Prince Georges County public schools are under performing compared to their county neighbors. Parents are choosing Charter schools, private education, and even homeschooling instead of public schools.
Schools in the Central and Northern part of the county have dedicated TAG elementary schools that are proving that dedicated TAG centers work. Although the south has "specialty centers," these are centers that have either pull-out programs, or dedicated TAG classrooms within a neighborhood school, none are performing like the dedicated centers that have all TAG classes and teachers. To exacerbate the disparity between the north and the south, the south receives less resources because their TAG programs are underenrolled.
We have talented and gifted students all over the county, but because the TAG program needs reform, parents are choosing other options. We need to bring our talented kids back to the county and our public schools and the way we do that is to have dedicated TAG elementary schools and dedicated TAG Middle and High Schools.
The TAG system is flawed. If you have a child that is identified and you are happy with your neighborhood school, but you want to put your child in a designated TAG middle school, you would have to put your child in the lottery for a TAG center (TAG classes within a neighborhood school), where they may have to travel up to or over an hour each way to get to school. The other set-back is that your child may not be chosen in the lottery for your designated middle school. This is not fair. Each TAG identified child should be able to enroll in a TAG center at whatever stage of their education. If our TAG students have to travel over an hour to school each way in order to get the appropriate educational instruction they are entitled to it should actually be APPROPRIATE! If our gifted kids are to make these sacrifices, at the minimum the environment should be a safe place for them to learn! The TAG program and curriculum should be tailered for the GIFTED and not just an add-on program or advanced placement program. TAG students are all gifted in different ways and their minds think differently. In addition to accelerated curriculum, they need out of the box opportunities to develop and enhance their minds in order to keep them engaged and motivated to learn.
These kids are some of our brightest and best, and we make it more difficult for them to receive the appropriate education they need and deserve. The all TAG center model works, and we have two models that are proving it works; the other models are not working.
All of our schools need work, but we are leaving our brightest to suffer and fend for themselves. TAG parents need a place for their talented and gifted kids to blossom and advance. These are some of the kids that are leaving the public schools and going to private and Charter. Bring our TAG kids back! Better schools help foster more diversity and opportunity for our county as a whole. Let's build safe and nurturing places for our TAG students to matriculate from elementary through high school!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-a-top-school-district-tried-to-block-a-very-gifted-child/2016/07/31/32dfc37a-5513-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html
