Reply to APS Gifted Referral Form

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It really doesn’t matter. The “gifted services”  at APS are lip service. At Williamsburg, my kid’s teacher didn’t even know they were identified as gifted at parent teacher conferences when I asked about differentiation. It’s just in place to make striver Arlington parents feel better. I believe APS is mostly able meet the needs of children who are gifted in Math, but English is a joke.
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At least in elementary, math isn’t differentiated in any meaningful way, either. It’s a complete farce. The English curriculum actually looks like it could differentiate if someone attempted to do it.

I had no idea how terrible APS was for gifted education and I am so sad at our experience. [/quote]

+1 It is bad.  Early on, we were told to sit tight and wait for 3rd grade.  We never saw any differentiation at all in elementary.  They need to stop pretending there’s a “program.”[/quote]
They don’t. It’s gifted services [/quote]

Okay, fine.  Poor usage of program on my part.  If someone could point me toward these gifted services?

I realize each school varies in approach, but it’s ridiculous to pretend that any real service is being provided by the quarterly whole class visits by the RTG.  And that was the extent of gifted services at our APS elementary.

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I'm sure it depends on your school.  As an example of services, my upper elementary student takes a math pretest for each unit.  If she gets the problems correct, she can skip the classroom work and do an extension math project with a small group, which typically ends up being the gifted cluster in her classroom.  These projects don't introduce new material to move a student ahead, but are structured to make students think more deeply.  Occasionally the GTR works with with group directly, but often they just use materials that she provides.

APS allows non-tagged kids to join this small group if they pass the pretest, but as a practical matter it usually ends up mostly being the kids already tagged and in the cluster.[/quote]
Are these projects that make students think more deeply actually beneficial?  Do you feel they are advancing your child's knowledge and understanding? Or are they just using concepts they know in a different way with unclear additional benefit?[/quote]

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