Anonymous wrote:What if gifted programs are just us white/high ses folks way of conning our selves into denying we don't like to be, nor want our children to be with poor minority kids? Too many of these policies have resulted in poor kids smart or otherwise getting worse teachers, resources. I love having my kid at Deal, I know she is with peers that value education with parents that will invest in the school. However concentrated wealth is no better than concentrated poverty for the community I hope for her to inherit.

How kind and thoughful of you to consider the poor kids left behind while you your kid reaps the benefits of high SES parents fundraising/committment etc at Deal...and no doubt you can feed right on to Wilson. Quite frankly any parent with a kid already in the best middle school in DCPS should just stay out of this conversation. You have no idea the problems at the majority of DCPS middle schools. Deal is in a bubble. sure there are black kids but most have super committed families. So please be quiet while the rest of figure out how to solve DCPS middle school problems or get into a decent charter or just move.

Anonymous wrote:What if gifted programs are just us white/high ses folks way of conning our selves into denying we don't like to be, nor want our children to be with poor minority kids? Too many of these policies have resulted in poor kids smart or otherwise getting worse teachers, resources. I love having my kid at Deal, I know she is with peers that value education with parents that will invest in the school. However concentrated wealth is no better than concentrated poverty for the community I hope for her to inherit.

And what if gifted programs are a way for smart kids of all races to get into an environment where they are academically challenged and can develop their full potential?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figured it was too good to be true. So its not really english or math advanced classes, which is truly what DCPS needs. If Hardy could pilot that, I have a feeling their IB retention would soar.

My impression from presentations was that the advanced subject classes are very much part of the model, but they're not all of it. They indeed shouldn't be, not if you recognize that what sets children apart in the pursuit of an advanced professional or academic career is their higher order thinking skills. That said, if your key concern is a middle school full of advanced classes in pretty much all subjects, then you'll be better off at a school like Stuart-Hobson.

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke or not. how many advanced classes does Stuart Hobson offer?

Starting 2013, Stuart-Hobson moved to offering advanced classes in pretty much all subject areas. I'm not the one who sits in the classroom but from looking over my child's shoulder, they are all truly demanding.

No one is responding because it isn't true. "Advanced" for SH is pretty much basic for "other" MS. I would bet that the basic at Deal is the advanced at SH. Which in my book is fine. Not everyone had to be advanced. But the social environment at SH is vastly different than Deal or even Hardy which is muc more important to me in MS. This is where kids start turning, sadly SH doesn't prevent that.

My DC is at SH, is yours? We've found the "social environment" to be great. It is small enough that DC has had significant involvment in student government and playing time on a sports team. Knows most of the class by name. With ~ 130 in the class. Please speak from your own experience about "kids start turning" and please also speak from recent expereince as the current principal is in her 3rd year at the school. For our family, we'd rather be at SH than at Deal. (that includes consideration of everyone's social life & commutes).

Anonymous wrote:What if gifted programs are just us white/high ses folks way of conning our selves into denying we don't like to be, nor want our children to be with poor minority kids? Too many of these policies have resulted in poor kids smart or otherwise getting worse teachers, resources. I love having my kid at Deal, I know she is with peers that value education with parents that will invest in the school. However concentrated wealth is no better than concentrated poverty for the community I hope for her to inherit.

You can relax. This is never going to be a problem in DC public schools. Now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figured it was too good to be true. So its not really english or math advanced classes, which is truly what DCPS needs. If Hardy could pilot that, I have a feeling their IB retention would soar.

My impression from presentations was that the advanced subject classes are very much part of the model, but they're not all of it. They indeed shouldn't be, not if you recognize that what sets children apart in the pursuit of an advanced professional or academic career is their higher order thinking skills. That said, if your key concern is a middle school full of advanced classes in pretty much all subjects, then you'll be better off at a school like Stuart-Hobson.

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke or not. how many advanced classes does Stuart Hobson offer?

Starting 2013, Stuart-Hobson moved to offering advanced classes in pretty much all subject areas. I'm not the one who sits in the classroom but from looking over my child's shoulder, they are all truly demanding.

No one is responding because it isn't true. "Advanced" for SH is pretty much basic for "other" MS. I would bet that the basic at Deal is the advanced at SH. Which in my book is fine. Not everyone had to be advanced. But the social environment at SH is vastly different than Deal or even Hardy which is muc more important to me in MS. This is where kids start turning, sadly SH doesn't prevent that.

What if gifted programs are just us white/high ses folks way of conning our selves into denying we don't like to be, nor want our children to be with poor minority kids? Too many of these policies have resulted in poor kids smart or otherwise getting worse teachers, resources. I love having my kid at Deal, I know she is with peers that value education with parents that will invest in the school. However concentrated wealth is no better than concentrated poverty for the community I hope for her to inherit.

+1.

What if gifted programs are just us white/high ses folks way of conning our selves into denying we don't like to be, nor want our children to be with poor minority kids? Too many of these policies have resulted in poor kids smart or otherwise getting worse teachers, resources. I love having my kid at Deal, I know she is with peers that value education with parents that will invest in the school. However concentrated wealth is no better than concentrated poverty for the community I hope for her to inherit.

Anonymous wrote:this is just so basic. This thread about needed gifted programs surfaces in some fashion almost daily. Why can't all these smart, organized parents demand this from DCPS. Yes, demand. As parents we should demand and expect more. I think the majority of folks on DCUM want this. I have no doubt that if SH or Hardy started a true advanced/gifted/ program the IB populations of those schools would skyrocket. Problem solved Kaya. No more trying to guess why so many high SES parents run for charters, privates and the suburbs at 5th grade. I can't believe the "experts" running DC would rather be politically correct than actually 1) solve the issue of kids abandoning middle school and 2) under enrollment and 3) low test scores.

Consdier that DCPS is not trying to keep high SES kids -- that they are being steered to charters by DCPS.

this is just so basic. This thread about needed gifted programs surfaces in some fashion almost daily. Why can't all these smart, organized parents demand this from DCPS. Yes, demand. As parents we should demand and expect more. I think the majority of folks on DCUM want this. I have no doubt that if SH or Hardy started a true advanced/gifted/ program the IB populations of those schools would skyrocket. Problem solved Kaya. No more trying to guess why so many high SES parents run for charters, privates and the suburbs at 5th grade. I can't believe the "experts" running DC would rather be politically correct than actually 1) solve the issue of kids abandoning middle school and 2) under enrollment and 3) low test scores.

Poland, Finland, Korea and other places had huge numbers of people that were displaced, who lost everything, lost most of their family, suffered under horrible policy, were put in ghettos, and otherwise suffered in WWII et cetera. Yes, we had many horrible policies in the US, housing discrimination, et cetera - But at some point you have to stop living in the past and look at what the present and future holds

Anonymous wrote:I was reading Amada Ripley's book The Smartest Kids in the World focusing on why American schools are not cutting it relative to other high performing systems like Finland or South Korea or even Poland. She had a lot of points she was trying to make, but one of them that stood out too me is that the U.S. has an obsession with identifying kids as "smart" i.e. gifted, but if we actually had rigorous classrooms this is a not really necessary and more effective. It is my understanding that this is the point of the school enrichment model. While I have been in tracked systems and get why they can be important I wonder if part of our obsession is really what is holding back our education system.

Finland, Poland, South Korea..where are the millions of 4th and 5th generation housing project kids with barely literate parents in these countries? Where are the families where nobody's had a decent job since the Great Society Programs kicked in under President Johnson?

In DC, if you don't identify the most capable and disciplined poor kids as "smart" and track them with high-achieving, affluent peers, you run a high risk of short-changing them for life, because the emphasis in DCPS from around 2nd grade up remains on remedial work. Enrichment models sound wonderful but get silly by the upper elementary grades in highly diverse DC schools. DC needs a system of comprehensive TAG/pullout/Gifted/advanced programs period. When you talk to parents whose advanced or gifted kids are bored silly half the day in diverse schools like Hardy, it's easy to see that Amanda Ripley doesn't know urban American ed issues.

How many IB hardy parents are happy with the new gifted program there? And are any Mannn student at hardy? Last time I checked it had been several years since a Mann kid had gone on to hardy vs moving to MoCo, Latin (and now Basis) or private.

yes its good that DC is finally thinking of gifted classes when the jurisdictions around us have been doing this already for decades…sigh…cmon DC. the improvements to schools will stall at some point if we don't get Gifted and Talented. good grief, my nannys kid in a shit school in PG gets pulled out for TAG classes.

It's good that DC schools are at least finally starting to think about meeting the needs of kids who are up to the task for more demanding work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figured it was too good to be true. So its not really english or math advanced classes, which is truly what DCPS needs. If Hardy could pilot that, I have a feeling their IB retention would soar.

My impression from presentations was that the advanced subject classes are very much part of the model, but they're not all of it. They indeed shouldn't be, not if you recognize that what sets children apart in the pursuit of an advanced professional or academic career is their higher order thinking skills. That said, if your key concern is a middle school full of advanced classes in pretty much all subjects, then you'll be better off at a school like Stuart-Hobson.

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke or not. how many advanced classes does Stuart Hobson offer?

Starting 2013, Stuart-Hobson moved to offering advanced classes in pretty much all subject areas. I'm not the one who sits in the classroom but from looking over my child's shoulder, they are all truly demanding.