APS: gifted identification
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Anonymous
| I'm the mom of a kindergartner who I think may be gifted in math. I saw the email the other week from APS about self-referring kids in - what does the self-referral process look like? Would he get testing to see if my hunch is correct? And what, if he is identified as gifted, additional supports would he get? |
Anonymous
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Parent of 2 APS kids here, both identified as gifted.
In K, don't do this. Honestly. Nothing would happen for 1st grade. They will test all kids in 1st and/or the classroom teacher will refer your kid. I would say the additional supports in ES are zero, at least as far as I can tell. They have "resource teachers for the gifted" who seem to have sometimes worked with small groups, and at other times they just maybe provided the classroom teachers with stuff? And any of that had stopped pre-COVID so now, I don't know. In MS, they can do more advanced classes (like your kid could take pre-Algebra as a 6th grader) but this does not seem to require any special designation. I would email your principal if you want something more concrete. |
Anonymous
| I haven’t ever understood the need for the parent referral letters in APS. If your kid doesn’t meet the scores on the test they won’t get in.. if they do score high they give you an application to fill out anyhow. My kid was off the charts in math but not on the other parts so they didn’t let kid in the full program but they did give additional extension activities in math. |
Anonymous
| I hate that parents can refer their kids. |
Anonymous
Lol. No, not at K. Don’t be “that” parent. |
Anonymous
| My son's in HS now, clearly gifted in math and that was evident in K. There was no particular "gifted identification" process in K but the teacher did see that he was working well above the K level so she had him start doing pull-outs for math very quickly so he could do more challenging work. Regardless of formal identification they should be differentiating instruction to meet where he's at. |
Anonymous
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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. |
Anonymous
That was our experience as well. |
Anonymous
Me too. And as early as kindergarten. Tracking that early is dumb. Also- APS fills spots young so when the truly gifted emerge late in elementary- spots are already filled with those that lobbied. Our kid tests in the top 1% and we got the notice he was gifted in everything at end of 8th. Yeah, no sh@t. His Cogats, 600 SOLs, Nnats, etc all showed this. He’s now thriving and currently in #1 in his class at a top private HS. |
Anonymous
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. |
Anonymous
This is exactly how it is in my elementary school as well. My fifth grade daughter has been given extension activities since for math since first grade, and they do differentiate starting in fourth for most schools. Being designated gifted doesn't do anything as far as I can tell -- my daughter is not identified (though she was supposed to be formally identified last year but then covid halted the process) and it hasn't affected her math classes, all the other kids in her class are the same every year for math, and roughly 3/4th of them are designated gifted. My third grade son is identified as gifted, and he has had roughly the same experience with her. According to my daughter's teacher, they don't use gifted differentiation beyond elementary school for determining math placement -- its more based on how you did the previous year and what your math inventory score is. So I am not sure it would be worth going through the process in K. |
Anonymous
OMG-- YES! I thought this was just happening in our North Arlington ES. So many parents "self-referred" in K and 1st, before the NNAT is even offered. Their kids got spots and other kids then did not, even when scoring high enough on the NNAT in 2nd to be formally referred for services in 3rd grade. I've got one kid tagged in all four subjects, and the other kid tagged in nothing, and I can tell you as their parent that there is not a lot of difference in their raw intelligence. I think there are secret quotas at play here, and a higher # of parents who self-referred in K and 1 in my non-tagged child's class. I'm glad they are moving the NNAT down to 1st grade post-pandemic, because maybe that will stop the self-referral madness. |
Anonymous
I wonder if this is at our ES where there are 50-60%+ (not kidding) kids identified as gifted. |
Anonymous
giggle |
Anonymous
I had no idea that there was a limit to kids being identified. Mine was ID'd early (not parent referral) and the form is ridiculous for kids that young (no idea if the form is different for school vs parent initiated). I don't know how a parent could answer most of the questions as a self-referral in K without thinking it's a bit ridiculous. There is literally a question about what your child's intellectual hobbies are. |