Arlington County Giftedness

It is important to remember that due to the potential consequences for failing districts, many school systems promote teaching the test before actual application, which further deludes the potential accuracy of even the most well developed standardized test. Although I am sure there is room for improvement in the standardized testing industry personal experience has led me to doubt the ability of a single test to measure the potential of any student. Standardized tests by nature are uniform failing to take into account the many factors which affect the thousands of unique students put through the gauntlet on regular occasions. I fully stand behind my second assertion that standardized tests are unreliable in the evaluation of

Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. This is because students go by a certain curriculum in school, but the wording on the tests

According to the FCCPS definition of giftedness, the will “screen to identify and to appropriately place student with specific aptitudes and achievement in the pertinent and academically advances programs (…Language Arts, Mathematics)”. Students must receive between the 93rd-99th percentiles on Specific Academic Aptitude assessments, or the average of their scores must be between the 93rd and 99th percentiles. FCCPS uses multiple assessments to test for SAA in reading and math including: SAGES, Raven, STAR Math, STAR Reading, CogATs, and the SOLs (FCCPS, Local Plan for the Education of the Gifted, p. 7).

District G&T programs begin in Kindergarten and end in fifth grade. G&T students who attend District G&T programs do so alongside students who attend these schools in the non G&T classes. Students in District G&T programs are served together for major subject areas but may be scheduled for other classes with students who are not in the program, e.g. physical education, and art. Students who obtain an overall G&T score of 90 or above are eligible to apply to District G&T programs. & Citywide G&T schools accept students from all boroughs with no priority given for district of residence. All students in these schools are enrolled in the G&T program; there are no zoned students attending these schools. These programs are school-wide models that implement curricula and instructional practices specifically targeted towards Gifted & Talented students for all the students in the school. Students who obtain an overall G&T score of 97 or above are eligible to apply to both District G&T programs and Citywide G&T schools. How many students receive offers to G&T programs? Gifted & Talented programs are in very high demand and the number of eligible applicants typically exceeds the number of available seats in most programs. Placement is not guaranteed regardless

Chapter fifteen of Multicultural Education is divided into three major sections. These three sections include recruitment and barriers, recruitment recommendations, and retention issues/difficulties. A large part of this chapter focuses on the underrepresentation of culturally diverse students in gifted and advance placement programs. When taking a look at gifted education programs, there is an extreme underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans in these programs. Gifted education programs are a need not just a privilege and should not be used as a simple form of segregation between races or cultures.

As previously stated, standardized tests hold teachers accountable for teaching a subject. The key to scoring high on these tests are to memorize the information told by an instructor. Really, standardized tests display how well students are able to memorize what they are told. There is a high chance that the student will not remember what they had memorized five years later. Standardized testing displays how well the student was able to perform on that day, rather than the overall growth of the

Like Dr. Robert O’ Connor of Marble Falls Independent School District Superintendent also say’s “some student’s aren’t geared towards time standardized testing –it’s not where they shine “(HILLEY-SIERZCHULA 109-112). With students supposed to be taught to shine, we have to talk about the results themselves the scores within Austin Area Schools and Statewide in Texas the scores of children in elementary schools, which is where it all begins and at their ages seems to have the most impact on our children. With scores that are staying the same for the past three years, and showing Texas overall scores are dropping in subjects and within certain

Firstly, having taken this test, I have found that the creators of the test did not think enough about a certain kinds of students. For instance, the questions about race as well as about eligibility for a financial aid seemed to be awkward, inappropriate and pinching to me. In terms of race, I believe that there is only one race on the Earth -- the human race, and in my point of view the criteria

Standardized testing in the United States as we know it now all started with the state of Texas in the 1990s. The state of Texas saw the poor condition in the education system in their schools so under the governorship of George W. Bush they devolved a serious of exams high schools students had to pass in order to graduate. Testing children yearly starting from third

The standardized tests people and students take today go through some tough steps just to make it to the desk. First the federal government mandated the Act No Child Left Behind that enforced standardized to be taken in all 50 states. The next step is taken by the state educational officials, they usually set up a contract with a testing firm to decide what will be administered on the tests. The next step is to choose their testing company such as Pearson for the STARR test. Then the dates and times would be discussed with all government officials within the education department within that

Still, this method of student evaluation is far from reasonable. The amount of realistic scores that are show is close to zero. Most students absolutely hate standardized tests. It is the most dreaded time of the school year.For one you have students who just don't care. Many students, like me, do not see the value of testing. They see it as a waste of their time. They do not want to get stressed out and lose sleep over a test that has no purpose. This is completely understandable behavior. In a time where students can be assigned six hours of homework in one night, along with several pressures from extracurricular activities and other responsibilities, there is just no time to worry about useless testing. Then there are kids who are smart and have a day where they just don’t test well or they feel gloomy. There are also less intelligent students who just get insanely lucky with their guesses. This make it seem like the truly talented kids are worse than the kids who are below average. Under any one of these circumstances the tests should be invalid. The problem is no tests are invalid, all of these circumstances are ignored and all tests are counted. The tests would almost all be inaccurate, and therefore a

Assessment, assessment, assessment, it is not fun and no student in their right mind would argue otherwise but testing is necessary. This one word has become the centerpiece of education not only in the United States but in the entire westernized world. Standardized testing has been used to measure teacher quality and student achievement since the mid-1800s. Within the last two decades standardized testing has taken on an important role in education in all 50 states since its mandate by President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. The use of standardized testing to measure progress, identify strengths and weaknesses, and help professionals reach competency in their careers are critical to improvement of the educational system. There are many facts about standardized achievement testing: the public wants it, other nations may do it better, and many critics offer no viable alternatives to it (Haladyna, 2006).

National Association for Gifted Children website mission is to support those who enhance the growth and development of gifted and talented children through education, advocacy, community building, and research. They aim to help parents and families, K-12 education professionals including support service personnel, and members of the research and higher education community. We can find the Twice-Exceptional Special Interest Group, this group provides professionals a network where they can meet to discuss research, programs, curriculum and new developments for this special area of gifted education. I couldn’t find specific information for children from 0 to 8-year-old, but they give relevant information for parents who notice something exceptional

Currently the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Act of 1988 is the only national law which directly addresses gifted children, and is the sole channel for federal funding of gifted education (Russo and Ford; Inman and Kirchner 10). The Act reinstated, expanded, and updated programs which had been cut, but it has several limitations (Russo and Ford). It does not address the needs of students or mandate creation of gifted programs (Inman and Kirchner 10; Russo and Ford). Instead, it allocates money, ranging from $0 to $11.2 million, for research grants (Inman and Kirchner 10). It also does not set “substantive or procedural due process safeguards” as IDEA does (Russo and Ford). Although the Act has great intentions, it can be ignored by states or districts which do not place priority on gifted students (Russo and Ford).

In 1838 American educators began developing ideas about how to formally assess student achievement. By the early 1900’s, statewide testing programs were becoming very common. Since then, the U.S. has been using standardized testing to assess students’ knowledge of materials and general intelligence (Alcocer). Standardized tests do not accurately assess students’ knowledge or academic potential.