Reply to s/o Gifted classes in DC schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There hsa not been a lot of actually verified information being bantered around on here. DCPS has purposely not chosen to have a test-in gifted and talented pull out program as many of its surrounding jurisdictions to. It is not accidental. There is a major disparity among the races regarding who is selected by the criteria used by most jurisdictions so that white and Asians are by far overrepresented compared to the average. Nonetheless, DCPS does believe strongly in providing real differentiation in the form of resources and opportunities for advanced learners in elementary, middle, and high school. At some levels this looks like curricular units that are above grade level and designed to be used in small group settings. In other grades it looks like special pull-out programs, and in others we're talking about Advanced Placement which while it is open to all, is especially good for precocious learners. [/quote]

Yes, this. The point here is that it is possible for advanced kids (kids who in our day would have tested into gifted and talented programs but weren't profoundly gifted in the calculus-at-age-8 sense of the word) to do very well in DCPS without a designated "gifted" program. A combination of differentiation, pull-out, and AP (in the HS years)--done well--will challenge these kids. The issue is that it isn't done well across the system, in part because many schools have many, many kids who aren't operating at grade level. That's a major problem.

But if your kid is at a JKLM school and you're sweating this, one (or more) of the following things is true:

1. Your kid is profoundly gifted and in need of a type of attention and acceleration that he/she won't get in pretty much any public school, with the possible exception of a TJ-type magnet.
2. Your kid isn't actually at the school yet and you're pre-worrying about a problem that likely won't materialize.
3. Your kid is smart but not disciplined or self-directed and thus needs the hand-holding you can pay for at private school or the immersive, aggressive rigor of a BASIS to remain focused and successful. (I think this one is more common than many think/admit.)
4. You have lots of friends in MoCo and Ffx whose kids have been placed in "gifted" programs and fear that your child isn't getting a similar quality education if he/she hasn't been labeled.

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