Reply to adult:student ratio in MCPS middle school classrooms

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[quote=Anonymous]
RedTailHawk,

From what I understand, you have it right. And we thought this would not be sufficient for our 2E son, because all the paras/resources would be spent helping students other than our son, and he would additionally face the difficulty he had always faced before, namely a deep incomprehension that a child can be both gifted and learning disabled.

During my son's 5th grade year, we strategized to have him placed in the nearest GT/LD program, which turned out to be in a middle school not further away than his cluster middle school.

In 5th grade, we had him evaluated at Stixrud's at the beginning of the school year (made the appointment in the summer). Paid for a full neuropsych eval to get a current, in-depth and reputable report. Got the diagnoses and written report soon after and then called an IEP meeting for them to formally acknowledge the new information.

I met and spoke on the phone with the founder of GT/LD services in MCPS, who until recently was in place as overall coordinator for all GT/LD stuff, Marisa Stemple. She has since gone on to other things, unfortunately so, because she was wonderful. I don't know who her replacement is, but you could search in the labyrinth that is the MCPS website. She encouraged me to visit the GT/LD program, and explained that she had trained the teachers there to be sensitive to the needs of both gifted and learning disabled kids. That there would be two teachers in the classroom for every core subject (I have not been able to verify this with my child!). That the resource class was specifically for the GT/LD kids. That this group of kids would move up as a cohort through the school, and there would be other advanced students in their classes, unless they took non-advanced classes (my son takes regular math for now - he has a lot to catch up on that topic).

Then we visited the cluster middle school, asked for an interview with the SN coordinator there. We also visited the GT/LD middle school, sat in on a couple of classes, asked for an interview with that coordinator. My son visited both as well. I spoke with several parents on the MCPS GT/LD yahoo group who had either chosen to place their children in the GT/LD program or in their regular school. Basically we researched the heck out of this thing. We had been lax and passive before, and really didn't want to mess this up.

Then when our mind was made up, I approached my son's 5th grade SN case manager with some trepidation, and broached the subject, since the decision to enroll a child in such a program is an IEP team decision - which means they decide, not you. I had all the data at my disposal: his IQ scores, his diagnoses, his written work and over-the-top MAP scores, etc. She said she would back me up. 
Finally we had the transition meeting just before the end of the school year. I was worried there would be a last minute block by the teacher, who didn't seem particularly convinced, but since everyone else was, we won the day. Phew.

I can honestly say that as of right now we're very happy. I'm not completely sure there are two fully-trained teacher in every core subject classroom (when we visited there was). But the resource class is amazing, he gets most of his homework done there. It takes the place of an elective, just so you know. And what I value most is that his teachers seem very attentive and responsive to his needs - which is just what we seemed to lack before. They have complimented him and seem to appreciate him. He in turn has gained in responsibility and maturity.

I hope this helps.
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