basis, and that’s all I want out of Gifted Services. I’m not looking for some guarantee of future success- that would be ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle School is the worst of all the levels for GT support. Other than math APS has consistenly refused to offer intensified classes for English, Science or Social Studies so it's up to each teacher to scaffold the curriculum or not.

Don't bother with referral in K. PPs pointed out, if your child truly is potentially gifted the teacher will have seen that.

It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal. It means nothing in the long game anyways. Most of those kids had behavior problems and were disruptive. The “oh he acts out because he is so bored BS”. Ah, no.

I feel like these posts are written by total loonies. How would you know anything about who was "picked," and that the principal did picking and choosing, and what their parents were like and ..... ?????? I mean, maybe you would think this about one or two families, but out of a school of 600-700 kids, what do you really know?

That said, my older kid is really good at math, was identified by his teacher in K as being gifted in math, got pull-out/push-in throughout elementary, was on the Math Dice team, did CTY in the summers, etc. He is now bombing math in high school, so.......

And he is "good at math" the way his father and I were "good at math"--we got 750 and 790 on the SATs. But we aren't like my best friend, who was gifted in the sense of God gifted her with something that most people don't have. She came up with a new math theorem while we were in college that is now in the textbooks, and she got a job at NASA when she was a sophomore. Another friend of mine graduated from Duke in 2 1/2 years, when she was 19. One kid in my son's class did math problems at recess, lunch, and extended day and was teaching himself calculus in fifth grade--he is gifted. The rest of us are better at math than the average person. I get that "gifted" is the term the schools use, but its a little silly to get worked up over whether or not the teacher gives your kid some additional worksheets.

There is someone who says this kind of thing pretty much any time there’s an APS gifted services thread. It smacks of bitterness.

You don’t think “It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal” sounds a little unhinged?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle School is the worst of all the levels for GT support. Other than math APS has consistenly refused to offer intensified classes for English, Science or Social Studies so it's up to each teacher to scaffold the curriculum or not.

Don't bother with referral in K. PPs pointed out, if your child truly is potentially gifted the teacher will have seen that.

It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal. It means nothing in the long game anyways. Most of those kids had behavior problems and were disruptive. The “oh he acts out because he is so bored BS”. Ah, no.

I feel like these posts are written by total loonies. How would you know anything about who was "picked," and that the principal did picking and choosing, and what their parents were like and ..... ?????? I mean, maybe you would think this about one or two families, but out of a school of 600-700 kids, what do you really know?

That said, my older kid is really good at math, was identified by his teacher in K as being gifted in math, got pull-out/push-in throughout elementary, was on the Math Dice team, did CTY in the summers, etc. He is now bombing math in high school, so.......

And he is "good at math" the way his father and I were "good at math"--we got 750 and 790 on the SATs. But we aren't like my best friend, who was gifted in the sense of God gifted her with something that most people don't have. She came up with a new math theorem while we were in college that is now in the textbooks, and she got a job at NASA when she was a sophomore. Another friend of mine graduated from Duke in 2 1/2 years, when she was 19. One kid in my son's class did math problems at recess, lunch, and extended day and was teaching himself calculus in fifth grade--he is gifted. The rest of us are better at math than the average person. I get that "gifted" is the term the schools use, but its a little silly to get worked up over whether or not the teacher gives your kid some additional worksheets.

There is someone who says this kind of thing pretty much any time there’s an APS gifted services thread. It smacks of bitterness.

You don’t think “It was political at our elementary. Several teachers recommended my kid early—but those donating large sums of $ and constantly @ss-kissing weee picked my the Principal” sounds a little unhinged?

Yes. I was agreeing.

[Anonymous]

^her kids must have attended the same elementary school as mine. That all rings true. So did the clique of parents name-dropping the GT teacher’s name ad nauseam.