This post mainly concerns the talented and gifted (TAG) magnate magnet known as William B. Travis and how it admits kids from across the district. Meaning, this post probably appeals to a limited group. So let’s not clutter the main page. Jump if you’re into TAG and a proposed policy that might keep your kid out of it.
Travis is actually two schools: an elementary and a middle school. Both rock – which they ought to. If you’ve got several hundred bright kids applying for, say, 80 spots, you’d better be able to produce results.
So let’s pretend you’ve got a TAG kid who is crushing it in the third grade (as mine was) at his local elementary, which ends in the fifth grade. Travis elementary goes fourth and fifth. You’re tempted to pull your kid out of his home elementary and test him for Travis, right? Because if you wait till middle school (sixth through eighth), they’ll already be full up.
Parents have always been told, “Don’t worry. All those Travis elementary kids have to reapply to get into Travis middle school. So keep your high-performing kid at his home elementary if you’d like. He’ll do well in TAG there, and everyone will apply on equal standing for those sixth-grade spots at Travis.”
Is that really the way it happened? Those fifth-graders at Travis had to apply to stay in their own school in sixth grade. But if a kid was making, say, Bs, would an A applicant be given his spot? I doubt it. But that was the official line: everyone applies for sixth grade.
Now that looks like it might change. The board will vote Thursday on this right here. See the strike-through on the first page? What this means is that all the Travis elementary kids who aren’t discipline problems and who pull reasonable grades will automatically get a spot in the sixth grade. That means those of us applying for Travis middle school will have, say, 10 spots open to us rather than 80. Which I’m fine with. I just wish I’d known this two years ago. The policy change would go into effect for this year’s applicants.
A parent told me about this potential policy change after visiting the Travis open house last week (I attended an open house at another DISD magnate magnet). The way it was described to me was the board vote and the policy were mentioned sort of as a hush-hush aside. When the parent asked for a clarification, everyone got very tight-lipped. This is a sensitive subject.
Bottom line: if this admissions policy is changed, a bunch of parents are going to be angry.
(For the record, I won’t be one of those parents. I’ve got a bright kid, but he happens to be white and come from the wrong part of town. Travis has to accept kids to ensure geographic and racial diversity. So I wouldn’t have bet on my boy getting in to begin with.)
