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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How many of these 'advanced learners' do you think there are, 13:04, in DC and how do you know they are advanced?

Likely, you will want to use a standardized test to measure (poorly and unreliably) advanced-ness, but which one? DC-CAS? Are there sufficient numbers to justify selective admissions and city wide tracking?

Without the numbers, it would be a hard sell.[/quote]

13:04 here.  It would be a hard sell regardless.

Why do you need numbers when you have percentages?  I'm hardly an expert on talented and gifted programs in this country.  But I've read that school systems supporting gifted education include, on average, kids testing in the top 5% in the jurisdiction in question (be it a state, county, school district, or city).

Apparently, the range of included kids runs anywhere from 0%, as in DC, to the top 1% in reading AND math (stingy jurisdictions), to the top 20% in either reading OR math (generous jurisdictions, like Fairfax).  Moreover, test-in programs around the country employ a variety of tests/methods to screen potential participants, anything from half a dozen nationally recognized tests, to state standardized tests, to school and magnet program-specific tests.

The best run and least controversial talented and gifted programs seem to use tests only as a screening mechanism, at least for middle school-age kids, adding in-school assessments, application essays and recommendations from teachers and other mentors to round out the picture of a kid.  They also offer parents and teachers a route to challenge a denial to a program, so a kid gets a second look if adults ask for one.  And they offer additional chances to enter the program after the normal entrance time.   In the end, the truly capable and disciplined are likely to be welcomed in.  This is the way the MoCo MS magnet programs work.

What we have in DC is a public school system that protects average kids from competition from advanced peers and, in doing so, drives out most of the local talent, and parents with Ivy League dreams for their children, even before MS.  It's not just affluent kids who peel off for privates and the burbs, it's a good many talented poor kids fleeing mediocrity by heading to independents on scholarships.

Unless DCPS and DC Charter parents start putting in the time and energy to figure out which pols to support to change the calculus and organizing to get them in or boot them out, change will only come glacially.  I've been watching NAEP results for DC, as well as admissions to my Ivy from DC public high schools, for a decade.  Nothing much seems to be changing beyond a few more high-SES kids coming in for MS and sticking around for HS.

I applaud any parent with an advanced learner with the vision and stamina to lobby the pols (whether or not you stay).

[i]Has anybody ever dared to organize a public forum on gifted education in DC?  Is the time right?  Does anybody want to?  [/i][/quote]

The need is there but the politics are a little difficult. [b]Out-of-state, for-profit charters are trying to add privates to their mix[/b]. Perhaps they should go this route instead and lend a hand.[/quote]

Huh?

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