Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think they rely a lot on the answers to those questions. DD was referred for art and I said that she got into my makeup and did really beautiful eyeshadow look. For other stuff I think I included some insightful comments she had made. It wasn't a big deal.

I kind of think the parent referral form exists just to appease a certain type of parent. It would actually be very unfair if they gave it much weight vs teacher observations, test scores, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't focus on the label at this point, but more on what you think she needs in K/1st. At parent-teacher conferences, you could ask if there are extensions available.

What are extensions?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple of thoughts:

- APS does gifted referrals for music and art 3rd grade and up, not before, regardless of source of referral.

- From K/1st (this varied with the pandemic, but you can check in ParentVUE or with the teacher) they start participating in standardized test every year, and these start in fall. Several of the kids who are identified early on were automatically referred due to exceptional test scores (NNAT, CogAT).

- If your child is truly gifted, you have observed unusual abilities and know them without having taken notes (give this some thought).


- Every child is bored sometimes in class, this does not necessarily mean much, especially in K!


If your child is thriving socially, has learned to read, and is doing well, halfway through K, take a deep breath. You can check whether they have taken a standarized test yet - and discuss your thoughts with the teacher, and your school's gifted resource teacher.
A lot of kids in APS enter K in an advanced stage, but sometimes it balances out quickly.

If you don't have a lot of experience with other kids, you might not know what is an unusual ability and what isn't. I knew that DD was a very earlier speaker, but I had no idea just how brilliant she was in language compared to peers until she got a neuropsych evaluation at age 13. And it doesn't work to compare them to siblings. DD was my first and so was sort of my baseline, and I honestly thought my younger child just wasn't that bright. But based on his CoGat and other test scores he is also gifted, just not *as* gifted as my first.

But didn't your DD surprise you how well she used language, what words she chose, how well she comprehended advanced materials, etc. ? Didn't she score off the charts in assessments? Didn't her teachers mention anything?

It doesn't really matter whether it is your firstborn past the first few years unless you are living in isolation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think they rely a lot on the answers to those questions. DD was referred for art and I said that she got into my makeup and did really beautiful eyeshadow look. For other stuff I think I included some insightful comments she had made. It wasn't a big deal.

I kind of think the parent referral form exists just to appease a certain type of parent. It would actually be very unfair if they gave it much weight vs teacher observations, test scores, etc.

Anonymous wrote:We know our child should be referred, they are crazy creative and above level in math and reading, and Arlington requires a referral form answering questions for like examples of how they surprise you with their knowledge or challenging problems. I know my kid has surprised me but it’s now like I took notes?? How do people fill this form?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple of thoughts:

- APS does gifted referrals for music and art 3rd grade and up, not before, regardless of source of referral.

- From K/1st (this varied with the pandemic, but you can check in ParentVUE or with the teacher) they start participating in standardized test every year, and these start in fall. Several of the kids who are identified early on were automatically referred due to exceptional test scores (NNAT, CogAT).

- If your child is truly gifted, you have observed unusual abilities and know them without having taken notes (give this some thought).


- Every child is bored sometimes in class, this does not necessarily mean much, especially in K!


If your child is thriving socially, has learned to read, and is doing well, halfway through K, take a deep breath. You can check whether they have taken a standarized test yet - and discuss your thoughts with the teacher, and your school's gifted resource teacher.
A lot of kids in APS enter K in an advanced stage, but sometimes it balances out quickly.

If you don't have a lot of experience with other kids, you might not know what is an unusual ability and what isn't. I knew that DD was a very earlier speaker, but I had no idea just how brilliant she was in language compared to peers until she got a neuropsych evaluation at age 13. And it doesn't work to compare them to siblings. DD was my first and so was sort of my baseline, and I honestly thought my younger child just wasn't that bright. But based on his CoGat and other test scores he is also gifted, just not *as* gifted as my first.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't focus on the label at this point, but more on what you think she needs in K/1st. At parent-teacher conferences, you could ask if there are extensions available.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think they rely a lot on the answers to those questions. DD was referred for art and I said that she got into my makeup and did really beautiful eyeshadow look. For other stuff I think I included some insightful comments she had made. It wasn't a big deal.

Anonymous wrote:A couple of thoughts:

- APS does gifted referrals for music and art 3rd grade and up, not before, regardless of source of referral.

- From K/1st (this varied with the pandemic, but you can check in ParentVUE or with the teacher) they start participating in standardized test every year, and these start in fall. Several of the kids who are identified early on were automatically referred due to exceptional test scores (NNAT, CogAT).

- If your child is truly gifted, you have observed unusual abilities and know them without having taken notes (give this some thought).


- Every child is bored sometimes in class, this does not necessarily mean much, especially in K!


If your child is thriving socially, has learned to read, and is doing well, halfway through K, take a deep breath. You can check whether they have taken a standarized test yet - and discuss your thoughts with the teacher, and your school's gifted resource teacher.
A lot of kids in APS enter K in an advanced stage, but sometimes it balances out quickly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our child was referred based on test scores but we filled it out because said child is so underwhelmed and bored in school that we did not want to leave anything to chance. I don’t think anything will change even once identified - it will still be the same terrible curriculum - but it seems to matter more when they get to middle school math options, or so I’ve heard. If the test scores speak for themselves maybe the examples matter less.

Have others at APS in upper elementary found math and reading instruction to be augmented? Ours does not appear to be at all.

OP here, this is partly what we are pushing for gifted. Child is in K and is so bored all day. Seems to spend a lot of time alone on the ipad (is there a way to check how much time they are logged on?), and actually asked if they could move to 1st grade.

They have fun at recess and have lots of friends in class, but basically taught themselves how to read last year, and mastered all math skills, and is just idling while teacher is focused on her large 27 student class.