Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What is giftedness?

SLO, I just sent you a loooong PM.

(bump)

In less than two years since this post, there has been a change in DYS qualification criteria, as well as parental posts of a child admitted with scores below the new, less stringent qualification criteria.

This thread was recently linked by another poster on the current active thread "PG? Husband is a skeptic, I am on the fence"

No, you are not correct. In general, it is not helpful for things to be "taken out of context", as doing so may lead to misinterpretations.

As stated in this recent post, "On this forum, all are accepted, supported, and encouraged regardless of level-of-gifted (LOG); There is no need to make embellished claims of a child's intellectual gifts."

Thank you. I hope it was clear enough that there was no ill will behind my question. I would genuinely understand if parents of EG and PG kids wanted a community of their own to share and commiserate. That said, we continue to have some serious struggles with DS6 (mostly around the OEs and possibly with an undetected LD) and I have found some solace and sage advice on this forum. I am currently reading The Explosive Child, and I hope it will help.

Cheers.

You seem to have a very realistic approach to learning about and helping your child, and I hope you can continue to find answers which are useful for understanding, raising, and advocating for your child. Kudos to you for not inflating or embellishing your child's level of gifted (LOG).

Trying to remember where I heard this, but I believe that there was some recognition that the HG+ 2e population was being underserved by the YS program, which was one likely reason for the change?

I also know that Davidson has maintained that they look at the whole child, indicated by the fact that the application process asks for complete assessment results (including writeups) and will not accept scores by themselves.

And thank you for providing context in a later post. Even though I was the poster that referenced that old thread, it seemed out of the blue to me, too!

To be fair, qualifications have not been lowered across the board. You need considerably higher scores on the Explore and on the SAT now. For example, the Minimum SAT scores went up some a few years back and then the last change in 2016 went from requiring just one to two out of three (Math, CR, Composite) SAT scores. In fact, it is now easier to qualify for Davidson Academy than for Davidson Young Scholars on the SAT because you only need one qualifying SAT score for the academy versus two for DYS and the minimums are the same.

This may have been conjecture read from the thread DYS qualification criteria. Other conjecture included expanding access to families for whom encountering fewer test fees may be a significant budgetary factor.

I'm curious as to what informs your view that the DYS mission is to serve HG+, rather than Profoundly Gifted? The Davidson Young Scholar program qualification criteria webpages plainly states (in context): Other eligibility criteria include factors such as: age, citizenship/residency, extreme precocity, student’s ability to learn and process complex information rapidly.

Backpedaling statements which retreat or withdraw from the minimum requirements as expressed on the website include:
This would seem to indicate that scores just missing the cutoff (and within the standard error's confidence interval to include the cutoff score for eligibility) may be considered, depending upon the strength of other portions of the application...
and
Extenuating circumstances, as determined by the applicant and family...
and

There is good and bad in everything... inclusion is great, so long as new populations do not supplant the profoundly gifted kiddos which Davidson set out to serve.

Thank you for this analysis.

I would tend to agree with having raised the qualifying scores on Explore and SAT, because these tests have changed, there are many study guides and prep courses, and students may take these multiple times, only reporting their highest scores. I'm not sure whether super-scoring may fit in here, but I thought I would mention it.

It is interesting that you compare qualifying scores for Davidson Academy admission with those for DYS, as the Academy requires 3 nominations from specific teachers and the overall application process differs enough that some may consider it a bit of an apples-and-oranges comparison.