Reply to NY cutting gifted programs due to lack of diversity

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Technically the CAS is supposed to measure the knowledge a kid should have at that grade level, so it essentially means that they have mastered that grade level.  None of the state tests really measure more than grade mastery, you have to progressive test to really understand if a kid is advanced and how advanced they really are. [/quote]

^^^ This is why the Latin and Basis models exist.  GT programs target kids that are above-average students and make the schools look stronger than they are.  Tests like this, along with classroom performance, are used to determine who is GT and who is not.  It captures most of the "high norm" group over time, but misses the needs of anyone above or below that group.  For them, though, the enrichment concept does work.

Speaking with GT teachers, though, it becomes clear that the "special needs" category of GT (those kids that are profoundly gifted) is neither targeted nor helped through enrichment.  Teachers are forced to teach to a specific curriculum, and cannot differentiate when a child is already beyond the curriculum.  They can only add depth.  So, if a first-grade class is learning to skip count, a GT kid may be encouraged to express counting in another fashion, maybe skip-counting in difficult intervals, or something along those lines.  Though the child may be ready to discuss sets or permutations/combinations (still on topic!), those types of enrichment are completely unavailable.

The only option for acceleration is to take a child out of one grade and place them into another, less socially appropriate one (granted, for some kids, this is viable, particularly in the later grades).  GT teachers (like ours) have to "wink, wink" the suggestion that public school is not the best place for gifted kids, despite the fact that the teachers really do care and want to do the best job they are allowed to.

So, schools like Latin and Basis come into play -- they don't have to follow the rules.  They are allowed to truly differentiate, despite the repeated outcries to the effect of "they have to teach to every child."  Until DCPS can create a test-in school with an alternate set of rules, no GT program is going to measure up.

Hopefully, Basis or Great Hearts will open a K-4 program in DC, and our kids will be better off.  Until then, K-4 kids in the PG category are probably best off homeschooling or getting a private education.  PG kids without resources will have to wait until differentiation is possible, if they don't become casualties of the system by then.  It's an unfortunate side effect of the rules of the game we have laid out for ourselves.

Get rid of "No Child Left Behind" and "Common Core," and build something more constructive / targeted, and you'll find fewer children being left behind.  I don't have an answer to this problem -- I'm just suggesting that we're looking at the wrong problem.

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There aren't many profoundly gifted kids.  Certainly not enough in DC to open a school just for them.  I have nephews in a larger urban city that attend a gifted school, WIPPSI/WISC scores have to be 130+ (Just gifted) and they have trouble filling grades.  Why should DC put forth resources to educate a handful of kids when they cannot get the majority of kids at grade level?[/quote]

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