Key Factors Of A Gifted Student 's Educational Experience Into Account

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

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

2 & 3. Use the most current versions of standardized tests that are going to be used to make a decision about admission into a gifted program and that norms are up-to-date and a good representation of

Gifted and Talented (GT) students will receive a quality instruction from a certified teacher who is endorsed by the State of Texas in GT Education. A Gallery understands the importance of offering academic rigor and relevance. A Gallery GT Program will be specifically designed to challenge those qualified students who have the ability to think at higher levels of reasoning.

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.

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

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

Validity is the assessment of the test’s informational construct, content, and criterion (Jarosewich, Pfeiffer, & Morris, 2002). Despite the fact that GATES does not reference any giftedness theory or theory of support, content validity is confirmed for GATES since the test was developed based on literature reviews, critiques of existing rating scales, and academic and test construction experts of the field (Jarosewich, Pfeiffer, & Morris, 2002, p. 330). A combination between federal guidelines on giftedness and a confirmatory item analysis is the basis of GATES creation.

The goal for this program is to move students who are performing in the 10th percentile or below up into the 26th percentile or higher by the end of the year. This would place them in the group considered to be on grade level or proficient on their normed assessments. The goal of this intervention program is to help fill in learning gaps of students and help them be stronger readers and perform proficiently on class assignments and standardized tests.

This standard provides appropriate instruction for each child’s ability level. I understand that every child is unique in his or her own learning styles and development. It is imperative for students’ success that teachers implement developmentally appropriate experiences in the classroom. Therefore, I will provide students with unique and meaning but developmentally appropriate learning experiences and instruction that are challenging enough to foster learning and critical thinking.

Ideally schools evaluate students' performance in terms of achievement alone while downplaying their social background. Teachers are taught to encourage the best and the brightest to pursue the most challenging and advanced studies, while guiding students of more ordinary abilities into educational programs well suited for their talents.

Principle 2: High-Quality curriculum for gifted learners pursues advanced levels of understanding beyond the general education curriculum through abstraction, depth, breadth, and complexity.

I really do agree with you that students with a disability can teach everyone around them. They have a unique viewpoint on the world and often times, they are among the strongest people around us. Also, I agree the that students who are gifted can have a hard time communicating with their fellow peers. Many programs in schools do not have enough resources to have a sophisticated gifted program. Through my primary school, the gifted program's teacher was only able to meet with the students once a week for an hour or so. I wish there was more time for the students to meet as many of them were able to communicate with each other about higher-level topics. Often times, I notice that younger students who talk about issues that their peers don't

Criteria 1: This criteria is being met because it states “the gifted students’ curriculum in their regular classrooms is the same as that delivered to other students in their classroom” (program guide). However, it needs to be made sure that they have mastered the information before the students have left the classroom to then have enrichment material during the pull out session. Another alternative that the school could use, is the students are pulled out during the same subject but are able to do the material at a more accelerated pace, resulting in a more enriched curriculum which challenges the gifted students.