Reply to Do Montgomery County HGC and magnet programs ever "counsel out" students who are struggling?

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[quote=SAM2]Many thanks for the various thoughtful comments from yesterday afternoon.  I appreciate it.

I noted a seeming inconsistency between (1) allegedly imperfect tests, and (2) seemingly no underqualified children in gifted/magnet programs.  It seems what several people are responding is that there actually is no inconsistency because the combination of admissions requirements for gifted programs (standardized test + teacher evaluations + grades + parent statement) ensures that no underqualified students are admitted.  I'm summarizing, so certainly some nuance is lost, but isn't that essentially what people are saying?

If so, that makes some sense to me.  Certainly a combination of admissions factors (test + teacher rec + grades + parent statement) should be more accurate than just the raw test score.  But I'm still a little curious that the process seemingly [i]never[/i] misfires.  Yes, I know some people noted that some few children leave because of issues like organization issues and personal tragedy, but no one identifies students who "overperform" on admissions, and then lag on later academics.  [i]Does it make logical sense that the selection process is essentially flawless?[/i]  When I read academic literature on identification of gifted and talented youth, many researchers struggle with finding ways to accurately identify them.  But if the simple step of including teacher evaluations and grades in the mix leads to near-perfect accuracy, then why would they struggle so much?  Thinking statistically, even if the selection process is very good, wouldn't we all [i]expect[/i] about 10-20% of the students to struggle?  Wouldn't it be odd if nearly all of them are earning only As and Bs?

I appreciate your comments.  Also, just to be crystal clear: I am not criticizing the gifted/magnet programs or anyone's children; I am not making some subtle comment about public versus private education; I am not trying to comment on whether gifted children should be accelerated; I am not trying to debate the "plasticity of IQ"!  I'm simply trying to understand what's behind an odd inconsistency.  TIA.[/quote]

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