Gifted Education In Urban Schools

Gifted education is very stressful for students in middle school, but if you start in elementary school with a gifted program it could be less stressful on your child. Gifted programs are good programs but there are things that could make your child feel pressured and they may want to leave the program. To get into the programs depending on the district you are in there could be discrimination to be accepted or recommended to test for it. This discrimination could be based on race, income, gender, or ethnicity, if you’re in a school district that lets you apply without being recommended then you won’t have to worry about this. Studies show that in Broward County they started with teachers recommended students and then changed their system to where any students could apply to the gifted programs and there was a major increase in low income, latino, and black students that were accepted.

A gifted learner is described as someone who has an exceptionally advanced degree of general intellectual ability (IQ) that requires enriched learning experiences, beyond what is normally implemented in the regular school system. Gifted education is what is created in order to satisfy the level of educational potential indicated in gifted learners. The gifted program is a way for gifted learners to maintain and enhance their intellectual abilities as they are in an environment that is rich with opportunities to grow (DDSB, 2013). To enter this program, the individual must be tested and must score above a 98% on both IQ tests. This program is offered during the adolescence life stage of an individual, as children are placed in gifted classes from grades 4 to 11, which is at ages 10-17. This program helps students to improve their cognitive, social, and emotional developments.

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.

The era of the 1950s and 1960s ushered in new priorities for the education of America’s students as well as the social, judicial, political and organizational structure of our nation’s schools. Some of the challenges that the educational system faced were facilitated by federal and state interventions. Interventions such as The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) No Child Left Behind, (NCLB) and Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) are just a few federal and state interventions that had a tremendous impact on the way we educate and motivate children to learn.

Growing up in the New York Public Schools system, I realized many similarities and differneces today. In 1993 all 50 states had formulated policies (legislation, regulations, rules, or guidelines) in support of gifted education. The study portrayed state policy as uneven and called for a re-examination of present policies in light of research, experience, and developments in education, psychology, organization, and related fields. Further support for this reexamination included the climate of school reform and restructuring, the changing environment of society and schooling, and the diverse ways that local districts interpret and implement state rules. These findings still resonate today. I graduated high school in 1994 and the gifted and

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.

Adolescents face many developmental tasks: physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. For example, puberty happens, intellectual interests expand, moral thinking happens, sense of identity is initiated, independence is worked towards, there is conflict with adults, and peer influence becomes an issue—to say the least. This particular read focuses on twelve west coast inner city students and the developmental and environmental tasks that impact their education. Professionals often use the word resilience, or suggest that students become resilient, without putting much thought into the difficulties that students must recover from.

Typically gifted and talented programs are intended to challenge fast pace learners and recognize their special abilities, however the innocuous separation between peers can prevent other students’ talents from being acknowledged and advanced. While the gifted and talented students are applauded for their intellectual capabilities and natural talents, other students are labeled as average or less skilled. Placement into these programs are rooted from the results of standardized testing, which students and teachers spend a great amount of time preparing for. Preparation for these exams alter the curriculum and objective for learning all together. Some education systems seem to focus more on teaching to test rather than teaching to educate. In Cathy Davidson essay, “Project Classroom Makeover,” she explores how there should be more emphases on the relevance, relationship and rigor in the classroom and how this can teach students more efficiently and improve our school. Within the past 15 years, advancements in technology alone theoretically have created new prospective ways of learning, therefore standardized testing may be an inadequate method of testing students’ talents and abilities. Because each student’s future is so heavily weighted on their performance throughout grade school, education systems should have a well-rounded system in place that allows students to support and learn from each other rather than creating a divide between the strong versus the poor test

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

The NAGC’s standards state that teachers “must understand the characteristics and needs of the population for whom they are planning curriculum, instruction, assessment, programs, and services” (Brighton and Wiley, 2013, p. 194). Lackland is not meeting this criterion because their pullout teachers are not endorsed in gifted education and their general education teachers are unable to plan instruction that meets the needs of their gifted learners in the regular classroom setting.

You might think twice before sending a tennis coach to baseball’s spring training season; although there would be overlap in general kinesthetic and sports psychology knowledge, the nuances of the two sports are very different and require disparate sets of coaching skills. Just as a baseball team needs a coach who understands baseball, gifted students need guidance from well-trained, challenging teachers who understand their educational needs. Teacher training requirements for working with gifted students are determined at the state and local levels. Although gifted and talented students are in every school and classroom, few districts require that all classroom teachers receive training to address the educational needs of advanced learners.

Gifted students should be provided advanced opportunities to be challenged, to experience both success and growth, to develop higher level study, creativity, and productivity. To develop their interests and talents their individual characteristics, needs, learning rates, motivations for learning, cognitive abilities, and interests must be taken into account. Differentiation can be included in the curriculum by incorporating acceleration, complexity, depth, challenge, and creativity. Students can also be given fewer tasks to master a standard, use multiple resources and higher-level skills, conduct research, develop products, make cross-disciplinary

It’s not every child gifted. There are many students with intellectual disabilities. In 2013, for example, 35 percent of all students ages 3-21 with disabilities were identified as having specific learning disabilities (U.S.Department of Education ,2015). For example: Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Students with speech or language impairments; Students with emotional and behavioral disorders; Students with autism spectrum disorder; Students with sensory, physical, and health impairments.

I have once again served as Gifted Department Chair at Mason Creek. This position involves coordinating the identification and testing of students to be considered for the gifted program. It also involves working with our records clerk to ensure that our students are correctly counted during FTE. The Gifted Department Chair is also responsible for the effective use of the gifted budget to make sure that teachers of gifted students have the materials needed to best serve their students. In an effort to improve student growth in high-achieving students, this year, we have also placed an emphasis on making gifted classes different from non-gifted classes. This is an area of weakness in my school, and we are trying to correct this problem by looking at the needs of our high-achieving students differently. This year I have once again served as co-sponsor for our annual gifted field trip for our 7th and 8th-grade students. This involves working closely with my co-sponsor, our travel coordinator, our students, and parents to ensure the effective communication that is needed to make a successful trip. This year we are taking 75 students, and 22 parent chaperones to Washington,

The topic of gifted and talented education is one that has always sparked debates among parents and teachers, and recent movements towards totally integrating classrooms have added to this debate. For many years now, "average" children, gifted and