Gifted/Talented programs in Fort Worth area (Grapevine, Hurst: home, school district)

[milwaukeegirl]

I know exactly what you are concerned about. We moved to Ft. Worth at the beginning of the school year and also have a middle schooler who is Gifted and was in a magnet school for G/T from where we moved. She is repeating course work in seventh grade she did in 5th-6th grades, and that's in 7th grade preAP Math/English here in Texas! Next year she'll have all preAP/IB classes in core subjects and she's excited about getting to finally take Algrebra.

NOW, THIS IS NOT ALL BAD! We finally have a family life AND she has time to participate in extracurricular sports and play an instrument. I knew being in magnet school was time consuming, but I never realized how much until we left that kind of environment. Once you get to about 4th grade in a G/T magnet, it's very demanding and the parents have to be very involved with the coursework. It becomes difficult when you both work or are a single parent, or if you have more than two kids. You just can't keep up! Twenty percent of the kids dropped out of the G/T magnet each year after third grade due to the demanding curriculum. Our whole family life revolved around school, and my daughter could not do many extracurricular activities. My job suffered, and all we did was school work on the weekends. She did thrive in that environment and I was happy to make the sacrifice, but I did worry that she wasn't developing into a very well-rounded individual.

She is very happy now in Texas and well-adjusted with her new friends. She is known as being very smart at her school and tutors friends to help them out. She did well on the Duke TIP SAT test in 7th grade and is being offered chances to go to camp with other G/T kids and we might send her to a Duke TIP camp in Louisiana in June.

So, in conclusion, your child will not really get a G/T education here in Texas like in a magnet school, but you might not have continued in that magnet much longer based on my observations. Things really start to look up for children like ours in seventh grade.

Good luck with your decision. Ours was difficult to make, but it turned out to be the right one.

[desli]

Originally Posted by djswalter

Hi! We're looking to maybe relocate to the Fort Worth area later this year. I am trying to find out info about the gifted/talented programs in Fort Worth area schools. We currently live in Corpus Christi and my 1st grade daughter attends our district's wonderful Gifted & Talented magnet school.

Why do parents feel it's important to publicly label their kids as G/T?

I've heard so many people laugh at the G/T topic because they agree that most "G/T" kids are actually obnoxious and rude children in control of the parents. (Everybody Loves Raymond did a great episode about this)

I'm not saying yours is, by any means, but this kind of label is, at best, superficial - and really unfair to other children (something that unfortunately, educators often fail to recognize).

[LSUTigerGirl]

Fort Worth ISD

Fort Worth ISD Schools -Alice Carlton Applied Learning School

Fort Worth ISD Schools- Como Montessori

Fort Worth ISD Schools- Daggett Montessori

Fort Worth ISD Schools- Riverside Applied Learning School

Other Suggestions

Fort Worth ISD Schools- Burton Hill

Fort Worth ISD Schools- Lily B. Clayton

[loves2read]

because in reality to be recognized as a G/T learner means that your child learns in a different style than a student who might be in AP classes or IB program--G/T classes are usually structured differently, often have a curriculum that differs from the other strands, is usually more project based vs test based, can involve more group learning although many regular and advanced classes are using more group instruction/product in teaching/measurement...
I don't teach G/T but both of my children were G/T learners--in some ways it was good and in some ways frankly they would have been better off in an AP class...
I am retired English teacher and the English teacher my daughter had at the other high school in my district chose not to do grammar at all because she thought students would pick up proper usage, spelling, punctuation via osmosis from reading great authors--
that is just lame--she did not want to teach it...boring in her opinion (and I know because she used to expound that opinion at English meetings)...
eventhough her students had to take TAKS writing tests (and had a reason to score well on it from the district's perspective and a student's perspective)...she chose NOT to give any instructions in how TAKS writing was different from their normal writing assignments because she thought TAKS was lame and an unworthy test of their ability--
well--a test is a test--if you don't KNOW what the test is measuring how can you understand how to tailor your response...my daughter almost failed TAKS that year because she wrote a pro/con paper vs one with only 1 POV--NOT what TAKS was looking for---her score did not measure her writing ability but her teacher's failure--although that only shows up if you know the particulars...

G/T ELA in my experience can fail to demand the best from students because it does often avoid doing the same type of formal writing that an AP or IB class would expect and teach to--this does not do them any good when they try to take an AP test for college credit or move into a college classroom where there are other expectations of abilities--
of course there are many ELA classes where a research paper is as foreign as reading The Odyssey in Greek

parents need to know more about what happens in the higher G/T classes to make sure that students are being taught/tested for individual abilities --group projects all to often allow the weaker, unmotivated students to skate by on the efforts of those who do the work...and some teachers really like group projects because there is less to grade--often oral presentations vs written reports--easier to give higher grades as well--bolstering students' GPAs which keeps parents happy...

just my .02 and not necessarily on target--

[desli]

Your post adds to what I consider an extensive list of reasons why home education today is much preferable to PS.

[loves2read]

home education cannot compare to teaching in a quality school with a variety of quality teachers--
home schooling basically limits MOST students to doing workbooks and oversight by a parent--
my experience as a parent and teacher is that MOST parents are not able to step back and dispassionately assess their children's abilities and problems...
and if they can most of them can't do anything to resolve those problems effectively...
most students can game their parents easier than their teachers and many parents use home schooling as an excuse to escape public school's oversight--not necessarily because they can teach better...

home schooling is a way to feel good about "protecting" your children from adverse influences and social values that parents feel threaten their children's 'values"

it is not a real word learning situation--
I had --and my daughter who teaching in FL currently has-- students who come into public school from a home-schooling situation at times and my experience is that in most ways that student is behind what I would expect a public school student to be doing...what they have done in homeschool has not prepared them to step into public school curricula or interacting with public school students...
and that is a real-world situation--whether you are a good or bad student--knowing how to interact appropriately with others is a requirement for succeeding in today's world...
social skills/personal knowledge...

[JonnieBattle]

Does anyone know of a school in Arlington, Texas that I could see about getting my grandson who will be going into the 7th grade this next school year? He's very smart and hasn't felt like he has reached his potential in public school. It's sad when he's being bullied about making good grades. If I could get him into another school it would make a world of difference.

[amd123]

I feel so discouraged. I have a child entering Kindergarden next year. We are about to move to the Ft. Worth/Arlington area. I haven't found anywhere that seems to be a good program, or a good fit.

[expatChicagoan]

amd123 - you would be better served starting your own thread to ask the question, rather than tacking on to a 3 year old thread - you will probably get a better response.

I can't answer your question, as my son is just a regular student, not GT (except in my eyes...)

[Squirl]

Originally Posted by amd123

I feel so discouraged. I have a child entering Kindergarden next year. We are about to move to the Ft. Worth/Arlington area. I haven't found anywhere that seems to be a good program, or a good fit.

Look into Summit International Prep. It is a charter school in Arlington with exemplary ratings K-12. Also look into the Classics academy. Little and Ditto elementary schools, as well as Butler elementary, all have high ratings, too.