Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.

Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

My DD who is a current 3rd grader at PBES socred 97% nationally on the CogAT and had 220s on their MAP-R was waitlisted as were other similar children.

So now she is in class with the other local kids but with most of the smart middle class kids taken out. That sounds great, lucky you

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.

Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

My DD who is a current 3rd grader at PBES socred 97% nationally on the CogAT and had 220s on their MAP-R was waitlisted as were other similar children.

So now she is in class with the other local kids but with most of the smart middle class kids taken out. That sounds great, lucky you

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.

Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

My DD who is a current 3rd grader at PBES socred 97% nationally on the CogAT and had 220s on their MAP-R was waitlisted as were other similar children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.


Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

My DD who is a current 3rd grader at PBES socred 97% nationally on the CogAT and had 220s on their MAP-R was waitlisted as were other similar children.

I'm surprised by this. I know kids with much lower stats that got in. 220 on MAPR in 3rd grade is not high. At some schools this is average but its in the high range at PBES.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.


Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

My DD who is a current 3rd grader at PBES socred 97% nationally on the CogAT and had 220s on their MAP-R was waitlisted as were other similar children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.

Parents reported on this board that kids with high 97%+ were waitlisted. The only documented acceptances were 99%.

Anonymous wrote:Umm its not accurate at all. The CES PBES has many kids way below the mid 90s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its a real shame that PBES has expanded entrance to so many kids that are not really gifted. Now their parents are complaining that the work is too hard and there is too much work. Truly gifted kids need more challenging, intensive work that requires learning how to prioritize. Real gifted kids will go deep without being asked to go deep. The "high energy" kid that is not happy about doing the work is NOT gifted. He may be smart and well rounded and that is perfectly fine but he doesn't belong in a GT program.

The parents of these kids are watering down the program, pressuring the teachers to draw back the level of work to accommodate their kid who shouldn't be there.

The CES at PBES needs to be MUCH smaller so it can focus on being an actual gifted center or it needs to split into two programs. One program for actual gifted kids and one program for "high energy" kids whose parents just want the label but not the work.

It's one class out of 220 kids in the grade. The thread on the CogAT scores indicated only kids with 99% national were admitted. Parents who reported other scores in the high 90s were wait listed.

Anonymous wrote:
Its a real shame that PBES has expanded entrance to so many kids that are not really gifted. Now their parents are complaining that the work is too hard and there is too much work. Truly gifted kids need more challenging, intensive work that requires learning how to prioritize. Real gifted kids will go deep without being asked to go deep. The "high energy" kid that is not happy about doing the work is NOT gifted. He may be smart and well rounded and that is perfectly fine but he doesn't belong in a GT program.

The parents of these kids are watering down the program, pressuring the teachers to draw back the level of work to accommodate their kid who shouldn't be there.

The CES at PBES needs to be MUCH smaller so it can focus on being an actual gifted center or it needs to split into two programs. One program for actual gifted kids and one program for "high energy" kids whose parents just want the label but not the work.


It's one class out of 220 kids in the grade. The thread on the CogAT scores indicated only kids with 99% national were admitted. Parents who reported other scores in the high 90s were wait listed.

Anonymous wrote:Its a real shame that PBES has expanded entrance to so many kids that are not really gifted. Now their parents are complaining that the work is too hard and there is too much work. Truly gifted kids need more challenging, intensive work that requires learning how to prioritize. Real gifted kids will go deep without being asked to go deep. The "high energy" kid that is not happy about doing the work is NOT gifted. He may be smart and well rounded and that is perfectly fine but he doesn't belong in a GT program.

The parents of these kids are watering down the program, pressuring the teachers to draw back the level of work to accommodate their kid who shouldn't be there.

The CES at PBES needs to be MUCH smaller so it can focus on being an actual gifted center or it needs to split into two programs. One program for actual gifted kids and one program for "high energy" kids whose parents just want the label but not the work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This year - there has been a lot of work - up to 2 hours of homework/night and many angst-filled parent meetings about it. Yes, some fun projects. A lot of writing and reading. An above grade novel about every 3 week with a literary essay (higher expectations than your usual book report) expected after every book.


These are exactly the type of kids that should not be pushed into a CES program. Kids that belong in a CES program are the ones that thrive on intensive writing assignments and love doing them. The kids that belong in the CES program are the ones who would be reading for hours whether it was required homework or not. There are plenty of smart kids that do not thrive on this or want to spend lots of extra time doing academic work. There is nothing wrong with this and for these kids the home school is the best place. Later on the kids may decide that they are more passionate about an academic subject than playing ball and still end up in a magnet.

Too many parents see the CES as a way to get away from the lower performing kids and there is too much pressure on the kids to expand the CES program in certain schools to appease these parental demands. These parents then turn around and complain that the workload is too intensive. If the program reduces the workload and waters down the program to appease them then it really isn't a gifted center anymore.


You know, as a parent of a high energy child who had basically checked out due to lack of interest in class, I would have to disagree with you on this. He does read a lot, way more than any kid at his home school, but he is coming from a school that gave him almost no work at all and the adjustment to a heavier load was pretty rough. Many of the CES kids are very, very high energy and after a long day of working hard in class they really benefit from some time to run around and move. They are only 8! And not all CES kids love the structure of the projects and writing assignments...they would rather be inventing their own projects. Some kind of reasonable balance needs to exist so that they do get enrichment and rigorous assignments at school (which I really love that he gets and he is so much happier and more engaged), but also recognizes that many of these aren’t kids who are bored at home, looking for something to do... they have a long list of things they like to invent and play and figure out. Being bright and needing school enrichment shouldn’t also mean needing to sit on the couch for two hours every night after school at this age.

You're actually making the case that there should be more enrichment in your home school not that your kid should be in a CES program. I agree that MCPS misses the boat on providing an engaging and challenging age appropriate curriculum in the home schools. This doesn't mean though that those kids should be pushed into a GT center and then not enjoy doing the work. If 2.0 wasn't so bad, many parents wouldn't be pushing to get kids into a CES when that isn't the right place for that child.

NP here - it really seems the "HG" part is gone as a defining aspect of the CES. Yes some are there, but really it's now 2/3 of the way towards FCPS AAP.