Testing for gifted services in Arlington

[Anonymous]

My DD is labeled as gifted in language arts. They say they do enrichment activities which may be true and they group math with the gifted teacher but the gifted program seems pretty minimal to me. Her 6th grade teacher didn’t even know her designation till I brought it up at conferences asking about enrichment activities. That said, I’ve never attended the meetings that they have for the gifted program so I may be missing something. Fairfax County has a true gifted program. I don’t know the ins and outs of it tho.

[Anonymous]

That’s strange. If she’s gifted LA then the middle school English teacher should be aware and she should be clustered in English with other gifted LA students. That’s how it has been for my APS middle school student all 3 years. Teachers have all been aware (not that I’ve brought it up). They’ve either mentioned it to me in conferences or to my kid in the context of explaining why her group has harder work. My child complains that she gets harder work but graded on the same standard so that someone with easier work still gets an A. I tell her to suck it up. ?

[Anonymous]

My child was identified for years and I didn’t see any differentiation until seventh grade.

[Anonymous]

My kid was identified as gifted in K. He started enrichment in 1st, but it has taken off in 2nd. He gets twice weekly pull outs. He has a separate folder with projects he has been working on (which seem like a lot of logic games/critical thinking type things). He gets enrichment math problems to take home (typically word problems that require a bit more thinking than his regular math that is just equations).

His teacher also has him as a special class helper for other kids in the class (so he helps kids work through problems if they are struggling).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was identified as gifted in K. He started enrichment in 1st, but it has taken off in 2nd. He gets twice weekly pull outs. He has a separate folder with projects he has been working on (which seem like a lot of logic games/critical thinking type things). He gets enrichment math problems to take home (typically word problems that require a bit more thinking than his regular math that is just equations).

His teacher also has him as a special class helper for other kids in the class (so he helps kids work through problems if they are struggling).

What’s a pull out? I thought Arlington didn’t do that.

[Anonymous]

They totally over identify kids in APS. In FCPS the testing score is higher. Some schools have way over 30% identified.

If your kid is happy, reads well and exploring their own interests with some guidance then you are fine.

Do not get caught up in the race to nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was identified as gifted in K. He started enrichment in 1st, but it has taken off in 2nd. He gets twice weekly pull outs. He has a separate folder with projects he has been working on (which seem like a lot of logic games/critical thinking type things). He gets enrichment math problems to take home (typically word problems that require a bit more thinking than his regular math that is just equations).

His teacher also has him as a special class helper for other kids in the class (so he helps kids work through problems if they are struggling).

What’s a pull out? I thought Arlington didn’t do that.

They do it schools where there isn’t a cohort in each class. So, if there’s only one kid identified in a given class, they might pull that child and the two other students at that grade level to work together. That’s how it was for my kid, identified by a teacher before testing id’d additional kids and then they were placed in a cluster within a classroom for push-in services the following year.

[Anonymous]

My kids are both in the APS gifted program along with 30% of their classmates.
They seem to base it off the NNAT tests in second grade and teacher reccos (Cogat and grades in 4th) . We got a letter from the school asking to submit an application, we did and both kids got in. Both tests are in Nov/ Dec from memory.

My second grader is given more challenging math and writing material but is not in a formal pull out

The 5th grader is part of a formal group for reading, essay writing. We get some extra emails and challenges for science. Math she is doing with the class.

Overall its pretty low key which i like.

Once you get a gifted designation it continues into middle school although not sure what it actually means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did APS already do this?

I had also heard they were doing it in February but our school must have already done it because we got the referral/acknowledgment paperwork yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Happened in September at our school last year. Maybe you missed it?

[Anonymous]

wow. tiger mom city

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow. tiger mom city

No, that’s the AAP forum that you’re thinking of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happened in September at our school last year. Maybe you missed it?

Our school told us they have historically done it in the fall but will be doing it in the spring this year.

[Anonymous]

I heard they moved the school-wide testing to spring so they could spend the fall/winter identifying kids who most need services starting in the current year (based on teacher referrals), and then in the spring will focus on testing the broader pool of students who will qualify for services starting in the following year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow. tiger mom city

Doesn’t really apply to Arlington.