Reply to Principal and home teacher's affect on GT admission

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]On another thread a poster wrote that their principal is very involved in the GT selection process and home teacher recommendations have a strong impact assuming the child scores high on the tests. Our principal tells people that she has nothing to do with the process and that the teachers do not even write recommendations. Her report was that it is only outside testers and she's glad she isn't part of the process.

She has a reputation for lying on other matters. There are rumors that she makes a big push to keep kids at the home school and not the GT program under the argument that there are enough high scorers to give them a peer group at the home ES. The rumor is that she wants to keep them to keep the high scores. Our ES scores at the top in the county and many kids at the top. Strangely, only 1 child was admitted to HGC this year and possibly 2 the year before.

[b]We're trying to decide whether to wait it out and try for GT or just start applying for private schools for 3rd grade and forget about GT as an option[/b]. GT is hard enough to get into even for top scoring kids but if the principal obstructs admissions from our school the chances would be even lower. [/quote]

OP - you should probably do both - apply to private and HGC.  HGC competition is high.  The privates you would probably be considering with a GT kid will also have very high competition.  Not to mention, the application processes have a parallel timeline, so you can't "wait and see" how the HGC pans out before applying to private (unless you are willing to wait it out another year and apply for private at 5th grade instead of for 4th).

FYI - If you do end up applying for both, you will hear from the private schools before the HGC and most likely will need sign a contract and put down a non-refundable deposit to hold your spot while you wait to hear from the HGC.  Most privates will let you step away from the financial contract if you do so by early June (but they will keep the deposit) June is plenty of time for HGC acceptance letters but not if your child is waitlisted. In that case you are really out of luck because via the financial contract you sign with privates generally say you are 100% financially obligated by early August.  WL movement is rare - but there seems to be some movement the week before MCPS starts - after you are already fully obligated to pay the private tuition.[/quote]

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