Reply to S/O - Potential defector from ACPS to APS, how does the gifted program work?

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Reply to "S/O - Potential defector from ACPS to APS, how does the gifted program work?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This poster is correct on the statistics, both on the % referred and the % referred identified as gifted. It makes sense to see a high % of referred children identified, since the vast majority of referrals come either from standardized testing designed to identify giftedness or from teachers who have experience identifying and working with gifted students.

I'm not sure where you're coming from, though, with the claim that by middle school there are little to no gifted services targeted at identified students. I only skimmed the data for middle school, I will admit, but for math, it shows 91% of students identified as gifted in math being in an advanced math class. 83% of students identified as advanced English are in a class with a gifted cluster or an advanced class (which is intended to give the teacher the ability to introduce more advanced material). The stats are lower for science and social studies (22% and 21%, respectively), but then by high school those numbers jump substantially (78% and 87%, respectively). That they aren't in classes with a gifted cluster in those subjects does not mean, though, that those kids aren't being given supplementation or extra challenges in those subjects. It also may reflect certain realities of those groups, such as that substantially fewer children are identified as gifted in those areas as compared to English and math going into middle school, so it may be harder to create advanced and cluster classes for those subjects. By high school, which has a much larger student population, you're more likely to have the critical mass you need to create those advanced classes.[/quote]

PP here.  I pulled that from the report in which teachers and parents report that little to no gifted-specific services are being provided.  Children may be in advanced classes, which may alleviate the issues, but the report indicates that there doesn't seem to be specific push of services to GT identified kids.  My child is in elementary, so I have no personal or anecdotal experiences to offer on this.
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I think that you need to take the parent feedback with a huge grain of salt. I mean, 85% of parents of high school students identified as gifted believe that their children are getting no services as a result of being identified as gifted, despite all of the available AP/IB classes? 60% of parents of middle school students identified as gifted believe their children are getting no services, despite that fact that almost all of them are in at least one advanced class? I think a lot of parents look at the elementary model, where their children were getting a lot more pull-out and individualized attention (which is necessary because there's less clustering), and expect that continue in later years despite the fact that their children are being more tightly grouped with other gifted children for their core classes, and thus teachers can teach the whole group at a more advanced level rather than needing to supplement one-on-one. That the services look different doesn't mean they're not happening.[/quote]

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