Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Seattle Public Schools Advanced Learning Programs

Hi,
Our family will be relocating to Seattle (likely Seattle Public Schools) at the semester break this year and I am interested in learning more about the Seattle Public Schools Advanced Learning programs. We are coming from Indianapolis, where I have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader who have both been identified as "high ability" by the Indianapolis Public Schools. The 3rd grader attends our public high ability magnet school (which serves grades 2 - 8), the 1st grader was invited to attend for 2nd grade as well, based on her kindergarten assessments.
I am in contact with a representative of the Seattle schools program to have their records reviewed for consideration for transfer into Seattle's programs at the time that we move (as opposed to waiting until the summer test dates for 2017-2018), but am trying to learn more about any experience that people on this forum may have had with the programs and also how the elementary school programs are administered.
Are all of the programs centered at a few schools, or does each school have a separate program? And, if each school has a separate program, are some better than others? (This information may impact where we choose to live in the city, as I'd prefer not to have to switch schools more than once.)
Thanks in advance!

Hi rws,
Welcome to Seattle. The Seattle Public School District has one of the best gifted programs because it was designed by Dr. Nancy Robinson of the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the UW. The program is being updated and you can find the latest update on here, not sure when it'll be put in place:
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/advancedlearning/2190SP%20FINAL%20DRAFT%208.4.16%20(2)%20(2).sbm.WJ.pdf

Briefly put, there are 2 tiers to the program: Highly Capable and Advanced Learner(formerly known as Spectrum). Both programs go from K-8. Highly capable is in self-contained classrooms offered in a number of elementary and middle schools. Advanced Learner is the lower tier where students sit in regular classrooms but get differentiated instructions. All middle schools offer Advanced Learner but only some elementary schools offer it. The eligibility for each program is as follows:

Highly Capable: 98th or 99th percentile in at least 2 categories of CogAT. 95% and up for ELA and math in the district achievement test (MAP).

Advanced Learner: 87th percentile and up in at least 2 categories in CogAT, 87th percentile and up in ELA and Math in the district achievement test.

Those who move in from another gifted program OOS can submit their cogAT scores and latest achievement test scores for consideration on a one-on-one basis, or do the summer testing.

The Highly Capable cohort self-contained program ends in 8th grade. From there they go on to an accelerated APX program at Garfield HS or accelerated IB program (IBX) at Ingraham HS.

I should warn you though, depending on which side you lean politically, you may or may not agree with the direction Seattle public school district is headed with its gifted program. Specifically, there is now a district wide push to end all differentiated instructions for the Advanced Learners/Spectrum program in all Seattle elementary schools. One middle school, WA Middle School, has already started its detracking program for its 6th grade Spectrum, and will move on to detrack 7th grade next year. Thankfully the Highly Capable program remains untouched -- for now.

http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/an-effort-to-raise-achievement-by-dismantling-de-facto-segregation/

If liberal politics is not your cuppa you may want ditch the Socialist Republic of Seattle and move to the East Side. Bellevue School District is excellent and has probably the best gifted program in the state.

Thank you!

Do you happen to know if there is a list of which elementary schools have the Highly Capable and Advanced Learner programs?

Based on the information you provided, I believe that my 3rd grader should qualify for Highly Capable. Not sure though about our 1st grader, as our district screens kindergarten students with Terra Nova rather than CogAT, so they may not have enough information to make a transfer decision for her. However, I would like them to be in the same school building. We don't qualify for summer testing at this point (as I understand it) as we are not moving until December and therefore don't have a Seattle address and cannot register the kids for school in the district yet.

[quote=LoveSunnyDays]I should warn you though, depending on which side you lean politically, you may or may not agree with the direction Seattle public school district is headed with its gifted program. Specifically, there is now a district wide push to end all differentiated instructions for the Advanced Learners/Spectrum program in all Seattle elementary schools. One middle school, WA Middle School, has already started its detracking program for its 6th grade Spectrum, and will move on to detrack 7th grade next year. Thankfully the Highly Capable program remains untouched -- for now. [/quote]

Hmmm... A lot to consider. Thanks for the info. We have considered Bellevue but are quite concerned about the commute time to downtown Seattle.

Check this list for the schools:
[url]https://www.seattleschools.org/students/academics/advanced_learning/services_and_programs/advanced_learning_program_sites/[/url]
Bellevue commute is not bad at all if you work downtown as you can take the I-90 bridge. We used to live there before the kids were born and the commute was about 20 minutes. Now it's about 30 minutes. We live even further east now and our district has a terrible gifted program. The homes in Bellevue are really expensive because of their excellent schools.

SPSD is still okay for now but there's no guarantee what will happen down the road. Seattle has some pretty nutty politics, home of the homeless and heroine capital of America.

I don't really know which of these schools offer a better HC program but you can go to greatschools.org to get the test scores and demographics data for each of these schools. If you still prefer to live in Seattle, Ballard is a pretty decent neighborhood and the neighborhood elementary, Loyal Heights, is a pretty good school. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to offer HCP or Spectrum. But if your children are in HCP or Spectrum you can choose one of the schools outside your neighborhood to attend. I don't know if they provide transportation though.

Transportation is offered for HCC. North-end elementary HCC kids attend Cascadia (housed at the old Lincoln HS building until the end of this year). This is a stand-alone school for the 700+ students qualifying from the north side of Seattle. South-end elementary students attend Thurgood Marshall, which is co-housed with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse gen ed community. Beginning this year, TM will be de-tracking social studies to provide a greater diversity of view points.

Middle schools for HCC include Washington, Hamilton, and JAMS, but further splitting of the program is expected. All middle school sites are co-housed with other programs. Math placement in middle school is independent of advanced learning status and is based on test scores. Some 6th graders take algebra, but most HCC kids take algebra in 7th. JAMS HCC classes (humanities and social studies and science) include kids from the former spectrum program. Some de-tracking is occurring at Washington, but it might just be for the spectrum program. I haven't been following it closely.

For more info, you might want to post here: http://discussapp.blogspot.com

The moderator of that board is a member of this board. Keep in mind that people mostly post on that board if they have concerns. The views are not necessarily representative of all HCC families.

Wrong thread.