Why Trustees & Administrators Should Care About Gifted Education

1. Why Trustees & Administrators Should Care About Gifted Education Barbara Geller Montana AGATE 4/13/12

2. School Board Objectives • Provide a quality education for all • Measure up • Do what is right for the kids • Keep costs down

3. Challenges with Gifted Ed • Do they make Adequate Yearly Progress? • Diagnosis, misdiagnosis & dual diagnosis • Perceived as expensive to differentiate • Drop outs, underachievers, and disruptive behavior • Perceived as elitist to differentiate

4. How are the gifted different? Academically • Pace of learning • Remember more • Synthesize new & old material Capable of learning 1-1/2 years of material in a single school year. • Moderately gifted • Highly gifted • Profoundly gifted

5. How are the gifted different? Socially & Emotionally • Asynchronous development • Need to spend significant time with their intellectual peers • Dabrowski’s Theory of Overexcitabilities: • Psychomotor • Sensual • Imaginational • Intellectual • Emotional • Overexcitabilities can lead to misdiagnoses

6. How are the gifted different? From high achievers & creative thinkers For more, see Bertie Kingore’s chart at www.bertiekingore.com/high-gt-create.htm

7. IdentificationAnd under-identification • We generally under-identify gifted students • Especially if we don’t test 100% • Certain sub-groups are under-identified • Parents identify more kids than teachers • When: • K & 1st: catch the highly/profoundly gifted • 3rd: find the normal gifted • Transfers/bi-annual request: outliers, ESL • Criterion: • ability + • achievement + • portfolio / teacher / parent nomination

8. Identification(Costly) Misdiagnosis & Dual Diagnosis • Some gifted students are misdiagnosed as having disabilities and not as gifted • Reactive hypoglycemia • Introversion • Some students are gifted and have disabilities • They may average out as “normal” • Fear success because of inconsistent performance • Pediatricians get no training on gifted • Give them Dr. Webb’s book! • Have them listen to Dr. Webb’s Grand Rounds lecture http://www.greatpotentialpress.com/dr-webb%E2%80%99s-lecture-on-misdiagnosis-and-dual-diagnoses-of-gifted-children

9. IdentificationDyslexia, Irlen’s & Giftedness • It is cheaper & faster to remediate Irlen’s Syndrome • 14 question Irlen’s self-test • http://irlen.com/short_self_test.php • Dyslexics need oral IQ test for giftedness 1/3 only have Irlen’s syndrome 1/3 have dyslexia 1/3 have dyslexia & Irlen’s syndrome Australian test results of those previously identified as having dyslexia

10. Irlen Screening Quiz • Do you skip words or lines when reading? • Do you reread lines? • Do you lose your place? • Are you easily distracted when reading? • Do you need to take breaks often? • Do you find it harder to read the longer you read? • Do you get headaches when you read? • Do your eyes get red and watery? • Does reading make you tired? • Do you blink or squint? • Do you prefer to read in dim light? • Do you read close to the page? • Do you use your finger or other markers? • Do you get restless, active, or fidgety when reading? If you answered yes to three or more of these questions…

11. Remediation for Irlen’s Syndrome • Colored transparencies or colored glasses/contacts • Dim, natural or non-fluorescent light • Avoid glare from overhead transparencies • Tinted paper • Avoid certain colors of chalk on brown chalkboards • Avoid glossy textbooks (use Kindle/iPad?)

12. Curricular Options:Grade-skipping • Research-supported: A Nation Deceived • Definitive criteria: Iowa Acceleration Scale • IRPA’s “Guidelines for Developing an Academic Acceleration Policy” • When? K / elementary / middle school • Problem: No incremental cost once decision is made

13. Curricular Options: Pullout classes • Peer interaction • Challenging, creative curriculum • Kids are gifted 24x7 • Little differentiation in regular classes • Creates jealousy • Disrupts regular classroom flow Costs: GT teacher, curriculum, separate classroom

14. Curricular Options: Clustering Gifted 10 kids High Achievers 20 kids + + • 5 to 30 gifted kids in a classroom • Peer interaction • With differentiation, can meet academic growth needs • Helps all groups • In about 80% of classrooms with gifted students, differentiation was not going on at all • Requires training, monitoring, accountability Average 20 kids Below Average 10 kids Costs: train classroom teacher to differentiate, possibly curriculum, possible GT coach

15. Curricular Options:Clustering in high school • Honors classes • Pre-Advanced Placement classes • Advanced Placement classes • International Baccalaureate classes • GT classes • GT/AP classes Depth (vs. breadth) leverages their ability to synthesize information.

16. Curricular options:Creative options • In-district: • Subject acceleration • Multi-grade gifted classes (Billings) • Move a gifted student to another school or district that can serve him better (or let your school or district specialize in gifted to create critical mass) • Independent Study • Online learning (Stanford EPGY) • After school programs (MathCounts, Destination Imagination, Camp Invention) • Help from outside the district: • Early college entrance programs (http://earlyentrance.org/Home) • Summer programs (Center for Bright Kids, Northwestern University, Stanford EPGY, etc.) • For the profoundly gifted: Davidson Young Scholars • For minorities: The Next Generation Venture Fund

17. Assign 1 Counselor to Gifted • Better knowledge of options • Colleges, scholarships, summer camps, nomination-based programs, Davidson Young Scholars, Next Generation Venture Fund, Jack Kent Cooke Scholars, early college entrance • In-school opportunities (AP, IB, GT classes; online learning; extracurriculars) • Greater awareness of overexcitabilities, behavior issues • Better screening for acceleration options

18. Type Talk at SchoolMyers-Briggs Personality Types • Teachers ~ CEOS • Extrovert • Sensing • Thinking • Judging • Gifted Kids • Introvert • iNtuitive • Thinking • (but closet Feeling) • Perceiving 75% of teachers are ESTJs

19. Type Talk at SchoolFinding the Right Match • Hire some INT(F)Ps and other types • Use them as role models, mentors • Invite them to lead extracurriculars for gifted kids • Avoid pairing extremes • Use Myers-Briggs to help teachers understand gifted kids

20. Engage the parents • Tell them their kids are gifted • Educate them about overexcitabilities, underachievement • “It’s good to be a nerd” • Encourage enrollment in challenging classes, summer enrichment • Solicit volunteers for extracurriculars

21. Other sessions to attend • Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses • Motivation and Underachievement

22. 10 Things Every Administrator Should Know About Gifted Children • Gifted students are not all alike. They vary in respect to general ability, domain-specific aptitude, interests and predispositions, and motivation and personality. Thus one program or service is insufficient to respond to their diverse needs. • Gifted students benefit from interaction with peers. Intellectual peerage contributes to important growth patterns in all subject areas (Kulik & Kulik, 1992).  For example, cooperative learning, carried out in heterogeneous classroom settings, produces no growth (Rogers, 2001). • Gifted students need various forms of acceleration throughout their school years, ranging from content acceleration to Advanced Placement or dual enrollment to mentorships (Shiever & Maker, 2003; Renzulli & Reis, 2003; Clasen & Clasen, 2003). • Gifted students are capable of producing high level products in specific areas of learning at the level of a competent adult (NAGC, 1990).  For example, fourth graders can draft a policy for pollution that would rival an adult community committee. • Gifted students need to be challenged and stimulated by an advanced and enriched curriculum that is above their current level of functioning in each area of learning (VanTassel-Baska, 2003).. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, Ed.D., The College of William and Mary

23. 10 Things Every Administrator Should Know (cont’d.) • Gifted students need to be instructed by personnel trained in the education of gifted students to ensure that they are sufficiently challenged, exposed to appropriate level work, and motivated to excel (Croft, 2003). • Gifted students at elementary level require differentiated staffing and flexible scheduling to accommodate their needs; at secondary level, they require special classes (Feldhusen, 2003). • Gifted students have counseling needs that require psychosocial, academic, and career preparation on an annual basis (Colangelo, 2003; Greene, 2003; Jackson & Snow, 2004; Silverman, 1993).  At secondary level, assigning one counselor to the gifted may be the best staffing model to employ. • Gifted students have affective characteristics that render them vulnerable in school settings such as perfectionism, sensitivity, and intensity (Lovecky, 1992; Robinson, 2002). • Gifted students in general have healthy social relationships and adjust well to new situations (Robinson, 2002). Concerns for social development more than cognitive growth are rarely warranted. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, Ed.D., The College of William and Mary

24. Questions? Barbara Geller gellerbj@gmail.com

25. Support for claims • 61% of public school teachers reported that they never had any training in meeting the needs of gifted students. Differentiation does not happen in 80% of classrooms. Archambault, F. X., Jr., Westberg, K. L., Brown, S. W., Hallmark, B. W., Emmons, C. L., & Zhang, W. (1993). Regular classroom practices with gifted students: Results of a national survey of classroom teachers (Research Monograph 93102). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut • Gifted students already know 80% of curriculum at commencement of school year. “Why Not Let High Ability Students Start School in January? The Curriculum Compacting Study”, Sally M. Reis, et. Al. • 20% of all gifted students dropout. NAGC estimate • Gifted students can learn 1-1/2 years of material / school year. Karen Rogers • Pace of learning 1-3 repetitions vs 8-15 for regular kids. Hoagie’s Gifted, Bertie Kingore • Parents are better than teachers at identifying gifted students. Linda Silverman, Ph.D., Director, Gifted Development Center; Dr. John Worthington, Univ. of Queensland • Clustering benefits all 4 groups, not just gifted. Marcia Gentry; Susan Winebrenner; Carol Tieso; Karen Rogers • Under-identification. Brainerd, MN school district, http://brainerddispatch.com/news/2011-04-06/district-tests-all-kindergartners-gifted-talented-program. Changed from nomination process to 100% testing Increased identification of gifted among minorities from 4.3% to 4.8%, special ed students from 0% to 14%; of the gifted, students who qualify for free/reduced meals increased from 13% to 36%.