Anonymous wrote:Within a given school, public or private, some teachers will be capable of differentiating, and others won't. It's easier if you're differenting for 3-4 95th pctile kids vs one outlier kid, but the point is the same.

Agreed. Blanket generalizations like "private school teachers don't differentiate" are simply uninformed. FWIW, at my own child's school, the teachers I've encountered are all pretty clear and blunt about the fact they differentiate significantly. They say that's one of the main points of having a low student:teacher ratio, so they can ensure each individual child is being appropriately challenged. Of course, as PP notes, it's also easier to teach the whole class efficiently if it's generally operating at approximately the same level (so that less differentiation is needed).

I will take a hard-working smart child over a gifted child any day--and I have a gifted child! I know a handful of adults who are off the charts smart, but time and again the harder working person really gets more done and more accomplished. Even socially I think there is a point when you can be too smart but all the parents now just want the most gifted child there is. I have only ever met two profoundly gifted children (reading at two, reading Japanese, advanced math at three for one of them and the other went to Harvard at 14 or 15, I can't remember) and no school would take the first one because they could not accommodate her needs. Socially it's been very difficult for both of them. The first is now at a place that is tailoring a curriculum just for her. Who needs it! (Although thank goodness it exists for her.) Better to be well rounded, imo. Why all the talk about giftedness. What happened to just a bunch of smart kids and some are smarter than others?

(Typing quickly so sorry if too random...)

Anonymous wrote:This is such a strange thread. The problem that I hear voiced most often from parents of high school students at our "Big 3" is that the workload is too heavy, and that there are simply too many interesting and fun extra-curricular activities to compete with homework time.

Boredom, lack of challenge, or unattentive teachers is not a concern. I do wonder where your "highly gifted" children go to school.

Everyone agrees that by High School, students of varied abilities can be well served in many places.

We are talking about the Big 3 and other reputable DC private Lower School programs.

Anonymous wrote:
I think the question is, are private school teachers able to differentiate for very bright kids?

From our experience in public and private I think the answer is, "it depends on the teacher" and there is no set answer that fits all private (or public) schools as as a whole.

In our Lower School experience, we did not encounter a single teacher who could differentiate well, particularly in math. Reading is easier, because it is pretty individualized anyway. There was no differentiation at all in Science, History, etc.
I don't really hold the teachers responsible - they have 15-20 kids to teach. The 130-140 kids, who could easily cover 1.5-2 grade levels of standard math per year, really need to be clustered and worked with as a small group. Allocate a resource teacher for this. Or have them do Johns Hopkins or one of the other programs online during math time. Or allow the parents to subsidize a tutor. Or??

I'd love to hear from parents who felt like their Washington DC private school really differentiated well for their 98+ kid. What did the school do? How did it work? Was it already in place or did you have to argue for it?

This is such a strange thread. The problem that I hear voiced most often from parents of high school students at our "Big 3" is that the workload is too heavy, and that there are simply too many interesting and fun extra-curricular activities to compete with homework time.

Boredom, lack of challenge, or unattentive teachers is not a concern. I do wonder where your "highly gifted" children go to school.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, but it was meant to be aggressive. I'm really tired of how some parents of gifted kids behave on DCUM. I don't want these posters to seem like they're representing me. They behave in a way that's belligerent and victim-like, and derail unrelated threads to talk about their .001 pctile kid, and it totally undermines serious discussion of gifted issues and leaves other posters rolling their eyes.

PP's reference to "all the animosity" in the other thread shows she's still oblivious about her own role on that thread.

Please stop being aggressive. It isn't nice or productive. I haven't read anything belligerent or victim-like on this thread (or frankly, on the other one.) You clearly have a different view, and that's ok, but let's keep the tone civil.

It seems are so angry that you not reading the posts. If you read my post above (the one that references "all the animosity"), you would see that I am not in fact NOT talking about profoundy gifted kids, but rather the kids in the 130-140 range (this is 98-99%).

No one is claiming to represent you. We are each only speaking for ourselves. I think we are all trying to help our children in what is a very difficult situation for some of them. I am so glad for the parents whose kids are well served. Mine are not, and I really want the chance to talk about it in a reasonable way with someone.

OP, thanks again for starting this thread. It sounds like you and I are having similar experiences in our otherwise-very-good private schools. At the very least, it makes me feel better to know there is someone out there who is going through the same thing.

Signed,
The PP who posted 11:31

Within a given school, public or private, some teachers will be capable of differentiating, and others won't. It's easier if you're differenting for 3-4 95th pctile kids vs one outlier kid, but the point is the same.

"You still haven't answered the question" is definitely belligerent. Especially when your question is derailing the thread, which itself is aggressive. If you don't see this, we can't help you.

Yes, the thread topic is interesting. Let's move on.

I think the question is, are private school teachers able to differentiate for very bright kids?

From our experience in public and private I think the answer is, "it depends on the teacher" and there is no set answer that fits all private (or public) schools as as a whole.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, but it was meant to be aggressive. I'm really tired of how some parents of gifted kids behave on DCUM. I don't want these posters to seem like they're representing me. They behave in a way that's belligerent and victim-like, and derail unrelated threads to talk about their .001 pctile kid, and it totally undermines serious discussion of gifted issues and leaves other posters rolling their eyes.

PP's reference to "all the animosity" in the other thread shows she's still oblivious about her own role on that thread.

Simmer down...

I'm sorry, but it was meant to be aggressive. I'm really tired of how some parents of gifted kids behave on DCUM. I don't want these posters to seem like they're representing me. They behave in a way that's belligerent and victim-like, and derail unrelated threads to talk about their .001 pctile kid, and it totally undermines serious discussion of gifted issues and leaves other posters rolling their eyes.

PP's reference to "all the animosity" in the other thread shows she's still oblivious about her own role on that thread.

Anonymous wrote:Aacckk, "indecent" schools. Damn you, spell check!

To the PP, the "animosity" on the other thread was because you hijacked it, busted out a painfully manipulative letter from an adult pretending to be a gifted kid, and you were generally belligerent.

If you behave civilly here, there won't be any animosity, I promise. FWIW, I'm the poster with the magnet kid, and I'm worried about you "representing" me.

This is the OP of this thread. I did not post anything belligerent on the other thread. Maybe others did but I only posted about three times on that thread.

I did post the letter. It was very misunderstood. It is called The September Secret and it was written by Wenda Sheard who is a PhD and well known and award winning advocate for gifted education. The letter was written in the perspective of a child to allow the reader to experience this all too familiar scenario through the eyes of the child. It wasn't a "pretend" letter meant to deceive. I included the credits to the letter which should have made this clear in the post.

It didn't go over well and that's fine but please don't misrepresent my intentions. Let's not argue over here. This can be a very interesting topic if it's allowed to be discussed.

Anonymous wrote:Aacckk, "indecent" schools. Damn you, spell check!

To the PP, the "animosity" on the other thread was because you hijacked it, busted out a painfully manipulative letter from an adult pretending to be a gifted kid, and you were generally belligerent.

If you behave civilly here, there won't be any animosity, I promise. FWIW, I'm the poster with the magnet kid, and I'm worried about you "representing" me.

Wow, that feels aggressive to me. (I don't know if you realize how it comes across, so I am going to assume you mean it well).
I am the poster above who reprinted my (only) post from the other thread. I did not post the "letter" from the child on the other thread, and I don't think OP did either. On most of these threads there are many people posting, with different tones, experiences, and ideas.

So far I think we are having a civil discussion. This is an important issue to me, one that is very difficult to discuss in "real" life, so I am grateful for the chance to discuss it here.

WPPSI scores don't mean a lot. Those scores will change over the years. I have seen this happen myself. That said, I have a child in a DC private who is "gifted" by OP's definition. Her IQ is 144 and her SSAT score was 98th percentile. I feel that the school serves her needs quite well in middle school. It's far more challenging than any other program she has done. Part of the reason for this is that her teachers recognize her abilities and they expect college level writing from her while they might not expect it from all of the students. I can't say for sure but I do know that the standards are very high. The thing about kids who are gifted is that their gifts do not always make them the very best students. They often have challenges- ie my child has executive function issues. She wasn't a great student in elementary school. Sometimes it's the kids who are in the more average ranges across the board who are far more successful in the academic setting. My kid is beyond gifted in many respects but her math is not strong. My main reason for preferring the private school is that the classes are small enough for individual attention and DC is given a great deal of responsibility for her own learning.

Aacckk, "indecent" schools. Damn you, spell check!

To the PP, the "animosity" on the other thread was because you hijacked it, busted out a painfully manipulative letter from an adult pretending to be a gifted kid, and you were generally belligerent.

If you behave civilly here, there won't be any animosity, I promise. FWIW, I'm the poster with the magnet kid, and I'm worried about you "representing" me.

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have any stats to back up your claims besides ERBs, which are more a reflection of achievement/knowledge does the kid know math facts) than IQ? Also, while I agree the WPPSI is susceptible to parent coaching or home environment, not all kids slip back down to the 80th pctile by grade 3. Heck my kid's IQ rose during this period (bad test day when he was 4, I guess). For the really bright kids, the IQ scores don't fall.

Not OP, but the ERBs have two sections that measure ability rather than achievement. (Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning, I think they are called.)

Agree with you that WPPSSI scores do not fall for the truly bright kids.