Top 10 Facts About MCPS Gifted Education

1. MCPS subscribes to a much lower threshold for identification than is generally accepted (see here, and here).

2. Arguments justifying MCPS identification rates of more than 87% in some schools and ~40% system-wide average, on the basis of a highly educated populace in the county cannot be sustained.

3. MCPS has stubbornly resisted providing the identification data, while continuing to demonstrate that the data is available.

4. Legal arguments that Maryland law mandates a label ("State law (binding on both MCPS and MSDE) and current Policy IOA require identification of students as “gifted and talented” on a binary (gifted or not gifted) basis—the 'label.'") are without merit.

6. A far more useful tool, that addresses the debate over labels, and places the power to determine a child's education squarely in the parent's hands is a legally enforceable "Parent Letter" that I have proposed.

7. Arguments that removing the label will result in the “balkanization” of GT are without merit. GT with the label is already a patch work of disparate services.

8. A label is not needed for counting since the MCPS data management system tracks those receiving services.

9. Gifted education is mandated by state law, which requires the identification of, and the provision of services for Gifted and Talented students.

10. Arguments that Montgomery County politics favor a move away from appropriate education for the Gifted and Talented populace are contrary to Maryland law (see above).

The way forward requires jettisoning unsustainable ideas, full compliance with the law, and an unshakable determination to provide all our children with the educational interventions they need.

Let us embrace my proposed Parent Letter, and move forward to the next step.