What criteria would you use to judge a gifted program? (research project)

[BamaTanya]

I'm doing a graduate research project on gifted education. I want to compare the gifted students from 2 schools (public schools) -- one in which students receive special gifted services and one in which students do not receive special services (although they have been identified as gifted students).

 

Obviously, increasing standardized test scores is not the goal of gifted education. Obviously, again, standardized test scores are readily available and would be an easy data set for comparison.

 

What I'd really like to compare is something more subjective like the students' feelings toward education and how they perceive its meeting their educational needs or challenges them. Or how interested they are in learning. Or how much freedom/creativity they have to explore their gifts. (Not a lot, probably, in either situation!)

 

If you were considering a public school gifted program, what characteristics (outcomes) would make you think it was effective? I need to find something that can be demonstrated or measured in some way. Even if it's just a questionnaire for parents and students.

 

I will be talking with my advisor about this, but I thought you parents might help me take something tangible and meaningful into our discussions.

 

TIA!

[Truscifi]

I am looking at a public gifted school program one day a week as a supplement for my ds. I think the criteria I will judge the program by are if ds enjoys it and if it offers him the opportunity to collaborate with other children on stimulating projects. I don't know if that helps you at all, though :glare:

[JenneinCA]

Assuming that you are talking about high schoolers...

 

I would want to know the number of drop-outs that were identified gifted. This would help me to see how accommodating the school is at providing interesting and relevant material.

 

I would want to know the numbers and percentages of students attending various types of colleges/universities. And their majors. And if possible the first year completion percentages. This would help me see if the school was teaching the students what colleges are looking for and see if the students are prepared for the challenges of college.

 

I hope that helps.

[BamaTanya]

but I appreciate and will save your ideas, Jenne. They may come in handy for other assignments.

[mchel210]

My two girls are in PS gifted. One is in full day gifted and other kids I have heard in other schools do not have Full Day Gifted classes. She has a gifted certified teacher. My other dd, 1st, is in high achiever class, but in the gifted program. She did gifted in her class last year for K alone...but this year they said they have to send her to 2nd grade gifted class for some subjects.

 

I expect my children to be working in higher books then the average child. I do not want my dds to be working on grade level work. My 8 yo is working in 4-5th grade books only. My 1st grader is in 2-3 grade books. Right now it is the first week of school...so they are in the low books till they finish testing all the other kids. My kids are so bored. I expect high level spelling, writing expectations, math assignments etc.

 

If I have problems with the teachers...I go up to the ESE Specialist right away and voice my concerns. They listen to me there...since I keep up on my rights and tthe gifted laws and am so on top of their education...and I think parents like me are to annoying to them...so they listen faster to keep us out of their way.

 

I do realize there are bunches of kids in the school that are high achievers or gifted that their parents just are not into their education or are not to sure how to proceed with the school...and the kids are looked over. Subjects like science, history, art and music are all on grade level. I dont think the school bumps these. We just supplement our work at home.

 

My girls are very happy in school. They love it. Some days they complain but in all....they love it. As long as the school challenges them, I have no problems.

Edited August 28, 2009 by mchel210

[rlowetx]

Interesting, I'll tell you my personal experience from an AWESOME gifted program (AK) to a terrible one (NY) and it was 5th grade.

 

AK - had a dedicated, full time, GT teacher. Kids were pulled one day a week for GT class. The kids in the program had to finish their other classwork for the day in the first 40 min. of the day. The rest we spent on creative projects.. we built robots, made movies, collaborated on world issues, discussed / researched debatable ideas. In all, it was so amazing, because it allowed us to use our brain. Learning stuff in the regular class is rote and doesn't allow you to get your brain pumping - GT programs should teach the kids to think outside the box, kwim. So the reason this class was incredible was precisely that - we were using others skills besides memorization.

 

NY - You got harder academic work. Great, other kids thought we were snotty (we would be the youngest kids in class) and they ran out of things to teach us in high school.

 

Back to what I think is an ideal GT situation - a curriculum that gives those kids challenges and teach them how to problem solve and collaborate. For the most part GT kids can learn stuff.. they want to know how to apply that stuff.

 

just my .02

[EKS]

I would look at the number of national merit finalists that the high schools produce.

[SoCal Sandra]

My school district had a gifted program for 4th, 5th and 6th grade. It was called the MGM (Mentally Gifted Minors) Program. This was back in 1968-1971. The one feature that stands out in my mind above all the other great enrichment we received was the fact that in 6th grade we had designated Fridays when we were allowed to bring in a hobby or interest and work on it for the entire day. The room was filled with creativity, interest, and passion. One of the teacher's passions was cooking, so we even cooked meals on those days!

 

So, I would value a program that either sets aside time like this for the uninterrupted pursuit of a passion, or one in which the students in the program feel that, within the structure of the program, they receive adequate time to concentrate on an area of interest.

 

I would also value a class in which the instructor models or demonstrates a passion for learning, like my sixth grade teacher did. Looking back, I recognize that this instructor was gifted himself. One of his passions was drawing cartoons. Midyear he posted a cartoon mural he had drawn of our entire class. Each child was depicted in a way that reflected the child's interest. I belonged to Girl Scouts and I also played tennis, so he drew me dressed in my green Girl Scout uniform, holding a tennis racquet. On the last day of school he cut out the individual cartoon children and we each got to take home our personal cartoon drawn by a teacher who cared enough about us as individuals to observe and remember what our interests were. What a grand finale to our elementary school years.

 

My sister still lives in my home town. She periodically sees this teacher because she is one of his customers; he's retired from teaching and now operates a store that sells holistic health products. He taught thousands of public school children and put his own son through medical school. He could easily rest on his laurels. Instead he is still learning, still pursuing an interest with thoroughness and integrity.

 

HTH

[babysparkler]

When ds9 was in ps a couple years ago, his one-hour-per-week gifted pullout program was the ONLY hour of the week that he looked forward to. He could be stricken with the flu, and would still beg to go to school on Wednesday from 1-2pm. He felt free to be himself there, knowing that he wouldn't be criticized. He had hoped that it would be a place that he didn't stick out like a sore thumb. It turned out that since he was much younger than the other kids, he still had the "class mascot" thing happen there (but he was used to it and accepted it with grace). He loved that program because it was interesting and new to him and being there gave him the opportunity to stretch his thinking. The rest of his time at the school was the most dreadful experience for him. He cried to me every day after school and asked me "PLEASE TEACH ME SOMETHING NEW". He felt like he was trapped in a place where there was no room to be himself or grow. He was constantly waiting for the other kids to catch up so that he could continue running, but that day would never come. He would cry to me that he just wanted the kids to stop holding him back, and that it looked so hopeless to him. He felt like his abilities were being used against him when he had to teach the other kids despite the fact that he really didn't want to. My little boy who once couldn't wait to get to school turned around and began hating every minute of it (minus that precious hour of GT). He spiraled into depression by the end of first grade when I finally pulled him out to homeschool.

 

Here is the difference:

 

PS (it breaks my heart just remembering it):

1) No academic challenge in course materials

2) No academic challenge in teaching methods/higher-thinking questioning

3) Other children were just SOOO DIFFERENT from him, and no one could understand his little genius mind. He was very much an "outcast" and treated that way because he was different by the other kids.

4) He was responsible for teaching the other children in the class (not by his desire at all) and had to sit waiting for everyone else to "catch up" before he could do any type of learning.

 

Gifted Pull-out:

1) Like-minded children so he wasn't so much the outcast (if you don't consider that he was the only gifted child from K-2nd grade and he was a kindergartener/first grader in with all 3-4th grade kids, which he LOVED)

2) Higher thinking/questioning that he just YEARNED for... they gave him the chance to actually think/construct/form opinions/make connections/be creative/think outside-the-box/etc...

3) Special field trips (to the courthouse to interview with a judge and do a mock trial, to the mint when studying economics, etc.)

 

Now that I have pulled him out of ps, our homeschool is like that gifted program in many ways, only with fewer kids and more than just an hour a week :) He loves school again!

Edited August 29, 2009 by babysparkler

[Elisa]

So, you are comparing gifted children who receive differentiated education versus those who receive no special services at all? In some states, once you are identified as gifted the law requires that you receive services.

Aside from satisfaction type questions, some ideas on objective data: GPA, absentee days, participation in school clubs, participation in regional gifted programs (Duke TIP, JHU CTY, Stanford EPGY, etc.), Explore scores (taken in 4th grade), family income, size of town.

[BamaTanya]

Interesting, I'll tell you my personal experience from an AWESOME gifted program (AK) to a terrible one (NY) and it was 5th grade.

 

AK - had a dedicated, full time, GT teacher. Kids were pulled one day a week for GT class. The kids in the program had to finish their other classwork for the day in the first 40 min. of the day. The rest we spent on creative projects.. we built robots, made movies, collaborated on world issues, discussed / researched debatable ideas. In all, it was so amazing, because it allowed us to use our brain. Learning stuff in the regular class is rote and doesn't allow you to get your brain pumping - GT programs should teach the kids to think outside the box, kwim. So the reason this class was incredible was precisely that - we were using others skills besides memorization.

 

NY - You got harder academic work. Great, other kids thought we were snotty (we would be the youngest kids in class) and they ran out of things to teach us in high school.

 

Back to what I think is an ideal GT situation - a curriculum that gives those kids challenges and teach them how to problem solve and collaborate. For the most part GT kids can learn stuff.. they want to know how to apply that stuff.

 

just my .02

 

This is very helpful. Sometimes I think g/t programs are, no matter their good intentions, just a waste of time and effort.

[BamaTanya]

My school district had a gifted program for 4th, 5th and 6th grade. It was called the MGM (Mentally Gifted Minors) Program. This was back in 1968-1971. The one feature that stands out in my mind above all the other great enrichment we received was the fact that in 6th grade we had designated Fridays when we were allowed to bring in a hobby or interest and work on it for the entire day. The room was filled with creativity, interest, and passion. One of the teacher's passions was cooking, so we even cooked meals on those days!

 

So, I would value a program that either sets aside time like this for the uninterrupted pursuit of a passion, or one in which the students in the program feel that, within the structure of the program, they receive adequate time to concentrate on an area of interest.

 

I would also value a class in which the instructor models or demonstrates a passion for learning, like my sixth grade teacher did. Looking back, I recognize that this instructor was gifted himself. One of his passions was drawing cartoons. Midyear he posted a cartoon mural he had drawn of our entire class. Each child was depicted in a way that reflected the child's interest. I belonged to Girl Scouts and I also played tennis, so he drew me dressed in my green Girl Scout uniform, holding a tennis racquet. On the last day of school he cut out the individual cartoon children and we each got to take home our personal cartoon drawn by a teacher who cared enough about us as individuals to observe and remember what our interests were. What a grand finale to our elementary school years.

 

My sister still lives in my home town. She periodically sees this teacher because she is one of his customers; he's retired from teaching and now operates a store that sells holistic health products. He taught thousands of public school children and put his own son through medical school. He could easily rest on his laurels. Instead he is still learning, still pursuing an interest with thoroughness and integrity.

 

HTH

 

I hadn't thought of that! Good idea!

[BamaTanya]

When ds9 was in ps a couple years ago, his one-hour-per-week gifted pullout program was the ONLY hour of the week that he looked forward to. He could be stricken with the flu, and would still beg to go to school on Wednesday from 1-2pm. He felt free to be himself there, knowing that he wouldn't be criticized. He had hoped that it would be a place that he didn't stick out like a sore thumb. It turned out that since he was much younger than the other kids, he still had the "class mascot" thing happen there (but he was used to it and accepted it with grace). He loved that program because it was interesting and new to him and being there gave him the opportunity to stretch his thinking. The rest of his time at the school was the most dreadful experience for him. He cried to me every day after school and asked me "PLEASE TEACH ME SOMETHING NEW". He felt like he was trapped in a place where there was no room to be himself or grow. He was constantly waiting for the other kids to catch up so that he could continue running, but that day would never come. He would cry to me that he just wanted the kids to stop holding him back, and that it looked so hopeless to him. He felt like his abilities were being used against him when he had to teach the other kids despite the fact that he really didn't want to. My little boy who once couldn't wait to get to school turned around and began hating every minute of it (minus that precious hour of GT). He spiraled into depression by the end of first grade when I finally pulled him out to homeschool.

 

Here is the difference:

 

PS (it breaks my heart just remembering it):

1) No academic challenge in course materials

2) No academic challenge in teaching methods/higher-thinking questioning

3) Other children were just SOOO DIFFERENT from him, and no one could understand his little genius mind. He was very much an "outcast" and treated that way because he was different by the other kids.

4) He was responsible for teaching the other children in the class (not by his desire at all) and had to sit waiting for everyone else to "catch up" before he could do any type of learning.

 

Gifted Pull-out:

1) Like-minded children so he wasn't so much the outcast (if you don't consider that he was the only gifted child from K-2nd grade and he was a kindergartener/first grader in with all 3-4th grade kids, which he LOVED)

2) Higher thinking/questioning that he just YEARNED for... they gave him the chance to actually think/construct/form opinions/make connections/be creative/think outside-the-box/etc...

3) Special field trips (to the courthouse to interview with a judge and do a mock trial, to the mint when studying economics, etc.)

 

Now that I have pulled him out of ps, our homeschool is like that gifted program in many ways, only with fewer kids and more than just an hour a week :) He loves school again!

 

I can see how I could use some of these ideas to pose questions on parent or student questionnaire.

[BamaTanya]

So, you are comparing gifted children who receive differentiated education versus those who receive no special services at all? In some states, once you are identified as gifted the law requires that you receive services.

Aside from satisfaction type questions, some ideas on objective data: GPA, absentee days, participation in school clubs, participation in regional gifted programs (Duke TIP, JHU CTY, Stanford EPGY, etc.), Explore scores (taken in 4th grade), family income, size of town.

 

Our state is required to offer services to those identified students, but the parents may elect to have their child attend a "school of choice" in which the services are not offered. They then sign the GEP (the IEP for gifted ed) acknowledging that their child will not receive special services while he/she attends this particular school (not their regular district school).

 

Thanks for your input!

[BamaTanya]

and that's a good thing. I was starting with a general idea of what I'd like to compare, but I needed some concrete examples. This is very helpful. More input is welcome and appreciated! :)

[SoCal Sandra]

Reflecting on the other side of your study--the gifted students who receive no special services--I would be interested in finding out how many of those students acknowledge prolonged or continued inattention in class and how that affects their self-image, class performance and perception of various academic subjects.

 

Another anecdote. This time from the other side.

 

Dh's elementary school tested him as a child and determined that he had an IQ of 168. They asked him to be in a gifted program but he had no transportation to the school where it was held. (The school district did not provide transportation in those days) So he remained in a regular class. He spent his entire school career bored and unfocused, doodling and daydreaming, not to mention late for class. Although he was able to focus his mental energies on interests outside the classroom, the lack of challenge, and therefore lack of focus, in the classroom created poor academic habits that continued into his later years of schooling.

 

It would be interesting to find out if the gifted children who do not receive special services report similar happenings.

 

I'm glad to hear that your research project is taking shape. Best of luck.

[Little House]

One thing that often happens to gifted kids (girls often) is that they learn to blend in. They learn to hide their abilities. I wonder if this happens as often in gifted classes? I don't know how you could measure this, but it would be interesting if you could.

[cdgni]

SoCal Sandra.. May I offer my opinion of what you wrote about your teacher? Please print it from here and send it to him. It would make his day to know how effective his teaching was almost 40 years ago. This is a tremendous testimony to the power of a good teacher.

 

Cathy

 

My school district had a gifted program for 4th, 5th and 6th grade. It was called the MGM (Mentally Gifted Minors) Program. This was back in 1968-1971. The one feature that stands out in my mind above all the other great enrichment we received was the fact that in 6th grade we had designated Fridays when we were allowed to bring in a hobby or interest and work on it for the entire day. The room was filled with creativity, interest, and passion. One of the teacher's passions was cooking, so we even cooked meals on those days!

 

So, I would value a program that either sets aside time like this for the uninterrupted pursuit of a passion, or one in which the students in the program feel that, within the structure of the program, they receive adequate time to concentrate on an area of interest.

 

I would also value a class in which the instructor models or demonstrates a passion for learning, like my sixth grade teacher did. Looking back, I recognize that this instructor was gifted himself. One of his passions was drawing cartoons. Midyear he posted a cartoon mural he had drawn of our entire class. Each child was depicted in a way that reflected the child's interest. I belonged to Girl Scouts and I also played tennis, so he drew me dressed in my green Girl Scout uniform, holding a tennis racquet. On the last day of school he cut out the individual cartoon children and we each got to take home our personal cartoon drawn by a teacher who cared enough about us as individuals to observe and remember what our interests were. What a grand finale to our elementary school years.

 

My sister still lives in my home town. She periodically sees this teacher because she is one of his customers; he's retired from teaching and now operates a store that sells holistic health products. He taught thousands of public school children and put his own son through medical school. He could easily rest on his laurels. Instead he is still learning, still pursuing an interest with thoroughness and integrity.

 

HTH

[SoCal Sandra]

Actually, once I finished writing that post I realized it was a tribute as well as a response and have been pondering the idea of writing it in a form suitable for publication in my hometown newspaper. Or perhaps a letter, as you suggest. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Charles Wallace]

I'm doing a graduate research project on gifted education. I want to compare the gifted students from 2 schools (public schools) -- one in which students receive special gifted services and one in which students do not receive special services (although they have been identified as gifted students).

 

Obviously, increasing standardized test scores is not the goal of gifted education. Obviously, again, standardized test scores are readily available and would be an easy data set for comparison.

 

What I'd really like to compare is something more subjective like the students' feelings toward education and how they perceive its meeting their educational needs or challenges them. Or how interested they are in learning. Or how much freedom/creativity they have to explore their gifts. (Not a lot, probably, in either situation!)

 

If you were considering a public school gifted program, what characteristics (outcomes) would make you think it was effective? I need to find something that can be demonstrated or measured in some way. Even if it's just a questionnaire for parents and students.

 

I will be talking with my advisor about this, but I thought you parents might help me take something tangible and meaningful into our discussions.

 

TIA!

 

Sure. Here goes:

 

1. I want a real gifted program. I want a program whose criteria are based on objective standards of nationally-recognized I.Q. tests administered individually by an outside professional not affiliated with the school district. I don't want criteria to be based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, or the degree to which a parent complains, but to be based on the student's demonstrated need for differentiated education.

 

2. I want a real gifted program. I don't want a pull-out. Normal children are not normal for an hour a week. Learning-challenged kids are not challenged in their learning for an hour a week. Similarly, gifted children are gifted all the time. Some gifted kids' needs can reasonably be met in the classroom, but the students who have demonstrated a need for differentiated education cannot be adequately educated in a once-a-week pullout.

3. I want a real gifted program. This means a program in which the core subjects -- math, English, science, and history -- are taught using means best suited to gifted students: curriculum telescoping, acceleration within a subject, or even whole-grade acceleration. LOGIC GAMES DON'T CUT IT. Neither do pullouts whose purpose is essentially to have students play around with little projects otherwise unrelated to the core of their curriculum.

 

4. I want a real gifted program. This means having teachers -- the GATE ones AND the regular ones -- familiar with the basics of what "gifted" means and looks like. It doesn't always look like the quiet, obedient child who gets As on her schoolwork; in fact, that particular child may be "good at school," but "good at school" and "gifted" are NOT the same.

5. I want a real gifted program. This means having GATE teachers who advocate with principals and school boards to have extremely and profoundly gifted students accelerated into higher grades. It means having GATE teachers inservice and inservice and inservice until myths like "Acceleration hurts kids!" are deader than the idea that the earth is flat. It may mean having GATE teachers advocate to get some kids into high school or college before they've started to sprout armpit hair. I want GATE teachers to be more familiar with the Iowa Scales than they are with the appearance of their own right hands.

 

6. I want a real gifted program. I am very weary of GATE programs being watered down to silly logic games, Sudoku, and little projects because of complaining parents and weak-willed administrators. I'm weary of hearing about teachers essentially targeting GATE kids for mockery, treating them as the victims of what amounts to outright (and often, school-sanctioned) prejudice that would be utterly unacceptable to anyone else. I am weary of hearing that they will all even out by third grade, that they'll do just fine with no intervention, that their real function needs to be as unpaid, nonunion "teacher's aides" in the classroom, that they are already 'gifted' and don't need more 'gifts' -- including the free and appropriate education for which my tax dollars are paying.

 

Bottom line? I want a real gifted program.

[lgm]

:iagree:

 

In addition, the school pysch should be trained in gifted and be part of the team.

 

Also, the entry criteria should not include knowledge testing - reasoning only. There are many many parents stuffing their children...these students test well since their parents have found out what is on the Brigance and CogAT (our district's idea of gifted screening) and have taught the children the answers and the type of test questions, but diminish the quality of the honors classes because they struggle to think and process, despite their great ability to memorize and their parents ability to teach phonics/reading before or during kindergarten.

 

A true gifted program would allow pretesting and compaction of curriculum as well as independent study. Room for failure and for growth would be allowed.

 

My criteria for success would be a measurement of growth. The scenario my child had: spiral math curriculum. Skipped grade 2. Recognized as gifted, able to extend all the 3rd grade math units on his own...left him nothing to do in math for the next two years other than some geo nomenclature. Why waste so much time when other options are available? At least give him what sped has - the ability to work independently at his instructional level at his own pace in small group or 1:1 (depending on local population) with a certified teacher.

Edited August 31, 2009 by lgm

[cdgni]

We live overseas and in one country that we lived in- it had a school for the gifted. The minimum IQ to be placed in their school was 130. It had kids from 5 upward.

 

My DD went there for 1 year. She says math was finally interesting. Everyone got it quickly and understood the subjects. It was her favorite subject. In addition, it had English, French, Science, History and art. All classes were geered toward the higher spectrum for a child.

 

There are special needs classes for those who needs can't be met in the regular classroom. Are our gifted children, the true leaders of business and government tomorrow, to be denied the proper resources for an adequate education that fits their needs?

 

One hour pull outs don't work.

 

Cathy

[TravelingChris]

My dh had no programs in his school until he was in jr. high/high school. Then he was accelerated in math and science. He ended up doing both AP Chemistry and AP Physics which was very unusual in his school district back then. Most smart kids did only one AP science. Coming out of that school district and now as an adult, he realizes that he was held back in English and Social Sciences solely because of his spelling. He is a very dedicated reader of history and literature and an award winning writer in the military. I know he would have done fine in accelerated other programs too.

 

For me, I was in a mixed up situation in elementary school. They were using an innovative math program tht supposedly let you accelerate as fast as you were able. It didn't work in application as well. I spent my math periods waiting in one line for correction and then another line to get my next assignment. The next year you would be back down in at a lower level to try and make it up again. You couldn't skip or pass out of levels.

Then when I was in fourth grade, they got confused and put me in a fifth grade advanced classroom. We took a novel and turned it into a play. That was a challenging and interesting project. However, the next year they realized that I was a fifth grader and put me in a fifth grade class again where we learned about poetry by listening to "Spiders and Snakes", that wonderful piece of literature. I decided that 'School's Out" was more my style.

 

In Jr. High I was unfortunately and incorrectly placed in average math. My father died that year and my jr. high years were mostly a waste. My high school years did have some good and challenging teachers but also had plenty of wasted time and expectations that I teach others. The one thing I learned from schools was that I hate group projects and to run away from them. Group projects invariably meant I do the work, others profit.

[Nan in Mass]

I was too shy for anyone to tell much about me until about 2nd grade, and I didn't learn to read quickly. I can tell you that from 2nd grade through 5th I was one of a handful of children in my grade who had "independent reading". We picked books from the library to read, picked out 10 words from the book to look up in the dictionary and write out the def for, and wrote a book report. When we finished a book, we went to the teacher and she corrected our report, listened to us read a passage aloud, and talked together about the book. I also had a spelling book that I was supposed to be working in every day, but which I neglected to the point where I never came close to finishing any book before year's end. Nobody bothered me much about that, and nobody suggested that my abismal spelling had anything to do with my intelligence. In math, most of us had the math cart. You took a pre-test and if you didn't do well enough, you did the work sheets, then you took a post-test. If you didn't do well, you did more worksheets and did another post-test. You corrected it yourself from the answer key. There was no ceiling in math (I'm not profoundly gifted GRIN). I vaguely knew I was working farther ahead than most of the grade, but it didn't matter very much. Then in 6th grade, we moved to a different district and I spent the rest of my school years bouncing between the advanced classes and the low classes (depending on whether the teacher cared about spelling and ability to memorize), hating school dreadfully and being very bored. So - I guess my ideal gifted program would have that math cart and individualized reading, along with more opportunity to do more interesting things in math and more opportunity to discuss literature. It would let the gifted know there are other children like them. I wasn't as unusual in my first school as I was in my second. I would have plenty of opportunity for larger creative projects and larger science projects, ones in which skills like how to use equipment were incorporated. I would have a program where real skills were taught, like fluency in a foreign language and drawing and sight reading music and problem-solving were taught as "enrichment", not just puzzles. I feel like so much of my school years were wasted. I had lots of things I wanted to learn as well as the last list, even in 4th grade. I wanted to know all the constellations, and which birds sang which songs, and how to make complicated origami figures, and how to start a fire with a hand drill, among many other things. The list went on and on. Instead, even in my good school, we never really seemed to learn anything I didn't already know, not anything I really wanted to know, anyway.

-Nan

[rlowetx]

Sure. Here goes:

 

1. I want a real gifted program. I want a program whose criteria are based on objective standards of nationally-recognized I.Q. tests administered individually by an outside professional not affiliated with the school district. I don't want criteria to be based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, or the degree to which a parent complains, but to be based on the student's demonstrated need for differentiated education.

 

2. I want a real gifted program. I don't want a pull-out. Normal children are not normal for an hour a week. Learning-challenged kids are not challenged in their learning for an hour a week. Similarly, gifted children are gifted all the time. Some gifted kids' needs can reasonably be met in the classroom, but the students who have demonstrated a need for differentiated education cannot be adequately educated in a once-a-week pullout.

3. I want a real gifted program. This means a program in which the core subjects -- math, English, science, and history -- are taught using means best suited to gifted students: curriculum telescoping, acceleration within a subject, or even whole-grade acceleration. LOGIC GAMES DON'T CUT IT. Neither do pullouts whose purpose is essentially to have students play around with little projects otherwise unrelated to the core of their curriculum.

 

4. I want a real gifted program. This means having teachers -- the GATE ones AND the regular ones -- familiar with the basics of what "gifted" means and looks like. It doesn't always look like the quiet, obedient child who gets As on her schoolwork; in fact, that particular child may be "good at school," but "good at school" and "gifted" are NOT the same.

5. I want a real gifted program. This means having GATE teachers who advocate with principals and school boards to have extremely and profoundly gifted students accelerated into higher grades. It means having GATE teachers inservice and inservice and inservice until myths like "Acceleration hurts kids!" are deader than the idea that the earth is flat. It may mean having GATE teachers advocate to get some kids into high school or college before they've started to sprout armpit hair. I want GATE teachers to be more familiar with the Iowa Scales than they are with the appearance of their own right hands.

 

6. I want a real gifted program. I am very weary of GATE programs being watered down to silly logic games, Sudoku, and little projects because of complaining parents and weak-willed administrators. I'm weary of hearing about teachers essentially targeting GATE kids for mockery, treating them as the victims of what amounts to outright (and often, school-sanctioned) prejudice that would be utterly unacceptable to anyone else. I am weary of hearing that they will all even out by third grade, that they'll do just fine with no intervention, that their real function needs to be as unpaid, nonunion "teacher's aides" in the classroom, that they are already 'gifted' and don't need more 'gifts' -- including the free and appropriate education for which my tax dollars are paying.

 

Bottom line? I want a real gifted program.

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

Wow.. if this existed my son would be attending school. GT kids get lost and under-served imo, except in the very rare school. I was humiliated by 2 of my math teachers in hs, being the freshman in senior classes and blowing the curve everytime. It was awful, awful, awful.

[Reya]

"Gifted programs" are usually targeted at the top 10% of children and are too simplistic even for the kids in the top 2%. When you're talking about .1% or .01%--well, they jut refuse to handle us, period.

 

Gifted program treat giftedness like a binary condition when in reality, there's a greater spectrum of abilities within the gifted population than there is in the other 98% combined.

 

A gifted program would have to allow for BOTH radical acceleration and enrichment, and it would have to ability-group kids within the "gifted" spectrum as best as it is able. Also, they should be understanding of what giftedness means and understand that writing skills will seem "behind" other skills, and there should be no attempt to try to make a gifted kid who is 8 and reads at a 12th grade level do the writing of a 12th grader or to have her read books with adult material, etc.

 

A program that's GREAT for a low-gifted kid might be a disaster for a high-gifted kid. And the high-gifted kids deserve a good education, too!

Edited September 2, 2009 by Reya

[AndyJoy]

My 5th grade teacher knew I was gifted, but refused to recommend me for the program. His reasoning? There were two boys in my class in the GT program, and they "slacked off" during their regular classes (earning C's and D's due to boredom), and he didn't want me to be like them!:glare: I was LIVID when I found this out later.

 

In 6th grade, I started attending the GT program. Ours was a 1 DAY per week pull out program. Out of 180 kids from 2 schools, there were only 7 of us, so I think their criteria for picking us was fairly selective.

 

This program was enrichment, not acceleration of regular subjects, but it was definitely challenging. Some things I remember doing are:

 

1. Building a seismograph from a kit and talking extensively about earthquakes.

 

2. Individual projects (yeah, no groups!):

 

For one project, we had to come up with an idea in an area of interest and find a way to present it to others after we had developed it. I was interested in sign language at the time, so I learned to sign "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and read/signed it to 1st graders. I then taught them some basic signs.

 

For our second project, we had to read the biography or autobiography of a gifted person and make a related display for open house. We also had to write a "Who am I?" speech about the person with the intention that audience members would guess who we were. I chose Joni Eareckson Tada and one of the things I did was displayed my attempts at painting with a brush in my mouth as she does!

 

3. Random unstructured time with access to all kinds of cool materials: I remember that with no help from the teacher, we did things like fix a broken record player that the janitor was throwing away, see how many D-cell batteries it would take to light a 60 watt-bulb, experiment with various electronics, etc. We also had access to the fancy Legos with pneumatics. I remember there were cards that had open-ended challenges that we liked complete.

 

4. Logic puzzles and games that were actually challenging and not inane like the ones in our regular classes.

 

5. Unit study on the Mayans. There was a video series we watched each week, and we learned about Mayan math and hieroglyphics. This was WAY more in depth than our regular classes, and we loved it. I was able to explore all my questions, rather than being shut down with, "Sorry, we have to move on," like in my regular classes.

 

6. Group projects with kids who had similar abilities. I was so nice to not have to carry the load myself.

 

My teacher was very good at facilitating discussion, asking leading questions, and helping us find the answers, rather than just giving us the answers. She didn't set herself up as the authority on everything (gifted kids can see right through that, and despise it!) She could admit freely, "I don't know. How do you think we could find out?"

 

Since we missed our regular classes for the day, any work that we missed was homework due in 2 days for 2 of our teachers, and the next day for 1 teacher. A whole day's worth of work generally took us less than an hour. We commented every week that we wished we could do a 1 day pull-out of "regular school.":lol:

 

It turns out I actually qualified for the Creative Arts program as well, but the school wouldn't allow me to have 2 pull out days, though I KNOW I could have handled it.

 

Acceleration would have been great as well (I was reading at a college level and at least 2 grades ahead in math), but my enrichment program was great for what it was.