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Friends of Travis TAG Vanguard & Academy |
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Sharing the best kept secret in DISD. |
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To contact us: |
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School Phone: 972-794-7500 School Fax: 972-794-7501 E-mail: question@travistag.org Official School Website: Click Here School PTA website: Click HERE |
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Current and Important |
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W. B. Travis Vanguard & Academy FAQ 2011-2012b First Round notices will be mailed March 1, 2011, Second Round on April 6, 2011 1. Is transportation provided? Where does my child catch the bus? Transportation is arranged through the district transportation office and pickup is based on both the closest DISD elementary school to your address and the need to consolidate pickup schools for time and efficiency. 2. What if my child doesn't have ITBS or TAKS scores? [home schooled, private schooled, or out of Dallas ISD] Non-DISD students will sign up at time of application. Current DISD students who didn’t take ITBS last Spring must take the ITBS at their local school before Winter Break. Those students must have requested to take the ITBS before Nov. 30. 3. Can we retake the ITBS if my child’s scores don’t qualify? No 4. What is a Norm Referenced Test? Why doesn’t the TAKS count? A Norm referenced test such as the ITBS compares the student’s results against a national norm (all other students of the same grade, taking the test at the same time). The TAKS is a criterion referenced test, which tests the student on the Texas Education Agency curriculum and determines whether they have achieved an acceptable knowledge ranking. 5. My child did not take the ITBS last year. Will you use their TAKS scores instead of ITBS? How will Travis analyze ITBS scores (that Travis/Spence/Polk applicants will use) vs. TAKS scores (that other DISD applicants will use)? Is there parity between ITBS and TAKS? Travis will ONLY use TAKS scores to determine whether a student can sign up to take the ITBS Saturday testing. Either the TLI Reading or Math scores must be Commended or better. ITBS scores will be used for screening purposes. We use the Math Problem Solving or Math Total national percentile score (whichever is higher) and the Reading Comprehension or Reading Total national percentile score (whichever is higher). Neither side can be lower than 70 %tile and the average of Reading and Math must be 80 %tile or higher. 6. What if you live out of district? Can you still attend Travis? Is there a tuition fee? Applicants that are out of district can still be accepted to Travis once all other qualified IN district applicants have been offered placement. Currently the district does not require a tuition fee, but there will be a fee of $100 to take the ITBS test. 7. What foreign languages does Travis offer? Travis offers Spanish or French as a REQUIRED elective to 7th and 8th grade students. 8. What extracurricular activities does Travis offer? Travis offers numerous extracurricular activities. Our highly popular after-school enrichment program, taught by Travis teachers, offers classes in art, science fiction, digital photography, math and science team, library and gardening, and other subjects. In addition, Travis students participate in science competitions, Destination Imagination, TMSCA (math/science), UIL competitions, band and orchestra competitions, Reflections (PTA arts competition) and National Junior Honor Society. 9. What is the rubric for GPA? The GPA is an average of all core classes. Add the grades from Language Arts/Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Math and divide by the number of grades. 10. Does Travis offer advanced classes? The entire Travis curriculum is designed to challenge talented and gifted students. As student progress permits, Travis teachers expand on core required material to give students a deeper understanding of the subjects. All 7th & 8th grade classes are PreAP, as well as Language Arts & Math in 6th. By eighth grade, teachers are frequently incorporating high school material into their lesson plans. 11. Are they still dividing the district into areas and taking the top students from each quadrant? Has that changed with restructuring? Yes, the 30%- 70% is used. The top 30% are automatically accepted. The remaining 70% are chosen according to the percentage of students from each of the Elementary Learning Communities. 12. My child is currently enrolled as a 5th grader at Travis, must they reapply for 6th grade? No, they will continue on into the Academy program if they maintained good academic standing. 13. Do you have to reapply every year? No. The Vanguard is a two year program, and the Academy is a three year program. Students in the 5th grade in good academic standing will have the opportunity to continue into the Academy program. 14. Does my child need to send in writing samples with their application? No. 15. Why did they eliminate the portfolio of work? The three magnet talented and gifted schools for grades 4-8, K.B. Polk, Alex Spence, and W. B. Travis, felt enough information could be derived from an on-site essay, GPA, and test scores. 16. When/where will the essay test and the Nagliari Non-verbal Aptitude Test be given? They will be given AT Travis on several dates. Parents will sign up their child for one of the dates when they turn in their application. 17. What are the criteria for applying to the other Vanguards &Academies? The criteria for the other schools can be found at http://www.dallasisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001475/Centricity/Domain/15/docs/magnetrequirements.pdf 18. How will the classroom teaching differ from what a typical school classroom teaches? See questions 13 and 15. Compared to your home school, students will get very few worksheets. They will mostly work on long-term projects that involve research and good time management. At Travis, more freedom goes hand-in-hand with more responsibilities. 19. How often PE is offered? In the Vanguard, it is daily (with pullouts for band and orchestra). In the Academy every student must take one semester of PE yearly, which meets as a daily class. 20. What specials are offered and how often? Gr. 4 takes gym, art & general music. Gr.5 takes gym, art, band or orchestra. Grades 6-8 attend gym, art/computer/orchestra/band daily. In addition to PE, grades 7-8 are offered electives of drama, art, band, orchestra, & computers. 21. Do students have access to computers? There are computers in every classroom, and both the Vanguard and the Academy have computer labs that offer fairly open access to students. Plus several of the staff holds computer education certifications and/or advanced degrees. 22. Do you have recess? We have recess at lunch, weather permitting. 23. Do you offer sports? As a part of the Magnet school program, Travis cannot offer UIL sports. For middle school sports, Travis partners with Spence. Students are also permitted to participate in sports through their local middle schools. 24. What if my child is coming from a Montessori school and doesn't have a GPA? We ask parents to request their child’s teacher to assign a numeric grade. 25. Will the essay question be published before the application interview so they can prepare? Or will the kids need to do it on the fly? The essay question will NOT be published before the essay test. (There is no interview component to Travis applications.) The essay prompts have been chosen to gauge the student’s ability to be expressive in writing and is not testing factual knowledge. 26. May I see the rubric for grading the essay? Will this be practiced in Language Arts? What, specifically, will you be looking for in the essay? Structure, substance, length, etc. Please be specific. Also, how can we help our kids practice for writing the essay? We do not share the rubric at the time of accepting the application. Writing is part of a student’s curriculum beginning in pre-kindergarten. All language arts classrooms at all grade levels should be practicing writing throughout the school year. We look for structure, complete sentences and thoughts, creativeness, a beginning, middle, and end. We ask the students to write a minimum of 1 ½ to 2 pages. You could have your child write essays or stories at home and check them for the above mentioned items. 27. What is the Sibling Rule and how is it utilized? Applicants must first qualify regardless of any other consideration. The applicant must have a sibling CURRENTLY at Travis. The applicant and the sibling must be in the same school next year, either BOTH in the Vanguard, or BOTH in the Academy. A current student moving to 6th next year would not be able to help a sibling attend the Vanguard. A current 8th grade student would not be able to help a sibling attend the Academy. If an applicant meets these requirements, they will be placed at the head of the list for open spots. 28. Is priority given to DISD kids over private school kids? No. 29. Does arriving early on the first day make a difference to my child’s application? Travis is required to record date and time of application, but Over-all application score, which quadrant of the school district they live in, the ITBS Math score, the ITBS reading score, and the essay test score are matched and considered BEFORE checking date/time. Date & Time are rarely, if ever, needed after using all the other criteria to break a tie. Arriving in the middle of the night before the first day to turn in the application FIRST is NOT going to guarantee ANYONE a place for the coming year. 30. Where do Travis students go after Travis? Short answer: Mostly, they go where they want. Long answer: They go on to any of the magnet programs, from TAG and SEM to Booker T Arts Magnet. They show up at Ursuline, Jesuit, Hockaday, Cisterian, White, Hillcrest, and Woodrow IB. Many high schools take a high interest in Travis grads. 31. What do working parents do with their kids after school until they get home from work? Travis has an after-school program intended for extended or advanced learning as well as tutoring opportunities, but it is Monday through Thursday and meets only 20 weeks of the 36 week school year. 32. In December, my child will have completed only one half year of 5th grade. What grade level ITBS will they be given? 4th or 5th grade level? Students are tested with on level tests so in this case, 5th grade level. 33. How does a parent get a copy of the ITBS test scores and the TAKS test scores? Contact your school counselor. Contact the school’s test coordinator to sign up to take the ITBS. 34. Montessori math is taught very differently from DISD, and math scores are quite typically lower on standardized math tests. Would it be appropriate for me to obtain a letter from the head of my child's school or from the math teacher explaining this, and including this with his application? No, we can only go on the scores received. 35. What is Travis’s Texas Education Agency rating? The Vanguard has been EXEMPLARY since opening. The Academy has been EXEMPLARY every year, save one when it was RECOGNIZED. 36. Does ethnicity and/or gender have any influence on acceptance? No 37. Can I apply to several magnet schools to increase my child’s acceptance chances? Quite frankly, no. The application form has a place to pick your first choice AND an alternate choice in case you are not accepted at the first choice. (The first choice school will automatically forward your application on for you.) All applications are entered into a central computer database by all magnets. If your child shows up in the database as having filed multiple applications, then ALL your child’s applications will be VOIDED and removed from consideration for ANY school.
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W. B. Travis Vanguard & Academy FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Other Norm Referenced Tests that can give us national percentile scores:
ITBS, ITED (Iowa Test of Educational Development), Logramos, Terra Nova, SAT 10, CAT, MAP (Measures of Academic Progress), MAT (Metropolitan Achievement Tests), TAP (Tests of Achievement & Proficiency), ERB, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement., Readistep
We DON’T USE: CoGAT, In View, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognative Abilities |