Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Middle school sports are cut sports. So they make a sports “clique” but won’t for academics.

Classroom teachers don’t give a rats hat about gifted students; there is no incentives for those “easy” kids to do even better or be challenged, they only care about the underperforming because the testing incentives them (and punishes them) if their test scores don’t match standards. Maybe you’ll have a great classroom teacher, but the incentives are still not there. The JOB of the gifted teacher IS aligned with challenging the “easy” students. I actually don’t know how they are evaluated, but I know it’s not SOL scores. I guess the nuances of how incentives drive teacher behavior and performance is not obvious, I’ll give you a pass for missing that.

I am hoping so very hard that you have left APS, whose teachers deserve better parents than you.

Also, middle school has tracking by ability, so there's your "cut sport" analogy.

Please, my parent was a teacher. I am not disparaging them, I am disparaging the structure they must work off. They care about all their students, but they know their gifted students will be “fine”, and they know there will be repercussions if those struggling don’t make improvements on SOL and grades. It’s clear where they are being directed to invest their time, and some extra packets from the gifted teacher will be passed on and then they will return to the hard work upon which their job depends (vs working with gifted kids which they would surely enjoy but can’t take the luxury of time to invest in)

And tracking may give you a small group of gifted students in your class, but the challenging students who need more time to do basic work are still their and are like a gas, they expand to fill all available space in the teachers schedule.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is indeed some bizarre version of Lake Wobegon (minus the lake).

Why did you dig up this old thread to post this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Middle school sports are cut sports. So they make a sports “clique” but won’t for academics.

Classroom teachers don’t give a rats hat about gifted students; there is no incentives for those “easy” kids to do even better or be challenged, they only care about the underperforming because the testing incentives them (and punishes them) if their test scores don’t match standards. Maybe you’ll have a great classroom teacher, but the incentives are still not there. The JOB of the gifted teacher IS aligned with challenging the “easy” students. I actually don’t know how they are evaluated, but I know it’s not SOL scores. I guess the nuances of how incentives drive teacher behavior and performance is not obvious, I’ll give you a pass for missing that.

I am hoping so very hard that you have left APS, whose teachers deserve better parents than you.

Also, middle school has tracking by ability, so there's your "cut sport" analogy.

The only tracking is math. Don’t make stuff up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Middle school sports are cut sports. So they make a sports “clique” but won’t for academics.

Classroom teachers don’t give a rats hat about gifted students; there is no incentives for those “easy” kids to do even better or be challenged, they only care about the underperforming because the testing incentives them (and punishes them) if their test scores don’t match standards. Maybe you’ll have a great classroom teacher, but the incentives are still not there. The JOB of the gifted teacher IS aligned with challenging the “easy” students. I actually don’t know how they are evaluated, but I know it’s not SOL scores. I guess the nuances of how incentives drive teacher behavior and performance is not obvious, I’ll give you a pass for missing that.

I am hoping so very hard that you have left APS, whose teachers deserve better parents than you.

Also, middle school has tracking by ability, so there's your "cut sport" analogy.

The first quoted poster is crazy. Most middle school sports are no cut -- even the ones that have try outs unless its soccer or basketball take everyone who tries out.

MS (and HS) both have some no-cut sports.

MS offers extension activities in many subjects. Available to all kids.

Also, there are multiple levels for math - regular or intensified, early algebra/geometry. Because of scheduling, the kids who take the harder math tend to be grouped together in other subjects.

And we need a lake.

Anonymous wrote:
Middle school sports are cut sports. So they make a sports “clique” but won’t for academics.

Classroom teachers don’t give a rats hat about gifted students; there is no incentives for those “easy” kids to do even better or be challenged, they only care about the underperforming because the testing incentives them (and punishes them) if their test scores don’t match standards. Maybe you’ll have a great classroom teacher, but the incentives are still not there. The JOB of the gifted teacher IS aligned with challenging the “easy” students. I actually don’t know how they are evaluated, but I know it’s not SOL scores. I guess the nuances of how incentives drive teacher behavior and performance is not obvious, I’ll give you a pass for missing that.

I am hoping so very hard that you have left APS, whose teachers deserve better parents than you.

Also, middle school has tracking by ability, so there's your "cut sport" analogy.

Arlington is indeed some bizarre version of Lake Wobegon (minus the lake).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Having a gifted resources teacher means that the more-challenging activities are implemented by a classroom teacher who is (A) better at teaching and (B) more in touch with students' abilities and needs.

Obviously.

Academically gifted kids don't need more isolation. They don't need to form a clique based on how smart they are. They need to learn to interact constructively with kids of all abilities.

To use your sports analogy, we don't have gifted gym class, but there are travel teams outside school. Similarly, lessons need to be able to engage all learners, but beyond that, kids can join a math circle, etc.

Middle school sports are cut sports. So they make a sports “clique” but won’t for academics.

Classroom teachers don’t give a rats hat about gifted students; there is no incentives for those “easy” kids to do even better or be challenged, they only care about the underperforming because the testing incentives them (and punishes them) if their test scores don’t match standards. Maybe you’ll have a great classroom teacher, but the incentives are still not there. The JOB of the gifted teacher IS aligned with challenging the “easy” students. I actually don’t know how they are evaluated, but I know it’s not SOL scores. I guess the nuances of how incentives drive teacher behavior and performance is not obvious, I’ll give you a pass for missing that.