Reply to Any programs for gifted in Takoma Park or nearby area?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How old are your children?[/quote]

Currently in third and sixth grade.[/quote]

Too late for your 6th grader to get into the magnets, and your 3rd grader won't be considered for CES unless they are already in the system. So you are looking at the regular curriculum for both.[/quote]

The local school curriculum, you mean... Which includes compacted/accelerated math classes in grades 4-8, an enriched social studies class in 6-8, and some level of enriched literacy (through a cohorted class in some schools but not in others) in 4-5.  But yeah, as far as I know, you can't transfer into the CESs or middle school magnets late and your kids are just a bit too late. (But only a small number of randomly selected kids go to either of those-- the majority of gifted kids are at their home schools in ES and MS.)

Anyone know if there are any opportunities for non-magnet kids at TPMS to take any of the magnet classes?  Not sure.   [/quote]

Wait, so if you move into the area with documentation on gifted abilities etc, you can't join these cohorts anyway?

But, it's a lottery system so in any case, there is some type of acceleration available normally? That's still better than grades 4-6 here. Would my third grader be able to still go into the magnet middle school later? He is more in need of this, my 6th grader would probably benefit from accelerated literacy or bilingual education more, or just a cohort of kids who are advanced and enthusiastic readers and writers.
[/quote]

Yes, correct, you can't join the magnet programs late, regardless of how gifted you are (it's not really for the most gifted anyway, it's for a random sampling of the top 15%)-- only a fraction of qualified kids already here get into these programs in the first place, so they're definitely not guaranteeing spots to new transfer students.  I suppose there may be some way I don't know of that you could join the waitpool for vacancies if kids transfer out, but even if so, that would be joining a very large waitpool for a very low number of slots, so I would not base anything on that.

But yes, you are also correct that there is acceleration and enrichment available in all schools to some extent.  More straightforward in math-- people have differing opinions about how good the enriched literacy options in 4th-5th and the enriched social studies class in 6th-8th is, but they exist.  Also all teachers are theoretically supposed to be differentiating and providing enrichment to all students who need it during regular class time, but that is pretty hit or miss (mostly miss.)  And all elementary schools have a 30 minute per day FIT/WIN period that is supposed to be used to regroup kids for enrichment or intervention for kids who need it (it varies a lot from school to school, but this is only the first year of it so perhaps it will become more consistent and stronger in future years.)

And yes, if your current 3rd grader is enrolled in MCPS by fall of 5th grade they should be considered for the middle school magnets just like any other student.  (Unless something changes-- they are making changes to HS magnets and there has been some talk about assessing whether to make changes to MS magnets as well, but nothing is currently planned on that.)[/quote]

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