Is there such a thing as an advanced academic program in Arlington public schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the 805 poster above. The only differientation I’ve seen is advance math in Middle School.

I think they track in MS. My son is also "gifted" in all 4 core subjects + art. He has been in the same classes in MS multiple time with other kids who are also labeled gifted (they have a group that meets occasionally in middle school so he knows who they are). I don't think the school would ever admit it, but they are clustered in the same classes.

That is explicitly the approach -- to cluster gifted students together so they have a sufficient peer group and the classroom teacher can (in theory) differentiate for them.

[Anonymous]

This whole thread just proves how “giftedness” has been watered down. You can’t be “gifted in science.” You are either gifted or you are not. Being really good at certain subjects is not the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread just proves how “giftedness” has been watered down. You can’t be “gifted in science.” You are either gifted or you are not. Being really good at certain subjects is not the same thing.

I agree that the science/social studies distinction is silly but it does seem appropriate to ID more broadly for verbal vs. mathematical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread just proves how “giftedness” has been watered down. You can’t be “gifted in science.” You are either gifted or you are not. Being really good at certain subjects is not the same thing.

I don't know about this. I'm pretty average in most respects, but when it comes to DCUM snark, I think I'm gifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the 805 poster above. The only differientation I’ve seen is advance math in Middle School.

I think they track in MS. My son is also "gifted" in all 4 core subjects + art. He has been in the same classes in MS multiple time with other kids who are also labeled gifted (they have a group that meets occasionally in middle school so he knows who they are). I don't think the school would ever admit it, but they are clustered in the same classes.

They definitely track in APS middle school. My daughter was identified in the 4 core subjects, and both in 6th grade and 7th grade, they've shuffled her schedule around after school started so that they could have a core contingent of gifted kids in the class. (not sure why they can't figure that out ahead of time, but whatever....) It makes it easier to provide them with differentiated work when there are 4 or 5 who become one group when need be. She knows, more or less, who is labelled gifted in her grade.

When DD was in 5th grade, I remember her doing more in-depth scientific experiments for science. In Social Studies, it's been a little less clear, but I think they've done some further enrichment in terms of just digging deeper into the material. Obviously math and reading are easy to figure out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread just proves how “giftedness” has been watered down. You can’t be “gifted in science.” You are either gifted or you are not. Being really good at certain subjects is not the same thing.

For the purposes of delivering services in school, this is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread just proves how “giftedness” has been watered down. You can’t be “gifted in science.” You are either gifted or you are not. Being really good at certain subjects is not the same thing.

I don't know about this. I'm pretty average in most respects, but when it comes to DCUM snark, I think I'm gifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is "fully identified". That means the 4 core subjects. The only differentiation I've ever been able to notice is Math b/c they started separating the classes at an early age. I don't actually believe my student was doing anything different from her BFF in the other classes (BFF is not identified). It's a sham.

Maybe at your school, but I have met with our school’s gifted resources teacher and have had the opportunity to inspect the materials that are used at our school. I didn’t have that opportunity before my son moved on from elementary, so I had no idea what he was doing that was different aside from groupings and eventually math placement. I wanted to know more once my younger was identified, so I actively chased down answers with the gifted resources teacher.

I still don’t have a window into the classroom itself, but now when my daughter brings completed work home I can frequently identify assignments that came from the library of gifted materials that I myself examined. Those materials are designed to not look that different from the general ed materials, and include the same topics, so if you don’t know what to look for you’ll probably not know the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD was identified as gifted in Math, English, and Art in APS. I have never witnessed any AAP or differentiated instruction in Elem or Middle School even though they say they do it. I have not seen it! Same instruction as the everyone else.

Most kids in Arlington carry some form of gifted designation and the "general" classes are typically more accelerated. There's no real need for differentiation.

We saw the evidence of this when we moved to another system -- our kids were WAY ahead of their peers, which was directly related to Arlington.

Arlington in general doesn't fuss with the AAP silliness and the labeling. Most parents see that it's pretty silly.

Breezy-smug Arlington posts are my favorite DCUM posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD was identified as gifted in Math, English, and Art in APS. I have never witnessed any AAP or differentiated instruction in Elem or Middle School even though they say they do it. I have not seen it! Same instruction as the everyone else.

Most kids in Arlington carry some form of gifted designation and the "general" classes are typically more accelerated. There's no real need for differentiation.

We saw the evidence of this when we moved to another system -- our kids were WAY ahead of their peers, which was directly related to Arlington.

Arlington in general doesn't fuss with the AAP silliness and the labeling. Most parents see that it's pretty silly.

Breezy-smug Arlington posts are my favorite DCUM posts.

Except they show their asses when it comes to redrawing school boundaries! Arlington parents are the most entertaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]It can be hard to know how services are delivered unless you attend an info session and the gifted services teacher gives a thorough presentation.[/b] I have been through three of these presentations at two elementary schools and one middle. Only one of them gave a good, thorough insight into how services are delivered, including many samples of materials given to the kids- both “general population” and gifted services materials.

One of the objectives of gifted services in APS is that the differentiations are not made obvious to the kids. It can therefore be doubly difficult for parents to see the differentiation that is happening on a daily basis. The kids don’t know, generally, that the work that they are given in their groups/workshops are any different than the work given to other groups because they are usually on the same topic, just much more in-depth.

Yeah, that's not true. Kids know.

Even then, never figured it out. My bet is that my kid got no services.