I realize that I have already posted for the day (week), but some things warrant another. Like the elementary school gifted program in our district. Seriously. Ridiculous. My apologies to any readers who invented the program or who gleefully noted in their Christmas letter last year that their child "tested in." All first graders get tested at the end of the year before they enter second grade. So, One Fish had the test last week. For TWO DAYS. "Whew!" The Scientist and I are thinking, "This must be one heck of a gifted program, huh?" Her teacher reported to me on Friday when I went to pick her up that she "passed" the "first portion." Huh? FIRST portion?! There is more than one portion? Oh yes, indeed. I got a call today from the teacher who heads the gifted program. I needed to come up to the school to sign some papers agreeing to more testing. Upon getting up there and signing the paperwork, here is the schedule as it was explained to me:
1) First graders are tested in a paper and pencil test for, yes, TWO DAYS.
2) All students who "pass" (which means missing 10 or less total over two days) are evaluated by their classroom teacher and given scores in areas such as Work Ethic (seriously- first graders?!?), Leadership, Creativity, etc.
3) All students who receive a 90 or better in at least one of the catagories evaluated by their teacher, proceed to the parent conference stage.
4) After their parents agree to testing, the children who have passed to this point are given aptitude tests in math and then, if necessary, reading. You see, they have to "pass" one or the other in order to advance to the next level. If she passes the math portion I'll eat this computer. If she doesn't pass the reading portion I'll know that someone with the reading ability of Red Fish must have given her the test. She reads on a 4th and 5 grade level but still uses her fingers to add one and two. Go figure.
5) Parent conference level numero dos. We sign reams of more papers, agreeing to turn over our child to the state for the good of the state (think Soviet Bloc) if they turn out to be incredibly gifted. Or maybe she said we were just agreeing to more testing. It sounded very serious and now I can't quite remember.
6) Students who "advance" beyond the aptitude tests are given the summer off (presumably to study abroad or spend the summer in Guatamala doing mission work and teaching English) and then return to one more test in the fall. The school's psychometrist (look it up- I'm not even sure if I spelled it right. Nor do I care) gives them an IQ test. Of course it has a fancy name, but really and truly at it's heart it is an IQ test. An intelligence test.
Students who advance to the final level (this is no longer sounds like public education, but a video game), get to be in the gifted program forever and ever. Once in, you can never be kicked out. Sort of like being a Supreme Court Justice, except much, much harder and infinitely more complicated than just getting approval from Congress.
No more posting for now. One Fish just hurt her leg by doing a cartwheel right into the wall. She's obviously gifted.
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4 comments:
i realize that i'm no genius just bc i'm a product of richland county's gifted program, but wouldn't it be easier to let everyone in after they pass step 1 and then just reserve the right to kick the dummies/cheaters/lazy ones out? just a thought. glad your state is spending so much time and $ on this.
oh, and if you turn her over to the state, will they feed her? that might be helpful with current grocery prices! that would be a reason to give her wheaties on the testing days.
dear god. one of the GA criteria (criterion?) is "motivation"
are you kidding me?
As a member of the educational community, that's crap. All of it is crap. Sorry you have to jump through all of the hoops. Thanks for the laugh at the end of the post.
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