Reply to Meeting on future of TAG program

Forum Index » MD Public Schools other than MCPS

Reply to "Meeting on future of TAG program"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]From the Gazette:
 
Prince George’s school system may expand Talented and Gifted seating

More than 300 students are currently on wait lists

More students may be able to enroll in Talented and Gifted programs, reducing the hundreds currently on wait lists, Prince George’s County school system officials announced Tuesday night.

“There are some proposals to increase the number of seats at the middle schools, and the elementary schools as well,” said TAG supervisor Theresa Jackson, who added the plans would expand existing TAG sites, not create new ones.

There are currently four middle school TAG programs and seven elementary school programs.

More than 250 parents, students and others attended the meeting for both TAG and TAG-eligible parents at Kenmoor Middle School in Landover, said Crystal Lewis, PGTAG board publicist.

Students are tested for the TAG program in first and third grade. Those who score above the 80th percentile and meet other criteria, including grades, cognitive ability, and a checklist of gifted characteristics and behaviors, are identified as TAG, Jackson said.

More than 12,000 students in the school system, approximately 11 to 12 percent, are TAG identified, Jackson said. TAG-eligible students are entered into a lottery for seats in the nearest of seven TAG schools.

If a TAG center is also a neighborhood school, the student may attend automatically, Jackson said.

Jackson said there are 354 students on the wait list for TAG centers this year.

Monique Davis, deputy superintendent of schools, told the audience that funding has to be approved to expand the program.

School system CEO Kevin Maxwell will present his budget proposal to the school board Dec. 12.

The school system budgeted $2.3 million for TAG for the current fiscal year, and Maxwell, who was not present at the meeting because of an illness, has said previously that expanding existing programs and reducing wait lists was one of his goals.

Schools that are not TAG centers often have other services for TAG-identified students, including an elementary school pull-out program, where TAG-identified students are taken out of their regular classes for programs focusing on advanced research, communication and critical thinking skills.

Berniece Reese of Forestville said her son, a fourth-grader at Francis Scott Key Elementary School in District Heights, missed critical lessons when he was pulled out of his regular class for TAG lessons last year.

“They scheduled it during his core classes, so he was being pulled out of science, he missed the experiences, the lessons, and he had to play catch up during the week,” Reese said.

Jackson said teachers should be arranging their schedules so that critical lessons are not missed.

“Students should not be being penalized for being pulled out for TAG,” Jackson said, adding that in such cases, the parent should speak with the school TAG coordinator and the teacher.

Blair Todd of Upper Marlboro, parent of a TAG identified second-grader at Longfields Elementary in Forestville, asked how the adoption of Common Core standards, a set of nationally-developed school standards being implemented this year, would impact the county’s TAG program.

“My concern is that now that Common Core standards are here, we’re going to throw away all the good we’ve been doing with our TAG program,” Todd said.

Jackson said the Common Core standards will not affect the integrity of the TAG program.

“For us in gifted education, that’s the floor, not the ceiling,” Jackson said. “Always, gifted education has gone above the Maryland standards, and now the national standards.”[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics