Getting accepted into Garland Magnet K-5 school (Austin, Howe: magnet schools, kindergarten)

[kittycatlady13]

My daughter just turned 4 and is attending a local montessori school. A couple of students there were tested in hopes of being accepted into one of Garland ISD's G/T magnet school (Kimberlin, Hillside, or Walnut Glen). They both received high scores (>95,>99) yet were put into a "lottery". Unfortunately, neither were able to get into any of these G/T schools. BTW, they are going into their 1st grade year/ not kindergarten.

Is this very common in this district? I am worried this will happen to my daughter in the future when I try to enroll her. Why is this occurring? Could this be because kindergartners already in these GT schools filling the slots for the 1st grade year?

What is the GT Kindergarten class like? Do most of the students read above average? My daughter currently reads at a 1st grade level and when kindergarten comes along, I worry she will be bored-to-death if able to get into one of these schools.

Thanks for any comments.

[pepper131]

While I don't know anything about the Garland magnet schools - I can say that your best entry year will be the first year the school starts accepting students. For some magnet programs, it can be preK, for others, it can be K.

And of course the K students are staying and filling in the slots for 1st grade....there may be a handful of openings only because the teacher to student ratio is higher in 1st than in K.

[BstYet2Be]

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Sorry, I don't have any personal info to give you about the K-5 G/T program, but here is where you'll find the info listed for it and its requirements, as well as the phone and email contact info for the G/T Coordinator of the program:

See: GISD- Elementary Gifted and Talented

It's stated on the above site that applications must be submitted by mid-January, with testing done the first of February, to be accepted into the G/T program for the next school year. It also states that the minimum scores in reading and math is 90 percentile or above. If I were you, I would try calling the G/T Coordinator to get this info you are asking about first-hand, and do it as quick as possible since they may or may not already be gone until the start of school in the fall. However, with the summer programs going on, you may just luck out still.

Several of us have had students that attended the G/T programs from middle school through high school though, and I can attest that it is an awesome program and experience for your child second to none... one no doubt you'll be pleased with!

And, as I've stated here in a previous post, being recognized as a TBEC Honor Roll School is the most prestigious academic award a Texas public school can receive and all seven of GISD's G/T schools made this honor roll for 2011. See: 2011 TBEC Honor Roll School by Region (Region 10 for DFW Metro Schools)

Good luck to both you and your child!
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[benvwin]

I actually went to Kimberlin Academy for 5th grade. I was at Beaver Elementary (now Beaver Technology?) 2-4th grade school before.

I would definitely recommend you try Beaver for now and try again for Kimberlin Academy.

Kimberlin Academy --> Austin Academy (6-8) --> Garland High School (My route)
Beaver Tech -->Jackson Math & Science Middle School --> North Garland (My brothers route)

Word of warning to you though. I'm not sure about the kids now and days but during my year and all my friends from Kimberlin through Austin and Garland were taught really well, smart, and competitive. Since we all ended up doing the IB program the chances of your child getting into top 10% are really hard if your child isn't planning on doing IB program... if she choose Garland High School.

I would definitely try again for Kimberlin but there are other great schools like Beaver for Math and Science.

[carroll4628]

Yes, it's typical that most spots will be filled by Kindergartener's, and the only spots for an entering 1st grader would be through attrition. But as BstYet2Be noted, contact the school's GT counselor directly.

Have you read or seen this? High Achiever, Gifted Learner, CreativeThinker

The G/T program at our ES uses the CogAT, Stanford 10 (or SAT10), K-BIT, Sages, and Gates. They must "qualify" in at least 3/5 of the tests. The tests were given over a month (morning/afternoon) so if the child's having a "bad" day it "theoretically" shouldn't affect the overall results (I suppose one could have a bad month). I assume the test your referring to is the Standford 10? (Neither of my daughters qualified in that one (just missed the 96 needed in our district) but did in the other 4.)