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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP here.

I wonder if anyone on here knows how the final decision on acceptance is being made. Last year, 3 kids I know from DC's school applied to HGC, one got in, one was put on the waiting list and never received the offer, the third one was denied. Obviously, I don't know their test scores, or their regular grades, but the one that did get accepted does fit a description one of the PPs provided - a quiet, studious girl, while the rejects were rowdy boys. If anything, I thought one of the boys would definitely get in, but it wasn't the case.

Say, if all three kids score similarly well on the test, and their reports cards are comparable (Ps and ESs), how does the county decide on admission?[/quote]
When my DC went to HGC, all five kids who were accepted were boys, and not all the "quiet" ones.  Some years, it's boy heavy; others, it's girl heavy.[/quote]

I don't know how the final decisions get made for each incoming 4th grade class, but the year that my kid was in 4th grade at her HGC, out of the ~28 kids in the class, 20 were boys, many of them (not all) quite rowdy and loud, and 8 girls. If the admissions committee had been actively selecting for gender balance we would not have gotten the hugely imbalanced classroom that we did.

Somewhat off topic -- it was actually a huge classroom management problem and the teacher had to implement a daily reporting system (Class Dojo?) because so many of the boys were loud and disruptive. Something I observed first-hand as a class parent and a field trip chaperone multiple times. Rather than having gender mixed tables the teacher ended up having to put all the girls at one table so they could concentrate and get their work done. The next year, I saw in my dd's 5th grade class when I went in for open house that the rowdy boys tended to shout answers out and drown out the other kids -- and I didn't think the teacher did a good job of making sure all students (boys and girls alike) had equal opportunities to be heard. It was concerning enough that I spoke to the school counselor about it.

Don't get me wrong, I have a gifted ADHD boy as well, and a nephew who is the same but even more so -- so I get that rowdy boys' needs need to be met as well as quiet girls' needs, whether that's in a home school classroom or an HGC classroom. But whether you have a rowdy boy, a quiet girl, or some other combination, I think it's incumbent on the teachers and administration to make sure that *all* the kids are treated fairly. I also think it's incumbent on parents to learn about the classroom dynamics and emphasize to their rowdy kids that they need to be considerate of others and to their quiet kids that they need to speak up.[/quote]
Was this Barnsely, by chance, 2014?  My DS was there that year, and it was very boy heavy. His class had about 7 or 8 girls.  And yes, it got rowdy.  [/quote]

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