Reply to cutoff scores for Fairfax County GT centers for this year?

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "cutoff scores for Fairfax County GT centers for this year?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Hi, it's 15:50 again.

I just wanted to add another thought to my earlier post about disparities in test scores.  You have to bear in mind that the GT screening is not like a college or private school application process.  They are not looking for the most well-rounded candidates, and they are not looking to fill a specific number of slots with the best kids they can find.  They are looking for kids who display giftedness in any of a variety of ways (one of which is test scores).  Every child is evaluated individually and if eligible, they can attend the Center.  Another kid with better test scores is not bumping your kid out of the Center.  The number of 3rd grade classes and class size is adjusted later after the acceptances come back; in our Center, sometimes there are three GT classes in a particular grade, and other years there are four.  It depends on how many children are found eligible and choose to attend.

I think we tend to approach it from the perspective of "my child is competing with these other kids for a spot" (I sometimes fall into this mindset too because, really, this is how life works in general) but that is not how this screening process works.  A child with a 150 on one section and 120s on the other sections is not "less eligible" for the Center than a child with a 150 and a bunch of 140s.  The 150 indicates giftedness that warrants placement in the Center.  That is why they use 2 different tests and will put a child in the pool if even one score on a subsection meets the cutoff.  They are casting a wide net so they can evaluate every potentially-eligible child.  If it were otherwise, they would be looking for composite or full-scale IQ scores instead of accepting subtest scores to pull kids into the pool.

If my child had a perfect score on any subtest, I would be pretty relaxed about the whole process.  Yes, supplement the file, but don't make yourself crazy as if you were applying to Harvard.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics