Dumb Question-but must ask!

[Anonymous]

IS there a difference btw a magnet and a GT program? Or is it one and the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IS there a difference btw a magnet and a GT program? Or is it one and the same?

Not the same in MC. The former is considered more selective than the later.

[Anonymous]

depends on the school district.

"Magnet" doesn't usually mean "GT". It can be any kind of desireable program -- a language immersion magnet, a "Traditinal Latin" magnet, etc. -- that attracts people to the school. Historically magnet programs were offered in school districts in schools in areas that otherwsie many people tried to avoid (for whatever reason) and the magnet programs were put there to entice people to come back to that area.

A "Gifted and Talented" program can be run in many different ways. Some schools offer them as pull-out programs right in the child's neighborhood school -- with an itinerant teacher who comes to the school on, say, Thursdays, and pulls the GT kids out for some enrichment activities. Some districts have dedicated classrooms full of only kids identified as GT and some school districts have full schools where all the kids are identified as GT. That school might be called a magnet school, I suppose.

[Anonymous]

In Montgomery County, a magnet is a separate program within a school. If your kid gets into the magnet (via a test) they leave their home school and go to the magnet school. Whereas G&T is usually done within the home school (or even within language immersion programs, but the kids stay in the same immersion school).

[Anonymous]

In MoCo, there are also programs for the highly gifted for 4th and 5th grade--most of the children would have to leave their home school in order to attend. They are highly competitive:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/highly_gifted_centers.shtm

[Anonymous]

Had the same question. Is the G&T programs harder to get into than the magnet program in Mont County. I know in NOVA, G&T are very competitive.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if "competitive" is the right word for gt in Ffx county as every student in second grade is tested to see if they will be put into a pool of prospective gt school students. The children from the pool are then selected (some would say randomly) and are invited to attend a gt school the next year. You may send along artwork, written work etc to the gt screening after your child's test scores has placed him or her in the pool of prospective students- but it really isn't necessary.