The referrals could be teacher prompted but this time of year is when automatic referrals based on NNAT or COGAT scores come out. You are signing off for the school to continue evaluating your child and also offering parent input. I got a letter for my 1st grader because their score was 95th percentile on the NNAT- doesn't mean they will qualify for gifted but the referral was triggered by the score.

After parents are notified and give permission to proceed, it’s a matter of the teacher collecting work samples and eventually a committee composed of teacher(s), gifted resource teacher, principal, and possibly another admin meet to evaluate the kids who have been referred. No further testing beyond NNAT and COGAT, or student involvement in the process. We received final notification at the very end of the school year, possibly even after classes were finished.

Anonymous wrote:NP, what is the timeline for hearing back on this in APS elementary? Is it end of this school year, for the next school year? I got the form a month or more ago (before we got the COGAT scores back, I am not sure what triggered it), but haven't heard anything since (this is for a 1st grader).

It’s a multi-step process with them assessing your child, and you being asked to fill out forms again, and again, that process sometimes can stretch to the end of the school year, I think this is variable and also depends on the school and their gifted teacher. The earliest you’d hear about any final decision would usually be after Spring Break.

Anonymous wrote:NP, what is the timeline for hearing back on this in APS elementary? Is it end of this school year, for the next school year? I got the form a month or more ago (before we got the COGAT scores back, I am not sure what triggered it), but haven't heard anything since (this is for a 1st grader).

The normal referral process is triggered by CogAT in 2nd grade. If your kid was flagged in 1st it was a teacher referral and your kid is likely very bright / exceptional. At our elementary, services really start in 3rd grade, but I know there is a cohort of 2nd graders working on “passion projects”.

In APS there is no further action once you sign the form. All it means is that your kid’s name goes in the hopper for discussion among the teachers and the resource teacher.

We didn’t find out until just before school started and we did not tell our 3rd grader. He kind of knows because some other kids told him. Our child is in a mixed Spec Ed and Gifted classroom so he is used to various kids in his classroom having different lessons or aids being in the room and kids being pulled out. He gets some differentiated lessons and sometimes the resource teacher does whole class activities.

I really like the gifted program in APS at the elementary level - but my kid is bright and curious and 1-1.5 grades ahead in math and reading. I acknowledge that kids who are 2-3-4 grades ahead might not get their needs met with simple kids to the existing lessons. My husband and I both grew up participating in pull-out gifted programs and purposely chose not to live in Fairfax because we didn’t want our kids to be in AAP, be aware of what “level” they are in, or to feel competitive about being at a certain level or feel “less than” if neighborhood friends are at a “higher” level.
I am not in a rush to push or accelerate material for my kids and appreciate that the differentiation they have experienced so far seems to focus on creative problem solving and critical thinking - and engaging with the standard material in a deeper way. At the elementary level I think that approach helps foster curiosity and a love of learning vs. a checking the box / flying through the levels approach to material.

I want my kids to embrace a growth mindset and to develop an internal motivation to work hard and try hard things. I feel like I was told from a very young age how smart I was and I internalized that in some unhealthy ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, what is the timeline for hearing back on this in APS elementary? Is it end of this school year, for the next school year? I got the form a month or more ago (before we got the COGAT scores back, I am not sure what triggered it), but haven't heard anything since (this is for a 1st grader).

They don't take COGAT in 1st grade. They take it in 2nd grade. They do take NNAT in 1st grade, which is a much shorter assessment. This is the time of year when they send the referral forms though.

You can also self-refer your kid for the process.

You get notified in June and it's for the following school year.

There probably is an option for a teacher to just spontaneously refer a kid (no test score triggering the process), but my understanding is this is rarely done and I doubt your teacher would do this without telling you in any case.

PP you quoted - NNAT is what I meant. Thanks for the info. I'll ask about it in conferences too.

Anonymous wrote:NP, what is the timeline for hearing back on this in APS elementary? Is it end of this school year, for the next school year? I got the form a month or more ago (before we got the COGAT scores back, I am not sure what triggered it), but haven't heard anything since (this is for a 1st grader).

They don't take COGAT in 1st grade. They take it in 2nd grade. They do take NNAT in 1st grade, which is a much shorter assessment. This is the time of year when they send the referral forms though.

You can also self-refer your kid for the process.

You get notified in June and it's for the following school year.

There probably is an option for a teacher to just spontaneously refer a kid (no test score triggering the process), but my understanding is this is rarely done and I doubt your teacher would do this without telling you in any case.

We got a referral letter for my then first grader in May and I filled out the permission form and answered some questions. We got the “acceptance” about two weeks later. My child didn’t do especially well on the 1st grade test, N something, but was referred by the teacher, not sure if that affects timing? Did very well on the 2nd grade CoGAT, not sure if there’s another round of identification after that for older kids.

NP, what is the timeline for hearing back on this in APS elementary? Is it end of this school year, for the next school year? I got the form a month or more ago (before we got the COGAT scores back, I am not sure what triggered it), but haven't heard anything since (this is for a 1st grader).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their COGAT scores probably got them automatically referred for gifted. Your kid doesn't need to be prepped.

they were referred for math, language arts, social studies, and science - which makes me think this was a teacher referral?

It's not at this point in the year. COGAT has different sections to it, which leads to being referred in different areas possibly. It's verbal, quantitative, and non-verbal I believe.

Anonymous wrote:Their COGAT scores probably got them automatically referred for gifted. Your kid doesn't need to be prepped.

they were referred for math, language arts, social studies, and science - which makes me think this was a teacher referral?

The one thing you could do is talk to your teacher about it at conferences and get his/her take on whether they see your kid getting into gifted. I think the teacher has a good amount of input.

Their COGAT scores probably got them automatically referred for gifted. Your kid doesn't need to be prepped.

Nevermind. I found this on the APS website. Sharing in case others have the same questions:

Student referrals are considered by a school-based committee composed of a classroom teacher, resource teacher for the gifted, an administrator, special education teacher (as appropriate), ESOL/HILT teacher (as appropriate) and other members who may know the child and could provide input such as the counselor or school psychologist.

APS uses a holistic case study approach in the screening process. All relevant data is reviewed and the decision to identify a need for services or not is made by the committee. In identifying students for Gifted Services, multiple criteria are used including the following:

Nationally-Normed Aptitude assessments
Achievement assessments
Teacher Observations
Parent Info Form (also available in multiple languages: Spanish, Bengali, Amharic, Mongolian and Arabic)
Digital portfolios/work samples/performance assessments
Parents are notified of the committee’s decision. Families of eligible students will receive a permission form to return to accept placement. Families of ineligible students will receive information on how to appeal if they choose to do so.

I just received an email that my child was referred for gifted services and we had to fill out a form for further evaluation. What does further evaluation look like? This is an APS elementary school and it says we'll be notified of the results by the end of the year. Is this special testing, teacher observation, 1-1 or group discussions with the gifted coordinator, all of the above, something else? Bottom line is that I'm not planning on mentioning this to my child (2nd grader) but do I need to (mentally) prepare them for something that will seem different than usual?