Reply to APS: Jamestown, Discovery, Nottingham& McKinley

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How are gifted services handled at ATS? I remember reading when we looked into it that ATS specifically avoided grouping classes based on academic performance, which seems like it would make the push-in model for gifted services less efficient and more challenging.[/quote]

This is the standard model for most APS elementary schools.  They cluster groups of kids of similar ability across multiple classrooms.  Any given class might have a few GT kids, a few kids with learning challenges, and so on.[/quote]

Our neighborhood school doesn't strictly group according to academic performance, but from third grade onward it trends that way. They create clusters for each GS subject to make sure kids have academic peers, which tends to result in one or two classes being GS-heavy (due to kids who are identified in multiple subjects). One class is assigned a SpEd assistant teacher, and the kids with IEPs who would benefit from an additional teacher in the classroom are grouped there, as are kids who are struggling a bit more academically and would benefit from extra attention (the SpEd assistant doesn't only work with the kids receiving SpEd, she works with everyone). If ATS doesn't do this kind of performance-based grouping at all (which is what I was told four years ago), how do they ensure that kids will have academic peers in their classes? My child also gets some pull-out time (despite the push-in model) with the GS teacher each day for core academic subjects, but at the time I was also told ATS philosophy is to have those subjects all taught in the classroom by the class teacher and not do pull-outs. Has that changed?[/quote]

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