While the statement “Child Enrolls in MCPS Middle School” shouldn’t be news, here in Montgomery County it is when the child in question is a qualified and gifted nine-year old. As blogged about a few days ago, Kumar Singam’s daughter was enrolled and welcomed as an incoming 6th grader at Cabin John Middle School on July 22, only to have that enrollment rescinded on August 17, when higher up MCPS school officials insisted that the girl (who completed 5th grade as a homeschooler and has math ability several grades above that) be placed in elementary school with vague assurances that she would receive “advanced classes.”
On Monday, the first day of school, the Singams brought their daughter to Cabin John and were greeted by a phalanx of MCPS officials, who escorted them to a meeting which lasted 4 hours. To his credit, Mr. Singam came well prepared with full documentation of his daughter’s ability.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I received the following good news from him:
After a week during which MCPS informed us that our daughter would fit into a Highly Gifted Center, and acknowledged that she was more than qualified for sixth-grade, last night at 10:31 p.m., Dr. Smith took matters into her own hands, and invited my child to her school. In doing so, I believe, she went against Carver, and showed immense courage and fortitude.
My child was met by a principal who cried, and the chief of the guidance group who cried as well. I can say with absolute conviction, now supported by events, that my child being kept out of school for two days was never about her academics. Her academic achievement was measured by MCPS with its own yardstick….
My child was accepted after a social worker from MCPS stood up and said she could, and the principal, Dr. Smith, insisted she could. Her academic instruction was never a bona fide issue.
If there were heroes in this story, I confess they were all women. Women who showed the courage to stand up for what is right. I know Dr. Smith will suffer retribution and I hope that everyone passionate about GT will give this wonderful lady her due. Write to her, write to MCPS (copy to her), and tell Carver we want more Dr. Smiths. It is only by supporting women like her (and men, too) that GT education can find its feet within MCPS. I also hope that parents in GT will be front and center in ensuring that MCPS will never again keep a child out of school.
If this is a victory, then my daughter’s words describe its purpose well, “I hope Dad that everyone won’t be afraid to ask MCPS to do the right thing for their child.” Personally, if my daughter’s wish comes through, I would feel it was all worthwhile. Today belongs to the courageous women of this world, especially those who are an integral part of our community. As for men, well, we’ve hogged that stage too darn long!!
I thank everyone for their support and prayers.
Kumar
Excellent, excellent news.
While whole grade acceleration aka “grade skipping” isn’t for every child, it should be–as the good Dr. Weast likes to say–”on the table” as an accepted and acknowledged option for some children in this county. I say this as a mom who is convinced that her daughter has suffered harm by not being allowed to accelerate beyond the MCPS norm in her areas of academic strength.
That Mr. Singam had to go to the lengths that he did to make his case (to the point of producing MCPS testing results which it claimed it didn’t have) is really unfortunate.
What Dr. Paulette Smith ultimately did took courage and makes an important statement for gifted education options not only here in Montgomery County but beyond. You can show your support for her decision by writing to her with copies to Superintendent Weast. Commend her for making her decision based on what was best for the individual child, not the bureaucracy, and most of all, let her and Dr. Weast know the impact such a decision can have on our children.
The email addresses are:
- Paulette_Smith@mcpsmd.org
- Jerry_D_Weast@mcpsmd.org (and just in case, his assistant’s address is Suzanne_Peang-Meth@mcpsmd.org)
UPDATE 9/3: Mr. Singman has posted an account of these events. You can read
Why was my child barred from a Highly Gifted Center?
and
After two days, my child is allowed to attend public school
…Plus a comment from Mr. Singam below.
Just out of curiousity, why did they not place their daughter in one of the highly gifted centers for elementary school? Not that this would have necessarily been the right solution, but I’m wondering why they didn’t try.
Lara, I’ve just added a link in my original post to a post by Mr. Singam that provides some further information.
For a child that is at the far end of the spectrum even of children who are accepted into the Centers, the Center might not be the best option. At minimum, I believe that parents need to be alerted that their children are outliers even in MCPS. They should receive individualized advice and counseling. There are levels of giftedness. Check this quote from a piece by Dr. Jim DeLisle (http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/delisle%20ch1.cfm)
However, I would come to know children who were “gifted” and others who were, well . . . “super gifted.” I soon learned that few school districts take the time to differentiate between levels of giftedness the same way they do for children with disabilities. Instead, all the gifted kids were clustered under one label, often receiving the same services in the same classroom. Yet, even if IQ alone were used to identify these children, the range of scores might be from 130–180+, which is a far greater range of IQ then I ever dealt with in my class for children who were mentally retarded.
Although it is hard to generalize about the needs of children I have not met, my experiences with gifted children lead me to state the following:
* Children with IQs in the 130–140 range can often be accommodated in regular classrooms where teachers adjust the curriculum to meet their advanced abilities. Social and emotional difficulties are uncommon, as there is a large enough pool of children with similar abilities that legitimate friendships can be formed.
* Children with IQ’s in the 140–160 range can seldom be accommodated sufficiently in an educational environment that merely “stretches” or enriches the curriculum. Intensive modification of curriculum, including grade skipping, needs to be considered as viable. Too, agemates may offer little social sustenance, as these children will prefer—and need—the company of older, intelligent children and/or adults.
* Children with IQs above 160 have academic and intellectual needs that are so unique that typical school resources will be unable to provide fully for their education. For these rare children, a team of professionals (including a teacher, gifted expert, parents, and a psychologist) will need to be convened, much as a similar team would be gathered for a child with severe learning difficulties. Intellectually, socially, and emotionally, these profoundly gifted children are more at risk than others if their level of giftedness is not addressed directly.
In recent years, more information and resources have become available for highly gifted children and their parents. Just know this: Because giftedness varies in both depth and range, your advocacy efforts on behalf of your child will need to take into account both of these realities. If “one-size-fits-all” isn’t true in shoes, shirts, or pantyhose, then it is equally unrealistic to believe that a single gifted program can serve the needs of its many unique members.
I cried when I read this. That is wonderful news. This child has a right to be educated at her level, which intellectual peers. Dr. Smith did a wonderful and courageous thing. Thanks for posting the emails. Although I’m not in the district (or your state, for that matter!) I will email my support as well, as I have a PG child who will need accommodations, be in acceleration or otherwise, and one person doing the right thing will hopefully turn into a wave of people.
That’s very interesting, thanks. But it brings up what I think is a conundrum for parents of children with outlying IQs and abilities. If you grade-skip a child, he or she still won’t be with their intellectual peers, plus at some ages the child will be dropped into the middle school hormonal soup — an environment where being different is hyper-difficult. Is that better or worse than being the outlier in a group of outliers, with teachers who are favorably disposed to helping gifted kids?
Lara, on a gifted listserv that I belong to, there has been a week-long thread/discussion about grade-skipping aka whole grade acceleration, both pros and cons. Believe me, the decision whether or not to grade skip a child is *never* taken lightly by parents–they agonize over it. The “right” thing to do is different for every profoundly gifted child. But clearly there are cases that cry out for it, and all too often parents meet opposition much like Mr. Singam faced. It’s puzzling, because there is more than enough research to support acceleration (see “A Nation Deceived” at http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_deceived/).
C. was never given the opportunity grade skip, so I don’t speak from personal experience, but I know parents whose children have, and they report that their kids are *much* happier after the skip once they are with intellectual peers. It’s also important that with these kinds of kids nothing is set in stone. Parents are constantly improvising and adjusting what works. After skips in early grades, some parents choose to “decelerate” in various ways. Others create gap years or study abroad. Some forge ahead with early college. But bottom line, it’s about what works for that child AT THAT POINT IN TIME. You cross other bridges when you get to them. I am sure that Mr. Singam has excellent reasons for believing that this is the best path for his child. MCPS should have been a partner in this, not an obstacle.
I”m not challenging Mr. Singham’s decision; I’m sure he’s thought this through very thoroughly and is doing what he thinks is best. And MCPS administration’s actions are appalling, as usual.
It’s just that I am wondering about the idea of intellectual peers, and what that really means. If a kid is truly profoundly gifted and they go into a higher grade classroom where the kids are within normal range or moderately gifted, does that solve the problem or just change it?
I truly don’t know the answer, and I’m sure it’s different for every child. I do know that my own (otherwise well-adjusted) child’s unhappiness in a “regular” school stems in large part from a feeling of loneliness and different-ness. How best to address this? I don’t know.
As the parent in question, I must admit that I am an unabashed advocate for public education done right. In 2006, I concluded that homeschooling is the best option for GT kids with the proviso that standardized testing must be used as a means of gauging progress.
Montgomery County, Maryland, handily outspends other jurisdictions on educating a child, with scant explanation as to where the “extra” dollars go. It identifies a system-wide 40% of students as gifted (some schools posting more than 50% ID rates), with nary a blink from the populace. With high expenditures, and the claim of exorbitant numbers of GT students, shouldn’t the taxpayers have a right to expect appropriate programming, fairly administered?
A recent event forced me to rethink the public school alternative. The consequences speak for themselves. This is the time for all public school systems to begin addressing the needs of all students and nurturing the best and the brightest. We can only dig ourselves out of this economy by creating more clones of Bill Gates, Winton Marsalis, Yoichiro Nambu (Nobel Prize, Physics), and Osamu Shimamura (Nobel Prize, Chem). Ah, yes, I picked two Japanese to illustrate that educational systems can turn around—Japan’s just did.
I think that demanding more from our public education system benefits all.
Finally, I must confess that this whole saga tore my heart out. Looking into a child’s eyes on the day she is turned away from school is an experience I don’t wish on my worst enemy.
Glad to hear that the two sides were finally able to reach a mutually acceptable decision about the girl’s placement. I hope it works out well for her.
Lara (I can’t nest another comment), I think this is where perceptive and empathic school personnel come in, where extracurricular activities are key, and most importantly connection to groups such as the Davidson Young Scholars Program can be a life saver. Through the Davidson program families of profoundly gifted kid–and the kids themselves–can connect both online and in real life, at Davidson events and informal, parent organized ones. It’s often through a group like this (also CTY, SENG etc.) that kids and parents “find their people” and feel understood and accepted.
And sometimes … many times… the answer is for these kids to be homeschooled. They can connect with kids and adults of varying ages, based largely on interest. In the homeschooling world, age really doesn’t matter. It’s about what you can do, what you’re interested in.
My son was allowed early entrance to kindergarten, midyear, by a sympathetic building principal (after basically being told no by the district office,she allowed it on a test basis anyway). My son then ended up with an additional two years acceleration in math/science, also a decision made in building (by the classroom teaches and building Dean of Students). Two years later, I was at a district-wide meeting and the issue of gifted learners was brought up. The asst. superintendent said that grade-skipping was not the right option for gifted learners. Two teachers in the room who had my son in their classroom both smiled and put their fingers up to their lips in a “shush.”
The next year another highly-gifted child was enrolled in a different school in the district and was also radically accelerated. The fact that my son had made a successful transition (and at that point he’d done a second grade skip) had set a positive precedent.
Staff that are willing to find solutions that work for individual kids…it is so simple, if it is allowed to happen. Our school has no gifted programs, no gifted policies and not much experience, possibly none at all, in dealing with highly-gifted plus kids. But they were willing to try.
[...] Singam’s efforts to enroll his 9 year old daughter in an MCPS middle school (posts here and here), I wrote him an email: … I wanted to let you know that I really, really empathize with you. [...]
[...] my, is it ever. One needs look no further than the recent Singam case. Or just read my post on this subject earlier in the week. Or what happened with my other [...]