news-record.com

In the push to raise achievement levels of low performers, gifted students haven't always gotten the attention in school that they deserve.

North Carolina is among a handful of states mandating that local systems early on identify academically talented students and provide ongoing programs for them. However, such efforts have been only marginally successful.

On Thursday, the Guilford County school board will look at proposed changes that could affect how the 14,000 students qualified to take accelerated classes are taught. Yet, any revisions first must address glaring inequities in participation. Some racial and ethnic minorities are vastly under-represented.

Often, that goes hand-in-hand with low family incomes. For example, in Guilford County students from low-income households make up nearly half of the student body but less than 20 percent of advanced learners.

Other fixes are in order as well.

There should be consistency in early student screening and in program presentation in both the lower grades and high school. More parents also must get involved.

Teachers should have better access to specialized professional development. Among the system's 5,000 teachers, only about 150 are certified in advanced learning.

Finally, no longer can teaching one way meet diverse student needs. Curriculum and instruction must be adapted to a constantly evolving student population.

With heavy emphasis on achieving specific goals to qualify for federal funding, more attention is being focused on meeting the minimum than striving to exceed it. As a result, gifted students can get bored, lose interest in learning and opt out.

But as Guilford Schools Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green has noted, closing the achievement gap shouldn't mean fostering mediocrity.