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Gifted kids often ignored, group says

Friday, September 25, 2009

(Updated 8:07 am)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — A local education advocacy group says Guilford County Schools is not doing enough to reach academically gifted students.

The Guilford Education Alliance released a report Thursday that outlines how students who are academically gifted are being overlooked in the classroom.

Margaret Arbuckle, the alliance’s executive director, said as schools have tried to raise achievement among low-performing students, gifted students have not received all the attention they deserve.

“If we don’t attend to their needs, mediocrity is our future,” Arbuckle said.

In Guilford County, students are tested in the third grade to find out who is academically gifted. Parents and teachers also can recommend a student be tested, and in some cases, a portfolio of the student’s work will be reviewed.

Advanced learners in elementary school are pulled out of class for additional rigorous instruction. In middle school, principals and counselors try to place advanced students in classes together. There are no special provisions for high school students; students pick their own courses, and advanced courses are available to all students.

The alliance report raises two specific concerns: a lack of diversity among advanced learners and the number of teachers who are certified to teach advanced learners.

During the 2007-08 school year, there were 1,839 African American advanced learners in Guilford County, according to the report. That year, African American students made up 40.8 percent of the total student body but 16.7 percent of the advanced learners.

Asian students were the only minority group whose advanced learner representation exceeded their student body representation. That demographic had 695 advanced learners or 6.3 percent, compared to 5.3 percent of the total student body.

Low-income students made up 48.6 percent of the student body but accounted for 16.3 percent of advanced learners.

As for the issue of teachers certified in advanced learning, more than 150 teachers in Guilford County schools — out of approximately 5,000 classroom teachers — hold such certification. The certification is not required to teach those students.

“There are children in regular classes who are gifted being taught by teachers who are not trained in gifted education,” Arbuckle said.

Other report recommendations:

* using data to improve program monitoring and academic accountability of students,

* requiring more training for teachers and principals,

* creating incentives for teachers who raise achievement of advanced learners,

* using measures to identify and encourage academically gifted students earlier and throughout their education.

The report also urges more support for parents.

The Alliance’s report comes at a time of renewed attention for advanced learner education.

The state released new guidelines for teaching advanced learners this year, and Guilford Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green set out goals for advanced learners earlier this year.

Lee Ann Segalla, executive director for advance learning for Guilford County Schools, said she will use the Alliance’s report in developing new strategies.

“It’s not impossible to improve in those areas, but it’s a challenge and it takes resources,” she said.

Segalla’s office will request input this fall from parents and schools.

More information is expected to be available on the district’s Web site next month.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

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ellasa

September 25, 2009 - 6:27 am EDT

Why did this article give the percentages of African-American, Asian and low-income students in advanced learning classes and the system as a whole but did not give the information for Caucasian?

angie123

September 25, 2009 - 7:48 am EDT

You said "Advanced learners in elementary school are pulled out of class for additional rigorous instruction. In middle school, principals and counselors try to place advanced students in classes together."

WHERE?????

Not at my children's elementary and middle schools. I happen to have a child who was selected for VSN but we declined the invitation. She may have gotten pulled out of class, but it certainly wasn't rigorous. And in middle school, only Math and Language Arts are grouped together for AL kids - none of the other classes offer that. Math is the only middle school class that provides differentiation for these kids. The only difference in Language Arts AL and Language Arts non-AL is the length of the papers assigned to kids. If you're AL, your papers have to be 5 pages long, if you're non-AL, they only need to be 3 pages long.

Norm*

September 25, 2009 - 8:15 am EDT

This is more of a press release/event than a news story so forgive the writer. What would be more interesting would be the demographic information of household income and parent educational attainment. However, the Advanced Learner program is a pro-active step by the school district to avoid having these kids labeled as "Gifted". Gifted requires a whole different service level akin to Special Education (it is special education actually). These "Advanced Learner" kids would have IEPs which raises the financial and legal risks to the district as their special programming would be a contract to perform on part of the district. (hold back the giggles). Now, if Ms Arbuckle really wanted to get the district's attention then she should get a thousand or so of these parents to ask for psych testing to qualify them for Gifted services. They don't have the staff, they don't have the facilities, they don't have the will of the taxpayers to pay for maximizing anyone's ability to learn (who said mediocrity was that bad?). If these kids don't qualify for the Gifted program, then they should probably just get what they can out of the regular classroom and enjoy the show.

GCS Parent

September 25, 2009 - 9:33 am EDT

Not only are gifted kids ignored in the classroom, they are punished! Math and LA are the only classes for any advanced instruction in elem and middle school. The other classes are mixed with all ability levels, so it moves at the pace of the slowest student. For gifted students that's the punishment. They are BORED OUT OF THEIR MINDS! My gifted 8th grader has been moaning about that since school started this year. He sees school as a total waste of time. And I see that as a total waste of my tax money. If I have to spend thousands of dollars in supplemental programs to challenge him, why send him to school at all?

stafford5465

September 25, 2009 - 10:20 am EDT

As a parent of two gifted children, I have no complaint. Some parents wants the taxpayers to provide a private school environment for their children. This is public school and those children that are at the bottom of the class need attention, even more so than the students at the top of the class. If you have gifted children, it is their responsibility and that of their family to provide challenges in line with their abilities. Smart children teach themselves. If you have a smart child and the public school system is not doing enough, then take him/her to the library. Some want to over work their children. Remember they have College, Grad School before them. Be patient.

madzmom

September 25, 2009 - 11:53 am EDT

The previous poster is obviously unaware that there are children 12 and under in our area who are doing college level work. Of course, not in the public school system.

If any child could do it, or any child would want to....it's **NOT** gifted education.

Perhaps the reason why there are not more African Americans in the complete joke known as "AIG" is because AIG is merely a badge of honor for the parents of high achieving teacher pleasers. It has nothing to do with serving the needs of the gifted.

Here's a novel idea....test students and place them in a classroom that is appropriate. No special program needed. If a 9 year old needs algebra, send him to algebra class. If a 12 year old needs 5th grade math, send him to 5th grade math.

gsomom

October 8, 2009 - 11:26 am EDT

That is a novel idea...an excellent idea! Students start blocking in some schools in the third grade now anyway, why not have them block to appropriate individual level courses instead of grade level courses? The district spends so many dollars on EOG testing; wouldn’t it make more sense to invest these dollars at the beginning of the year in the form of placement testing for the school year? Then, classes would consist of a mix of all ages in an appropriate course based on individual placement results rather than age. Makes sense to me. I would think teachers would support this change as well as it would surely alleviate frustration that occurs from trying to teach the same age group with greatly differing abilities. A myriad of labels could be wiped off the board due to this change as well.
This idea – teaching based on ability as opposed to age group – warrants further investigation.