Comments on: Writing Boosts Decatur’s SAT Score

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:24:15 +0000

Re SAT: My understanding is that you can’t really teach to the SAT. If a student hasn’t been reading voraciously or doing well in math for years, they can’t take a prep class and turn a 450 into a 650–I hear that improving by 10 to 50 points is the best one can expect. I have not heard that RMS or DHS teach to the SAT at all. What is a hard fact of life is that your choice of colleges and graduate and doctoral programs IS affected by standardized tests. Some colleges like Emory don’t even do admission interviews. Even though many of us agree that standardized tests do not predict the character traits and work attitudes and skills that ultimately determine success, most large higher educational institutions rely on them to sort out applicants.

The CRCT is where I think all public schools are teaching too much to the test. But I cannot blame them since funding and desireability of the schools is affected. And you’d be surprised at how many parents want MORE homework and MORE test prep at the elementary level. So school systems cannot win.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:16:48 +0000

Also, performing at the national 98th percentile is fantastic but quite common in Decatur and other high SES areas and not the same as being what I call a brainiac and the educational neuroscientists call cognitively asynchronous, i.e. a child who NEEDS the highly specialized instruction or they will perform poorly. The laws behind gifted instruction were originally intended to address those brainiac children who were performing poorly in school because regular instruction was not geared to the way they need to learn. Unfortunately, because gifted programs have gotten so large and been diluted into enrichment programs, rather than specialized instruction for those cognitively asynchronous brains that need it, those same brainiac children are still not getting the highly specialized instruction that they need. They are often bored, frustrated, and sometimes behavior problems, in the diluted enrichment programs.

By: David Harris

David Harris — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:53:21 +0000

I don’t put much stock into the SAT or any standardized test for determining success. I’ve done poorly on some, very well on others, and neither low nor high scores were a predictor of success or failure.

I’m wondering how much CSD teaches to the test versus other school districts with higher (and lower) SAT scores. I’m hoping CSD does not waste time teaching to the test.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:52:15 +0000

HAG is a great name–much less sexy than “Links” or “Bridges” which suggests that some kids get access to a special extra something and others don’t! The truth is that every child should get an extra little something for whatever level they are at–a push towards wherever they need to go next. Some think that the groupings are way too large and undifferentiated within the group–e.g. all “gifted” children together even though that group is sometimes huge with a very wide range of capabilities and some of the “gifted” functioning at a very different level than other “gifted” children, but I think MAP testing and certain schools have improved on that. Best way to know is to ask your child. Who works with them, what do they do, where do they go? If that doesn’t make it clear, then talk to the particular teachers. Make sure that what is described on curriculum night is what is actually happening for your child.

By: sarahph

sarahph — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:49:44 +0000

Well, I have a friend in Winston Salem who’s child is in the “Highly Academically Gifted” program. It’s called “HAG.” An acronym like that should take care of it.

Also the “cognitively asynchronous” label doesn’t work for a large number of gifted kids. My two kids test at 98th or above in all measures no matter what the test. They also have no social/speech/motor problems. There are a lot of kids in their shoes.

There is really no changing gifted instruction unless you address it at the state level. Georgia takes great pride in its gifted program so you won’t be seeing changes in the near future. It’s a state mandate … with state mandated cut scores.

I am not really buying the “middle kids suffer” statement. At the curriculum nights I attended, I was told that math instruction is differentiated based on pretests and that there could easily be gifted kids in a lower level math group and “average” kids in a top level math group, depending on the skill at hand. In many cases, children go to different classrooms depending on their pretest scores and their level can change every few weeks. It’s very fluid. The same is true for language arts and reading instruction, though I don’t believe they switch classrooms for those subjects.