Falls Church City 's Local Plan For The Education Of The Gifted

In 2015, I wrote about my personal philosophy of the gifted learner. I stated in my paper that, “Giftedness is not a one, set definition. The definition of gifted must encompass intellect, ability, creative talent as well as emotional awareness. It cannot be micro-managed and be a “one size fits all” definition” (Dauber, 2015). People, who are gifted, need differentiation and opportunity to express, demonstrate and show their giftedness. Educators must be able to provide opportunities for the gifted learner to express his/her abilities and/or talents. Gifted students learn differently and require special educational experiences in order to grow academically and achieve their highest potential. Therefore, the education field must be able to understand not only the cognitive side of a gifted learner but the affective or social/emotional aspects too.

One of the difficulties in identifying the needs of low-income students is the profound cultural barriers which exist that prevent their strengths and deficits from being identified. Children from low-income homes frequently have poorer vocabularies and a weaker basis of the type of knowledge that is frequently considered 'intelligence' on most forms of assessment. A low-income child's IQ may be high, even though he lacks a framework of accepted middle-class knowledge. "In January 2003, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the seeming overrepresentation of minorities in special education and underrepresentation of those students in gifted education. The NRC reported that, nationwide, 7.47 percent of all white students and 9.9 percent of Asian students are placed in gifted programs. Meanwhile, 3.04 percent of African-American students, 3.57 percent of Hispanic students, and 4.86 percent of American Indian students are classified as gifted" (GT-minority identification, 2003, ERIC Clearinghouse). The discrepancy, the NAS believed, could not be solely explained by talent alone but was at least partially rooted in the methods of identifying students labeled as gifted. Biases in standardized and other tests identifying student strengths, combined with prejudices, however unintentional, amongst educators and administrators lead to under-identification of the gifted

Gayle’s score of 55, in creativity, also puts her at the 95th percentile, which means that she scored higher in creativity than 95% of the people who took this test. Gayle’s raw score for musical was 52, which is also well above the minimum requirement of 34. For musical Gayle is at the 98th percentile, which means only two percent of the people who took the musical test scored higher than she did. According to Gayle’s scores in creativity and musical she easily qualifies for acceptance into the gifted and talented program for gifted students at her school.

these programs do very little to improve and increase the productivity of the students that are in

A Gifted and talented (G/T) student” is “one who . . . exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area, possesses an unusual capacity for leadership, or excels in a specific academic field” (Aldine ISD Board Policy Manual, 2014). The Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides a state plan, which outlines the standards for Texas schools to be in compliance. It also offers the educational opportunities these students should receive. In fact, there are performance measures for five aspects of G/T programs including student assessment, service design, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and family and community involvement. The plan assists districts in delivering these comprehensive services to

Arlington county Public Schools test everyone for giftedness and they can be identified any year. The normal process is done at the beginning of the school year, but

But the problem of this admission system is that it can’t recognize those kids who have real talent; the kids who are picked are those who have parents that can afford the prep test program. With this system, it’s possible that many students who have real talent might be missed. If this admission system can’t help us finding those talents, then there is no reason we maintain it. What we should do is exactly the opposite; we should abandon it and set up a new system which can really help us recognizing gifted

After talking with my host teacher, any students who have an IEP he assesses in order to determine his or her weaknesses and strengths in sports skills, fitness, and basic motor skills. Based on the results he creates long term goals that relate to the students overall program goal in order to be successful and meet the objectives for the class. The teacher stated that he mostly encounters advanced or gifted students. These abilities can range from physical abilities and performance or cognitive ability in regards to the use of knowledge and understanding

Many educators feel that teachers aren’t trained to teach gifted students. Teaching accountability has teachers focus more on

To provide curriculum, instruction, and assessment that maximize the potential of the identified students, educational programming for the artistic gifted and talented students must reflect the following characteristics: (a) content, process, and product standards that exceed the state-adopted arts standards for all students and that provide challenges at an appropriate level for the strengths of the individual students; (b) goals and indicators that require students to demonstrate depth and complexity of knowledge, creative and critical thinking skills, and problem-solving skills; (c) instructional strategies that accommodate the unique needs of gifted and talented learners; (d) opportunities for global communication and research using available technologies; and (e) evaluation of student performance and programming effectiveness as related to the goals of the programming submitted in the local gifted and talented five-year

A fifth grader may come in at a “second-grade level” and graduate at a “fourth-grade level,” which is a tremendous achievement on the part of the educators; however, because standardized testing fails to account for such circumstances, the entire year would be seen as a failure from the perspective of the state (Berger). To put it crudely, “poor schools can’t win at standardized testing” because students in areas of poverty start school academically behind and are unable to catch up as there is the lack of resources and funding (Broussard). On the other extreme, gifted students are also hurt by attempts to standardize education, for instance, with the No Child Left Behind Act, an act that many say has “failed our adolescents” (Steinberg). Teachers say that the legislation has resulted in a “race to the middle” that means “talented students have their potential squandered” as schools “[don’t] foster growth” (Weller). In effect, standardization attempts to remove individuality from learning and ignores that students have different capacities for learning, that some students may need more help while others need to be challenged above their grade level - instead it averages it all out to a “standard” that harms both

It has been brought to the school’s attention that there is a need for a more perpetual and comprehensive assessment of students while they are served in the Gifted and Talented Program. Formative assessments provide opportunities to evaluate student performance while the students are being served in the Gifted and Talented Program. Portfolios are an excellent way to evaluate student performance while also helping self-direct their learning and thereby improving students’ aim in attaining particular educational goals. Initial testing is conducted to determine placement when considering eligibility for placement in the program. However, our plight lies in the ability to formally document a student’s progress and involvement once they have entered and are participating in the program. An effective tool for documenting student progress and achievement in abstract disciplines is a portfolio. Portfolios are a way to showcase student work that meet specific criteria while also allowing the student to choose from their work samples. The portfolio provides a tangible representation of each student as well as evidence of educational progress. In other words, portfolios focus on the individuality of aptitudes of each student, which is a trait that has set this student apart from their peers and warranted service in the Gifted and Talented Program. (Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991) The school must endeavor to provide

Adams County public school system’s current program doesn’t seem to recognize any minority or poor students who could be considered gifted. Educators in this district and committee members seem to lack any motivation to include diverse learners in their program. The fact that Adams County only recognized three out of four hundred thirty-eight over a five-year span is appalling. I feel Adams County need some major changes to extend their idea of giftedness. It needs to start with intensive and in-depth teacher training along with community outreach and awareness programs to help educate parents about giftedness. For instance, parent could learn ways to better support their children and help identify their child’s areas of giftedness.

In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses

Before the 1950s, most educators and school systems tended to follow Louis Terman’s example and based most decisions about gifted individuals on IQ and scholastic achievement scores. Standardized group intelligence tests, such as California Test of Mental Maturity, were often used to determine IQ. In these tests, educators were looking for exceptional ability in verbal or performance IQ, or a combination of the two. For the final identification, individual IQ tests such as the Wechsler scales and the Stanford Binet were used. Most school systems around this time considered an IQ of 130 or above to fall in the "gifted" range. This information comes from a book by Frederick B. Tuttle, Laurence A. Becker, and Joan A. Sousa (48).