G.A.T.E. resources

Why National Standards Won’t Fix American Education: Misalignment of Power and Incentives

2011-12-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

By: Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall

Abstract: American education needs to be fixed, but national standards and testing are not the way to do it. The problems that need fixing are too deeply ingrained in the power and incentive structure of the public education system, and the renewed focus on national standards threatens to distract from the fundamental issues. Besides, federal control over education has been growing since the 1960s as both standards and achievement have deteriorated. Heritage Foundation education policy experts Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall explain why centralized standard-setting will likely result in the standardization of mediocrity, not excellence.

TOPICS:

1- National standards and testing are unlikely to overcome the deficiencies of American elementary and secondary schooling, which are rooted in the public education system’s power and incentive structure.

2- National standards would strengthen federal power over education while weakening schools’ direct accountability to parents and taxpayers.

3- Centralized standard-setting will likely result in the standardization of mediocrity rather than establishing standards of excellence.

4- While proponents of national standards point to the variation in state standards, the rigor and content of national standards will face pressure to scale down toward the mean among states, undercutting states with high quality standards.

5- Federal policymakers should provide states with increased flexibility and freedom from red tape to make state leaders more accountable to parents and taxpayers. States should also strengthen standards, increase transparency about school performance, and allow parents to act on that information by choosing their children’s schools.

This report discusses:

Department of Education
Education Performance
K-12 Education
Standardized Testing

To read complete report, go to: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/05/why-national-standards-won-t-fix-american-education-misalignment-of-power-and-incentives

How to fix American Education

2011-12-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Fareed Zakaria, Gates and Khan Explore How to Fix America’s Education System
Did you know that the U.S students ranked 15th in the world reading and 31st in math?

That’s what CNN and Time magazine’s Fareed Zakaria tweeted on Nov. 6 as he was interviewing leaders who are working to fix our education system.

His prime time special titled “ Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION” featured four guests including Bill Gates, whose foundation has donated $5 billion to schools and libraries. The prime time also featured Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, an educational organization that provides free self-paced tutorials and students assessment online. He also spoke with education reformer Michelle Rhee.

If you missed the program you can watch it when it airs again on Nov. 12 at 8 pm EST. In the meantime, we have curated some videos from the program for you.

Here is the video of Zakaria, where he explains how education impacts social mobility in the U.S.

Sources: http://www.wiredacademic.com/2011/11/fareed-zakaria-explores-how-to-fix-americas-education-system-with-gates-khan/

Why Innovation Can't Fix America's Classrooms

2011-12-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

BY Marc Tucker. Marc Tucker is president of the National Center on Education and the Economy and editor of the book Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems.

Most Atlantic readers know that, although the U.S. spends more per student on K-12 education than any other nation except Luxembourg, students in a growing number of nations outperform our own. But think about this: Among the consistent top performers are not only developed nations (Japan, Finland, Canada), but developing countries and mega-cities such as South Korea, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

Even if we find a way to educate our future work force to the same standards as this latter group -- and we are a very long way from that now -- wages in the United States will continue to decline unless we outperform those countries enough to justify our higher wages. That is a very tall order.

You would think that, being far behind our competitors, we would be looking hard at how they are managing to outperform us. But many policymakers, business leaders, educators and advocates are not interested. Instead, they are confidently barreling down a path of American exceptionalism, insisting that America is so different from these other nations that we are better off embracing unique, unproven solutions that our foreign competitors find bizarre.

Some of these uniquely American solutions -- charter schools, private school vouchers, entrepreneurial innovations, grade-by-grade testing, diminished teachers' unions, and basing teachers' pay on how their students do on standardized tests -- may be appealing on their surface. To many in the financial community, these market-inspired reform ideas are very appealing.

Yet, these proposed solutions are nowhere to be found in the arsenal of strategies used by the top-performing nations. And almost everything these countries are doing to redesign their education systems, we're not doing.

The top-performing nations have followed paths that are remarkably similar and straightforward. Most start by putting more money behind their hardest-to-educate students than those who are easier to educate. In the U.S., we do the opposite.

They develop world-class academic standards for their students, a curriculum to match the standards, and high-quality exams and instructional materials based on that curriculum. In the U.S., most states have recently adopted Common Core State Standards in English and math, which is a good start. But we still have a long way to go to build a coherent, powerful instructional system that all teachers can use throughout the whole curriculum.

The top-performing nations boost the quality of their teaching forces by greatly raising entry standards for teacher education programs. They insist that all teachers have in-depth knowledge of the subjects they will teach, apprenticing new teachers to master teachers and raising teacher pay to that of other high-status professions. They then encourage these highly trained teachers to take the lead in improving classroom practices.

The result is a virtuous cycle: teaching ranks as one of the most attractive professions, which means no teacher shortages and no need to waive high licensing standards. That translates into top-notch teaching forces and the world's highest student achievement. All of this makes the teaching profession even more attractive, leading to higher salaries, even greater prestige, and even more professional autonomy. The end results are even better teachers and even higher student performance.

In the U.S., on the other hand, teaching remains a low-status profession. Our teacher colleges have minimal admission standards, and most teachers are educated in professional schools with very little prestige. Once they start working, they are paid substantially less than other professionals.

Many of our teachers also have a very weak background in the subjects they are assigned to teach, and increasingly, they're allowed to become teachers after only weeks of training. When we are short on teachers, we waive our already-low standards, something the high-performing countries would never dream of doing.

All this leads to poor student achievement, which leads to even shriller attacks on the profession and more calls for stricter accountability -- and that makes it even less likely that our best and brightest will become teachers. And that leads to low student achievement.

Thirty years ago, Japan was eating the lunch of some of America's greatest corporations. Those U.S. companies who survived figured out how the Japanese were doing it--and did it even better. The most effective way to greatly improve student performance in the U.S. is to figure out what the top-performing countries are doing and then, by capitalizing on our unique strengths, develop a strategy to do it even better.

The apostles of exceptionalism say we need more innovation. But our problem is not lack of innovation. Our problem is that we lack what the most successful countries have: coherent, well-designed state systems of education that would allow us to scale up our many pockets of innovation and deliver a high-quality education to all our students.

Playing to our strengths makes sense. Ignoring what works, simply because it was invented elsewhere, does not.

How to fix USA schools

2011-11-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

By Marty Nemko

In the last 35 years alone, we have bet $3 trillion in tax dollars that we can improve the schools. Unfortunately, we’ve lost the bet. According to educational assessment’s gold standard—the National Assessment of Educational Progress—student achievement has barely budged since NAEP began measuring the impacts of the school reform movement in 1969. In international comparisons, American students score near the bottom among industrialized nations. Even our top students are now sinking compared with other countries’ best students.
As disheartening, the definitive study of the effectiveness of Title I, the expensive linchpin of the federal government’s efforts to help low-performing schools, finds that Title I hasn’t even made a dent into the differences between society’s have and have-nots—and since 1989, the achievement gap has actually increased.

Why Are the Schools So Bad?
Why have we lost our $3 trillion bet on school reform?
Some people believe that it’s because the schools need still more money. This is a view promulgated mainly by self-serving educators. Fact is, study after study has found that increasing school spending has not improved student achievement.For example, a truly massive spending increase in the Kansas City schools resulted in no improvement whatsoever.And the states that spend the most (New York and New Jersey spend over $10,000 per year per student) report among the lowest school achievement while the states spending the least (Utah and New Hampshire which spend just $3,000) report top achievement.
We blithely accept that millions of children consider school boring. We cannot accept that. Kids will not learn if they are bored. School cannot always be fun, but it cannot regularly be soporific if we expect kids to learn, let alone to remember what they learned more than a day after the exam. Another part of the problem is the unfortunate truth that educational research is still in its infancy. Although politicians and educators won’t publicly admit it, we still don’t know what works—especially with kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds. In designing school program and policy, we still rely largely on conjecture and on flimsy research data.
Another reason why school reform has been so unsuccessful is that most education policy is made by elected officials: school board members, state superintendents, and state and federal legislators. As a result, the decision to support an education policy is heavily made on whether, as a sound bite, it’s appealing to voters, especially to vocal special-interest groups. Too often, politics take precedence over pedagogy. As a result, many school reforms not only don’t improve education, as this paper will assert, they actually hurt kids.

WHAT TO DO?

Better Teachers
I walk into classrooms, even in supposed “good’ schools, and I routinely see things that sadden me. For example, I walked into a room in a suburban school and saw “grammer” and “calender” on the chalkboard. “What’s the big deal,?” you ask. Kids are expected to make such errors. The problem is that those words were written by the teacher.

Reinventing Teacher Training
It is difficult to imagine why university professors rather than K-12 master teachers are the designated trainers of K-12 teachers. Most university professors are researchers, rarely master K-12 teachers. Many have never taught K-12 at all. And because so many professors are hyperintellectual, enjoy esoterica, and are more comfortable with data than with children, there’s particular reason to doubt that they are the best people to train K-12 teachers.

Better Curriculum
Think back to the last class or workshop you attended. How much do you remember? If you’re like most people, not much. And that was when you were an adult, you chose the class, and perhaps paid for it. We must ask ourselves: What are the most important things kids need to learn? We must teach those first. Reading, sure. Number sense, yes. Writing, of course. How to use a computer. Sure. Appreciating the complexity of major life dilemmas, yes. Interpersonal communication skills, absolutely.

Create a National Curriculum
Imagine what would be possible with a national curriculum. For every major concept, K-12, there could be a superlative lesson plan. Take the classic frog dissection lesson. Instead of killing millions of frogs, a high-quality interactive video-based course (too expensive to develop locally, but affordable nationally), distributed on the internet, would allow students to simulate the frog dissection. Click on an icon and you get a mini-lecture or demonstration by a nationally renowned teacher. A lesson plan would be included for the in-classroom teacher, including stimulating questions, group activities, and homework assignments. Why should 70,000 biology teachers each have to try to figure out a wonderful way to teach the frog dissection lesson, not to mention bring in and then kill 30 frogs per period?

An Obvious Idea: Increase Time on Task
The research shows, and it’s only common sense, that the more time spent learning, the more that students will learn. Yet the average school year in the US remains at 179 days. Compare that with England: 192 days. Canada: 195. Russia: 208. Germany: 240. Japan: 243. China: 248. That means that American kids spend 26 weeks a year in school compared, for example, with 35 weeks in Japan. With a difference like that, it would be a miracle if Japanese kids didn’t outscore US kids. There’s no miracle.
Now let's look at the length of the school day. The average US student spends only 5.6 hours a day in school. That comes to 1,000 hours a year or a total over 13 years of 13,000 hours. Only 70% of that time is devoted to instruction: there’s homeroom, lunch, PE, recess, etc. That brings us down to 9,000 hours of designated instruction time. Even some of that isn’t used on instruction. Too many teachers don’t consider time to be the valuable commodity it is. They may routinely start class late (“We’re waiting for a few students.”) and end early (“Well, there are only five minutes left in the period, so you can start on your homework.”) Or they use activities such as “sustained silent reading” to kill time. So our kids get perhaps 8,000 hours of instruction over their entire K-12 school career to learn the ever-growing amount of material that we throw at them. That’s just 77 eight-hour days per year!
Students should spend 220 eight-hour days in school. With the involving curriculum described above, most kids, even Jeremy, won’t mind the longer school year. That must be our goal: to make school pleasurable enough that kids are glad it’s a school day. We must think big.

Restore Achievement-Grouped Classes
Imagine that you wanted to learn Spanish. Would you sign up for a class that had beginners, intermediates, and fluent Spanish speakers in the same class? Of course not. Yet, that’s how we increasingly group classes K-8 and even in high school. High achievers fare even worse in mixed-achievement classes. In the past, there were classes for gifted children so they didn't need to be held back while waiting for slower children to learn. Today, however, able students are now usually relegated to mixed-achievement classes, where they too often are bored, and spend much time helping that student who is—figuratively or literally-- still struggling to read Dr. Seuss. Learning to help others is beneficial, but too often denies able students of their right to learn. How short-sighted: a student has more ability so let's not teach her more, let's have her help the weak students. That’s a path likely to reduce everyone to a lower common denominator.

To read complete article: http://www.martynemko.com/articles/how-to-fix-the-schools_id1495

Dr. Nemko was senior author of California's procedures for high school
accreditation and program review. He has taught at UC Berkeley and been a consultant to 15 college presidents and to such organizations as the Educational Testing Service and Consumer Reports. He is the author of four books and 300 articles. His book, “How to Get Your Child a Private School Education in a Public School” was named one of the year’s Ten Must books by the American School Board Association.

Are we preparing our kids to succeed in College?

2011-11-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard)
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: November 4, 2011
The president and industry groups have called on colleges to graduate 10,000 more engineers a year and 100,000 new teachers with majors in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math. All the Sputnik-like urgency has put classrooms from kindergarten through 12th grade — the pipeline, as they call it — under a microscope. And there are encouraging signs, with surveys showing the number of college freshmen interested in majoring in a STEM field on the rise.
But, it turns out, middle and high school students are having most of the fun, building their erector sets and dropping eggs into water to test the first law of motion. The excitement quickly fades as students brush up against the reality of what David E. Goldberg, an emeritus engineering professor, calls “the math-science death march.” Freshmen in college wade through a blizzard of calculus, physics and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students. And then many wash out.
Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree. That increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to new data from the University of California at Los Angeles. That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.
The bulk of attrition comes in engineering and among pre-med majors, who typically leave STEM fields if their hopes for medical school fade. There is no doubt that the main majors are difficult and growing more complex. Some students still lack math preparation or aren’t willing to work hard enough.
The latest research also suggests that there could be more subtle problems at work, like the proliferation of grade inflation in the humanities and social sciences, which provides another incentive for students to leave STEM majors. It is no surprise that grades are lower in math and science, where the answers are clear-cut and there are no bonus points for flair. Professors also say they are strict because science and engineering courses build on one another, and a student who fails to absorb the key lessons in one class will flounder in the next.
The National Science Board, a public advisory body, warned in the mid-1980s that students were losing sight of why they wanted to be scientists and engineers in the first place.

To read complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/why-science-majors-change-their-mind-its-just-so-darn-hard.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

Plans to get better?

2011-11-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at OECD's Release of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 Results
DECEMBER 7, 2010

Contact:(202) 401-1576 , press@ed.gov

Since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) first implemented PISA in 2000, it has mushroomed to 60 countries and five non-national entities, such as Shanghai.

It is fast becoming the measuring rod by which countries track trends in national performance and assess college and career-readiness of students as they near the end of their compulsory education and prepare to participate in the global economy.

Here in the United States, we have looked forwardly eagerly to the 2009 PISA results. But the findings, I'm sorry to report, show that the United States needs to urgently accelerate student learning to remain competitive in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.

The United States has a long way to go before it lives up to the American dream and the promise of education as the great equalizer.

Every three years, PISA assesses the reading, mathematics, and scientific literacy of 15-year old students. It provides crucial information about how well our students are prepared to do the sorts of reading, mathematics, and science that will be demanded of them in postsecondary education or the job market, and as young adults in modern society.

Unfortunately, the 2009 PISA results show that American students are poorly prepared to compete in today's knowledge economy.

President Obama has repeatedly warned that the nation that "out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow." And the PISA results, to be brutally honest, show that a host of developed nations are out-educating us.

Finland, Korea, and Canada are consistent high-performers. And the jewel of China's education system, Shanghai, debuted this year as the highest scoring participant globally.

With the exception of some improvement in science from 2006 to 2009, U.S. performance on the PISA has been largely stagnant. The U.S. is not among the top performing OECD nations in any subject tested by PISA--though U.S. students express more self-confidence in their academic skills than students in virtually all OECD nations. This stunning finding may be explained because students here are being commended for work that would not be acceptable in high-performing education systems.

The hard truth is that other high-performing nations have passed us by during the last two decades.

Americans need to wake up to this educational reality--instead of napping at the wheel while emerging competitors prepare their students for economic leadership.

The basic findings of the 2009 PISA for the United States are as follows. In reading literacy, 15-year old American students were average performers among 34 OECD nations. The U.S. effectively showed no change in reading skills since 2000. Overall, the OECD's rankings have U.S. students in 14th place in reading literacy among OECD nations.

In mathematics, U.S. 15-year olds are below-average performers among OECD nations.

After a dip in our 2006 math scores, U.S. students returned to the same level of performance in 2009 as six years earlier, in 2003. Still, we rank a lowly 25th in math.

The most encouraging finding from PISA is that our average science score is up. In 2006, American 15-year olds had below-average skills in scientific literacy, compared to their OECD peers. Today, U.S. students have improved enough to become average performers in science among OECD nations, earning 17th place in the OECD rankings.

Still, that's not much to celebrate. Being average in science is a mantle of mediocrity--and especially in a knowledge economy where scientific literacy is so central to sustaining innovation and international competitiveness.

I would caution you against making too much of small gradations in rankings. They are not meaningful. But the gap between top-performing countries and the U.S. is meaningful—and large. To take one example, OECD analysis suggests that 15-year olds in Korea and Finland are, on average, one to two years ahead of their American peers in math and science.

As disturbing as these national trends are for America, enormous achievement gaps among black and Hispanic students portend even more trouble for the U.S. in the years ahead. Last year, McKinsey & Company released an analysis which concluded that America's failure to close achievement gaps had imposed—and here I quote—"the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession."

So, the big picture from PISA is one of educational stagnation, at a time of fast-rising demand for highly-educated workers. The mediocre performance of America's students is a problem we cannot afford to accept and cannot afford to ignore.

In a highly-competitive knowledge-based economy, maintaining the educational status quo means America's students are effectively losing ground. And that is one reason I asked the OECD earlier this year to prepare a study of what the U.S. could learn from the education systems of high-performing nations.

That study, as the Secretary General discussed, is rich with lessons for the United States. But a recurring theme that stands out is that much of the conventional wisdom about the barriers to dramatically accelerating achievement in the U.S. is mistaken.

The chief reason that U.S. students lag behind their peers in high-performing countries is not their diversity, or the fact that a significant number of public school students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The problem, OECD concludes, is that "socioeconomic disadvantage leads more directly to poor educational performance in the United States than is the case in many other countries." Disadvantaged Canadians are much less at risk of poor educational performance than their counterparts here.

Our schools, in other words, are not doing nearly as much as they could to close achievement gaps. As schoolchildren age in America, they "make less progress each year than children in the best-performing countries," according to the OECD.

By contrast, high-performing countries not only dramatically boost student achievement, they do so while closing achievement gaps at the same time. In Finland, there are consistent, strong, and predictable educational outcomes for children regardless of where they go to school.

The OECD study also finds that more resources are not the simple answer for America's educational shortcomings. The U.S. spends more per student than any OECD nation except Luxembourg. Students in Estonia and Poland perform at roughly the same level as those in the U.S., even though Estonia and Poland spend less than half as much per student. Higher performing countries tend to invest differently from us. For example, many prioritize higher teacher salaries over small class sizes. More broadly, they professionalize the teaching profession.

The real problem with K-12 spending in the U.S. is our low educational productivity. Unlike high-performing systems, we achieve less per dollar. And we do less to target spending on the most challenged students and schools. All OECD nations--except the U.S., Israel, and Turkey--devote as much funding or more to schools facing the biggest socioeconomic challenges as they do to schools with more privileged students.

Most countries invest money where the challenges are greatest, and they put in place incentives and support systems that attract the most talented teachers to the most difficult classrooms. Here in the U.S., at best, we are in our infancy in this critically important work.

Let me just say in closing that I was struck by the convergence between the practices of high-performing countries and many of the reforms that state and local leaders have pursued in the last two years in adopting the Common Core standards, and in competing for the Race to the Top program, School Turnaround grants, and the Teacher Incentive Fund.

Almost all high-performing education systems set rigorous, shared academic standards for student success.

Thanks to the courage and commitment of our nation's governors, state school chiefs, state school boards, and state lawmakers, 40 states and the District of Columbia this year have adopted the Common Core standards in math and English. That is a game-changer. That will largely put an end to the insidious practice of dummying down academic standards to make politicians look good.

The OECD reported that virtually every high-performing country they studied (and I quote) "mirrors Race to the Top's effort to support the recruitment, development, rewarding, and retaining of effective teachers and principals."

So, yes, our policies are moving us in the right direction. But the practices of high-performing countries show clearly that America in particular has to do much more to elevate the teaching profession, from the recruitment and training of teachers to their evaluation and professional development.

The United States has a lot to learn from South Korea, Singapore, and Finland about building the teaching profession and recruiting teachers from the ranks of top students. In high-performing countries, teachers are typically recruited from the top third of students; in Finland, it's the top ten percent of students who vie to become teachers.

And before they ever enter the classroom, they receive rigorous clinical training. In the U.S., clinical training is often haphazard and of uneven quality.

High-performing countries have moved away from the century-old factory model of education still used in much of America. In countries that are out-educating us, teachers are often thought of as nation builders. Unlike in the U.S., meaningful evaluations, compensation for highly-effective teachers, and high-quality professional development are all embedded in the job.

In the United States, our system far too often fails to provide meaningful evaluation and incentives for the most effective teachers to teach the most challenged students. Too often, we treat teachers as if they were interchangeable widgets in a school assembly-line.

Americans take real pride in the idea that our nation is exceptional. And is true that our education has unique strengths—we have rich resources, an unmatched tradition of innovation, and a higher education system that is still the finest in the world.

Never before have we had so many pockets of excellence in the K-12 system that can point the way for excellence in all our schools. The 2009 PISA shows that 20 percent of American students enrolled in high-poverty schools reach the average performance of students in Finland, one of the world's most high-achieving nations. This is encouraging.

But we must raise our sights. Our goal must be to be great again and to lead the world in achievement and college attainment, success must become the norm. It is time to acknowledge that much of our preK-12 system is not exceptional.

The highest-performing and most rapidly-improving countries have a great deal to learn from one another.

To continue and deepen that conversation, we--together with OECD and other partners--will convene an International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York in March to bring together Ministers of Education and national teachers-union leaders from these countries.

I have every confidence that America can capitalize on our strengths, adapt where we need to, and learn from others. We've done so before.

The U.S. currently has many of the world's top research universities. But a century ago we adopted the concept of the research university from Germany.

Vocational and technical education in the U.S. has its roots in Scotland's mechanical institutes, which were then on the cutting edge of technology training. Our leading prep schools are modeled after England's.

Today, America has to study and learn from other nations once again. The need is urgent, the opportunity unique. Children only get one chance at an education.

Martin Luther King famously said that he couldn't wait for justice to prevail. And as a nation, we can no longer wait to improve schools that deny children of the opportunity for a world-class education.

Our children, and our country, need and deserve the best.

WHAT ARE WE DOING TO BETTER EDUCATE OUR KIDS?

2011-11-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Report
By MARY BRUCE (@marykbruce)
Dec. 7, 2010
American educators received a wake-up call today when it was revealed that students in Shanghai rank number one globally in reading, math and science, far outpacing their American peers. Despite modest gains in math and science, the U.S. continues to lag behind other developed countries.

A report out today, "Highlights From PISA 2009: Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy in an International Context," shows the U.S. now ranks 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading out of the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

While OECD countries such as Finland, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand continue to outpace the U.S. in reading, science and math, all eyes are on China. In its first year to be included in the study as a non-OECD education system, Shanghai ranked first in all three categories. Hong Kong came in second in reading and science and third in math.

"The 2009 PISA data demonstrate the rise in the quality of education in Asia -- among the top performers were Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Korea," said Tony Jackson, Vice President of Education at the Asia Society. "Aligning education goals to economic development, Asian nations have scoured the world for models of effective education systems, and implemented them consistently through deliberate policies and long-term investments. Any definition of a world-class education must include knowledge of Asia and the language and cultural skills to deal with Asia. It's a two-way street: America must now learn from — and with — Asia and the world."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the findings, "to be brutally honest, show that a host of developed nations are out-educating us."

"The findings, I have to admit, show that the United States needs to urgently accelerate student learning to try to remain competitive in the knowledge economy of the 21st century," Duncan said at a press conference in Washington. "Americans need to wake up to this educational reality, instead of napping at the wheel while emerging competitors prepare their students for economic leadership."

The U.S. did show improvement in science and math from 2006 to 2009, but Duncan said, "I don't think that's much for us to celebrate. Being average in science is a mantle of mediocrity."

In science, American students jumped from an average score of 489 in 2006 to 502 in 2009, which is no longer below the OECD average (science, math and reading are all measured on a zero to 1,000 point scale). Finland continues to hold the top spot in science.

In math, the U.S. scores improved from 2006 but were not measurably different from scores on the 2003 assessment, and were still below the OECD average. American students scored an average of 474 in 2006, and 487 in 2009. South Korea surpassed Finland for the number one spot in 2009. Finland now ranks number two, followed by Switzerland, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Belgium, Australia and Germany in the top ten.

For comparison, in 2006 American students ranked 21st in science and 25th in math out of the 30 countries then counted by the OECD (Chile, Israel, Slovenia and Estonia have since joined the OECD).

Check this link to watch interesting related videos:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/china-debuts-top-international-education-rankings/story?id=12336108#.TrL2ZkP7i4A

Why GATE education?

2009-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Gifted and Talented children frequently are far ahead of their peers academically that they become bored with normal classroom work because they are in desperate need of intellectual stimulation on an appropriate level. GATE students need a trained teacher who understands their needs and help them succeed!.

GATE education generally focuses on problem solving and finding innovative solutions to everyday problems. By giving gifted children challenges that are reachable for them -not for the average student-, they will become motivated to seek knowledge and provide solutions, both now and in the future. Their creative thinking and problem solving can become the technological, political, and societal leaders of tomorrow.

Share your comments and personal experiences!

Why Even Have Gifted Education?

2009-03-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

Teachers may be asked this question by people who are confrontive (as in "Aren't all kids gifted?" and "Isn't gifted education elitist?") or merely curious ("What is gifted education all about, and why do we need it?"). You as teacher may be challenged to defend gifted education in a time of budget cutbacks, when anything considered "nonessential" is at risk. Following are some reasons why we think gifted education is necessary-today, tomorrow, and always:
* Gifted kids need a place where they can be themselves. That can mean almost anything: brainy, impatient, show-offy, moody, obsessed with a particular interest, off in a mysterious direction. America has traditionally been a society that values equity. Often, that translates into favoring conformity and people who don't stand out from the crowd.
* Gifted kids need a place where they can feel safe and supported. Many high-achieving students actually hide or cover up their abilities to improve their chances of being accepted as "normal" or to win popularity with their age peers.
* Like all kids, gifted kids have the right to the best education for them. They need opportunities to learn at their own speed, opt out of work they already know and understand, study things that interest them, go beyond the basics, work with abstract concepts that require more than simple thinking, work with peers who share their interests and abilities, and participate in options that connect their learning to the "real world."
* By the time they reach their senior year of high school, gifted kids will have spent more than 12.000 hours in school. Shouldn't at least some of those hours be challenging, rewarding, stimulating, meaningful, and enjoyable?

And here more detailed reasons from the National Association for the Gifted Children:

1. Gifted learners must be given stimulating educational experiences appropriate to their level of ability if they are to realize their potential. Giftedness arises from an interaction between innate capabilities and en environment that challenges and stimulates to bring forth high levels of ability and talent. These challenges must be available throughout the individual's lifetime for high levels of actualization of ability and talent to result. According to research on the nature of intelligence and the brain, we either progress or we regress depending on our participation in stimulation appropriate to our level of development.

2. Each person has the right to learn and to be provided challenges for learning at the most appropriate level where growth proceeds most effectively. Our political and social system is based on democratic principles. The school as an extension of those principles must provide an equal educational opportunity for all children to develop to their fullest potential. This means allowing gifted students the opportunity to learn at their level of development. For truly equal opportunity, a variety of learning experiences must be available at many levels.

3. At present, only slightly over on-half of the possible gifted learners in the United States are reported to be receiving education appropriate to their needs. There is physical and psychological pain in being thwarted, discouraged, and diminished as a person. To have ability, to feel power you are never allowed to use, can become traumatic. Many researchers consider the gifted as the largest group of underachievers in education.

4. Traditional education currently does not sufficiently value bright minds. Gifted children often enter school having already developed many of their basic skills. Almost from the first day they sense isolation, as others consider them different. Schools are not sufficiently individualized or flexible to allow modification in structure and organization. Most schools seek to develop skills that allow participation in society, not the re-creation of that society.

5. When given the opportunity, gifted students can use their vast amount of knowledge to serve as a background for unlimited learning. When the needs of the gifted are considered and the educational program is designed to meet these needs, these students make significant gains in achievement, and their sense of competence and well-being is enhanced.

6. Providing for our finest minds allows both individual and societal needs to be met. Contributions to society in all areas of human endeavor come in over-weighted proportions from this population of individuals. Society needs the gifted adult to play a far more demanding and innovate role than that required of the more typical learner. We need integrated, highly functioning persons to carry out those tasks that will lead all of us to a satisfying, fulfilling future.

"When Gifted Kids Don't have all the Answers" by Jim Delisle, Ph.D. & Judy Galbraith, M.A.

Tips for making friends

2009-02-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Reach out. Don't always wait for someone else to make the first move. A simple "hi" and a smile go a long way. It may sound corny, but you'll be amazed at the response you'll receive when you extend a friendly greeting.
Get involved. Join clubs that interest you; take special classes inside or outside of school. Seek out neighbourhood and community organizations and other opportunities to give service to others.
Let people know that you're interested in them. Don't just talk about yourself; ask questions about them and their interests. Make this a habit and you'll have mastered the art of conversation. It's amazing how many people haven't yet grasped this basic social skill.
Be a good listener. This mean looking at people while they're talking to you and genuinely paying attention to what they're saying. (A long litany of "uhhuhs" is a dead giveaway that your mind is somewhere else.)
Risk telling people about yourself. When it feels right, let your interest and talents be known. For example, if you love science fiction and you'd like to know others who feel the same way, spread the word. If you're an expert on the history of science fiction, you might want to share your knowledge. BUT...
Dont' be a show-off. Not everyone you meet will share your interests and abilities. (On the other hand, you shouldn't have to hide them-which you won't, once yu find people who like and appreciate you)
Be honest. Tell the truth about yourself and your convictions. When asked for your opinion, be sincere. Friends appreciate forthrightness in each other. BUT...
When necessary, temper your honestly with diplomacy. The truth doesn't have to hurt. It's better to say "Your new haircut is interesting" that to exclaim "You actually paid money for THAT?. There are times when frankness is anapproriate and unneccessary.
Don't just use your friends as sounding boards for your problems and complaints. Include them in the good times, too.
Do your share of the work. That's right, work. Any relationship takes effort. Don't always depend on your friends to make the plans and carry the weight.
Be accepting. Not all of your friends have to think and act like you do. (Wouldn't it be boring if they did?)
Learn to recognize the so-called friends you can do without. Some gifted kids get so lonely that they put up with anyone - including friends who aren't really friends at all. Follow tips 1-11 and this shouldn't happen to you.

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Neglecting the high Achiever

2008-11-21T16:18:00.002-08:00

Special report for Educational Leadership, Oct/08 edition, by Amy M. Azzam

What does it mean when 60 percent of teachers name struggling students as their top priority and 81 percent indicate that struggling students are the most likely to get one-on-one help from teachers-when 86 percent of those same teachers surveyed say that public schools should focus equally on all students, regardless of their backgrounds or achievements levels? According to a new report, it means that there's some confusion over the definition of equity in U.S. Schools, particularly when it comes to high-achieving students.
A recent two-part report published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute-High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB- looks at issues related to the best and brightest in our schools. The first study examines achievement trends for high-achieving students; the second looks at teachers' views on how schools are serving high achievers. Neither study tries to establish a casual link between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the performance of high-achieving students.
“Part 1: An Analysis of NAEP Data,” authored by Brookings scholar Tom Loveless, presents two major findings:
Although the United States' lowest-achieving students made rapid gains from 2000 to 2007, the performance of top students was “languid.” The bottom 10 percent of students have shown solid progress in 4th grade reading and math and 8th grade math since 2000, but the top 10 percent have minimal gains.
This pattern of stronger progress for low achievers rather that for high achievers is associated with the introduction of accountability systems in general-and not with NCLB in particular. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data from the 1990s show that states that adopted similar testing and accountability programs saw similar patterns. According to the report, this is because “accountability systems, like NCLB, put pressure on schools to get students over a fairly low bar” (p.10).

“Part 2: Results from a National Teacher Survey.” authored by Steve Farkas and Ann Duffet, is based on a national random sample of 900 3rd-12th grade public school teachers. Key findings include the following:
Sixty percent of teachers indicate that struggling students –not high achievers- are their top priority. Only 23 percent indicated that “academically advanced” students are a top priority.
Eighty-one percent of teachers named “struggling students” as those most likely to get one-on-one attention from teachers. Only 5 percent named “advanced students” as getting that attention.
In a forced-choice question, only 11 percent of teachers said that public schools should focus on raising the achievement of disadvantaged students who are struggling academically, whereas 86 percent said schools should focus equally on all students, regardless of their backgrounds or achievement levels. According to Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, in their executive summary of the report, this is an “overwhelming repudiation of one of NCLB's core tenets” (p. 12). They note that one reason the achievement of top students hasn't tumbled in recent years is that “teachers' personal views have 'mediated' the federal law's intentions and incentives” (p. 12).
Forty percent of teachers said that programs for high-achieving students are “too often watered down and lacking in rigor” (p.10).
Low-income, black, and Hispanic high achievers (on the 2005 8th grades NAEP in math) were more likely that low achievers to be taught by experienced teachers.

Commenting on what they call the overall “benign neglect” of high-achieving students, Finn and Petrilli note that “if gains by low achievers are our only measure of success, America faces big challenges in the years to come” (p.12).

For a full copy of High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB, go to www.fordhamfoundation.org/publications/index.cfm

Smart, Black, and Losing Ground

Research has shown that black-white achievement gaps grow most noticeably during the elementary school years. But according to a recent report out of Stanford, they are growing fastest among the most able black and white students.
The report relies on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Cohort, a nationally representative sample of kindergartners who were assessed in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge/science skills at six time points during the years 1998-2004. The report analyzed reading and mathematics scores for approximately 7.000 elementary students. There are the two key findings:
Among students entering kindergarten with the same math and reading skills, black students fall well behind their white peers by 5th grade. The 5th grade scores of black students who enter school with average math and reading skills are one-half a standard deviation below those of their white peers and place at the 20-25th percentile of the white distribution.
The black-white gap in both math and reading appears to grow the most quickly among students who enter kindergarten with above-average math and reading skills. The gap grows twice as quickly for students who begin school with scores one standard deviation above the mean as for those who begin one standard deviation below the mean.

The study attributes this pattern to several factors. In addition to socio-economic realities that may deprive students of valuable resources, high-achieving black students may be exposed to less rigorous curriculums, attend schools with fewer resources, and have teachers who expect less of them academically than they expect of similarly high-achieving white students.

Differential Growth in the Black-White Achievement Gap During Elementary School Among Initially High- and Low- Scoring Students, by Sean F. Reardon, is available at www.stanford.edu/group/irepp/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=43

SENG ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-11-05T16:42:00.002-08:00

RUSD GATE Parents and teachers are invited to a:
90 minutes Webinar Presentation by James T. Webb, PhD

Common Misdiagnoses and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: What parents, Educators and Psychologists Need to Know.

Date: November 20, 2008
Time: 5:30 pm.
Location: Highland Grove Elementary School, 7700 Orange Street, Highland, 92346

Because they lack training, mental health professionals are misdiagnosing gifted and talented children and adults as having mental disorders. The characteristics of gifted/talented children and adults -particularly if not understood at school, home or work -often are mistaken for significant behavior or emotional problems that can be misdiagnosed as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Conduct Disorder, or Bi-Polar Disorder... Parents and educators, therefore, must become more informed about these issues.

However, for other children and adults, their giftedness is related, but often overlooked, for diagnoses that are accurate such as Existential Depression, Bi-Polar, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, Sleep Disorders or Multiple Personality Disorder. That is, these children and adults do indeed have dual diagnoses – giftedness and some disorder. It is important that the aspects related to giftedness not be overlooked or misunderstood by professionals.

This session provides information to help parents, educators, and health care professionals understand how they can differentiate gifted behaviors from behavioral pathology. Dr. Webb will describe commonalities and contrasts between the characteristics of gifted children and adults and the behaviors described in the DSM-IV that are used by mental health professionals to make differential diagnoses. In addition, Dr. Webb will discuss dual diagnoses and how treatment approaches with gifted children and adults often need to be modified.

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Dr. James T. Webb founded SENG in 1981, and is the lead author of award winning books including Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults, Guiding the Gifted Child, A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children, Grandparent's Guide to Gifted Children, and Gifted Parent Groups: The SENG Model. He was previously President of the American Association for Gifted Children, on the Board of directors for the National Association for Gifted Children, President of the Ohio Psychological Association, and a member of the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Webb was recognized as one of the most 25 influential psychologists in a national survey published in Gifted Child Today.

The twelve most important issues for Parents of Gifted Children

2008-11-05T16:42:00.001-08:00

By James T. Webb, Janet L. Gore, Edward R. Amend, and Arlene R. DeVries

Parenting and intellectually curious, high-spirited, often strong-willed child, can be quite challenging at times, as most parents of these children know. Support from others, as well as general guidelines for parenting, can be helpful.

But why are parents so important? First, they have the longest history and the most interactions: they guide a child's development from infant to toddler to preschool years, then from elementary school to the pre-teen and teen years, all the while caring deeply about their child. Parents are with their children many more years than teachers, and they are simply, more influential over time in shaping their children's attitudes, values, motivation, and behaviors in critically important area of life, such learning and relationships with others. Parents know their children better than individuals who have occasional or one-year contact. Most importantly, parents have a strong emotional investment in their children; they care deeply about the education and well being of their children.

Characteristics
There are many academic and emotional traits that describe gifted children, and these characteristics make them uniquely different from other children. For example, most gifted children speak early and use vocabulary that seems advanced for their age, saying, “I'm just annoyed,” rather than, “I'm mad.” They demonstrate a rather amazing memory, often recalling things they saw or did months before; they often learn to read early and can tell others about what they read. Their emotions are strong; they display both great intensity an sensitivity, becoming upset over a perceived slight or injustice, but are also sensitive to the feelings of others. They notice when a parent is having a bad day and may comment on it-or help or empathy. These obvious and remarkable traits are often the first thing parents and others notice about a child, making them aware that the child is unusual. Parents will also notice the depth of thinking and questioning. The sheer number of questions will often try one's patience.
Of these traits, the ones that probably have the biggest day-to-day impact on a gifted child and his or her family, however, are the child's emotional traits-the intensity and sensitivity that are some times referred to as “overexcitabilities.” For example, while most children will be upset by a perceived injustice, a gifted child will be upset to a greater degree. While many children are sensitive to hurt feelings, a gifted child may be upset longer; and again, to a greater degree. Understanding these common traits of gifted children will help parents better understand, support, and guide their children.

Asynchronous Development
Many gifted children show uneven, or asynchronous, development. That is, the child may be quite advanced in one area, such as math or language, but not so advanced or even somewhat “behind” in another area. Commonly, the child's judgment will lag behind the child's intellect. A child may know a lot about dinosaurs, maybe even as much as some experts, but may no know how to voice her opinions in a respectful or tactful way that others can accept. Being “out of sync,” not only with others but also within one's own abilities, can cause difficulties for the child in many life situations. It may be difficult to find friends, to let teachers know the work is too easy, or to understand why it's easy to do math but not be as skilled in other subjects.

Communication
Communication is a fundamental component of all relationships. Because gifted children often have such interest and sensitive feelings, parents may need to be particularly aware and gentle when discussing feelings and behaviors. Avoiding behaviors that inhibit communication, such as giving commands, using sarcasm, interrupting, or denying the child's feelings, will enhance communication. Sometimes, parents criticize the very characteristics and behaviors that are key to being gifted, such as “excessive talking, being too inquisitive, too intense, too sensitive, or too creative.” Criticizing a child for asking too many questions is to tell him he is not acceptable the way he is; he needs to change. Instead, parents should try to answer the child's questions and guide him so that he is able to find answers on his own. Parents find it easier when they create and atmosphere of open communication by being always ready to listen and setting aside special one-on-one times with the child, five minutes a day, or an entire day or weekend. Parents can also monitor their own intense feelings and try to model positive communication techniques.

Motivation
Gifted children are usually curious and motivated about many things, and have many interest; however their enthusiasm for learning may falter for a variety of reasons. Physical, medical, emotional issues, or problems at home such as frequent power struggles can dampen a child's motivation. Some children underachieve to fit in with age-level peers, to get attention, or because the assigned tasks don't seem relevant to them. Parents can encourage children by commenting on their successes, setting appropriate goals, emphasizing the process rather that the final product, and by giving children ownership in the task. By focusing on their interest and strengths, you can help them transfer those skills to other areas.

Discipline
Gifted children, like all children, need limits, but parents should allow choices within those limits. The goal is to help the child learn to make appropriate choices in the future, thus developing self-discipline. House rules must be consistent, enforceable, and allow logical consequences. Expectations should be made clear, conveying a trust that the child will act appropriately. Parents might ask themselves, “How effective is this discipline in the long run? Is it working? What is the effect on the child's self esteem? How will it affect my personal relationship with my child?”

Stress and perfectionism
Gifted children vary in their ability to handle excessive stress and perfectionism. Their intensity and asynchrony means they are often out of step within themselves and with age peers. This may lead to feelings of alienation and internal stress. Children can develop resiliency through practicing various techniques such as physical and mental relaxation, use of humor, keeping a daily journal or diary, and setting appropriate priorities. Many gifted children set unusually high standards for themselves leading to a quest for perfectionism. Parents can help children expect progress, not perfection, and can point out that it takes practice to master new skills, whether it's riding a bike or keyboarding.

Idealism, unhappiness, and depression
Idealism, unhappiness, and depression are all too common occurrences among gifted children. The idealism can lead to cynicism and spark feelings of existential isolation and aloneness when others don't seem to share the same thoughts or feelings. Because these children may not have developed their “emotional intelligence” and because they believe since they are bright they “should” be able to handle difficult situations, it is often necessary for adults in their lives to intervene. Children can learn optimism and resiliency at a young age as they struggle and succeed at appropriately challenging tasks. However, if they feel helpless and despondent, a referral to a mental health professional is necessary. Parents can encourage children to share their feelings by using and emotional temperature reading. “How was your day today on a scale of 1-10?” “Tell me about it.”

Peer relationships
Relating to peers is frequently an issue for most gifted children because their interest and behaviors tend to be different from those of age mates. They require different peers to meet various intellectual, emotional, or athletic needs. The key is to find one “soul mate” with whom they can interact rather than many superficial friends or acquaintances. Children who understand themselves, know their interests and strengths, and can reach out to others like themselves are more likely to feel connected to others and less likely to succumb to peer pressure.

Sibling relationships
In families of gifted children, sibling relationships can be intense. Sibling rivalry often develops when children compete for attention, recognition, or power. Wise parents address these issues by spending special time with each child, avoiding comparisons, refusing to take sides in arguments, and teaching children appropriate problem solving. Fair means treating each child uniquely based on his or her individual needs rather than giving identical items or resources to all the children. Families who work together encourage sibling cooperation.

Values, traditions, and uniqueness
Gifted children, particularly those who are more creative, often challenge traditions and values. When children choose to break family or societal traditions, parents can help them understand the cost-benefit ratio of their actions. It is also important to explore the expressed and unexpressed values in the family and to notice when some traditions may inadvertently inhibit effective family functioning. It is equally important to understand how traditions offer connectivity, comfort, and support for gifted children and their families. All family members can participate in identifying traditions, examining which ones they wish to keep, and which ones they want to discard in favor of creating new traditions.

Curriculum Differentiation for the Gifted

2008-10-16T08:20:00.007-07:00

Differentiation for gifted students means providing learning options that meet the students' special needs for acceleration of content and greater depth, breadth, and complexity of instruction. Some teachers think it's too difficult and time consuming to individualize daily lesson plans to accommodate these special students, but that's and inaccurate perception. It's actually easy to engage gifted children because they are open to so many different approaches and are excited about opportunities to accelerate or expand their learning in certain interest areas.
When a teacher provides ways for the gifted child to excel through small group investigation, independent study, or other option, he gains a valuable ally -the child. These students are so self-motivated that if they work together with their teacher to set goals and the teacher then gives them a gentle nudge in the right direction, the children take on much of the responsibility for their own learning. Naturally, the teacher supervises the students' activities, but teaching gifted children doesn't need to be an exercise in micro-management. When gifted children are fully engrossed, teachers find that they actually have more time to give to other students who need attention.

From the book: "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

An expanded curriculum for Gifted Children

2008-10-16T08:20:00.005-07:00

Individualized instruction, with enrichment activities for high-ability students, work very well for the majority of class members. For the gifted, however, it's not enough. These students will be most challenged and will derive amazing benefits from a expanded curriculum.
An expanded curriculum is not one in which gifted students are simply given more of the same kind of work to keep them busy. (This is sometimes called the MOTS approach, which stands for “More Of The Same.”) What's the point of giving a student who demonstrates complete mastery of a concept the “opportunity” to do six more worksheets of the same kind? Loading gifted children up with busy work almost guarantees passive withdrawal or disruptive, perhaps aggressive, behavior brought about by boredom and frustration.
A program for gifted children must provide pathways by which these students may venture away from the basic curriculum in areas in which they excel. This expansion of the curriculum may take place in their own classroom with guidance from the teacher; on field trips to museums, science centers, or cultural performances; or in a resource room. The students come back to work with their other classmates when it's appropriate for them to do so, but do not necessarily do all of the same work that the other students are doing. Because the curriculum in some areas can be made shorter for gifted children, it allows them time for flexibility in other areas. Some gifted students will be “outside the umbrella” in every subject, others in only one or two. In all cases, the teacher or a teacher working with a gifted specialist creates the strategies that differentiate (modify) the curriculum to make fit the needs and learning styles of gifted students.
The goal of the expanded curriculum is to equip exceptional children for life. When teachers first encounter gifted students, it's clear that the children's analytical intelligence is highly developed; it's that kind of intelligence that makes them candidates for a gifted program in the first place. But life isn't about analytical intelligence, and gifted children are more that the sum of their test scores. They are human beings, and human beings don't spend their entire lives circling numbers and drawing analogies. They go through life meeting obstacles, encountering challenges, solving problems, and dealing with other people. The teacher's job is to act as diagnostician -to see where the children's gift lie and then to provide relevant, authentic experiences through which they will develop what Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg calls their “tacit” knowledge -the skills that will someday allow them to use their giftedness in a wider context, such as an office, laboratory, classroom, or studio.
Psychologist B.F. Skinner once said, “education is what survives after what has been learned has been forgotten.” That's a pretty good definition of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge includes such skills as priority raking, allocating time and resources, and managing oneself and others.
Therefore, the ideal classroom for Gifted students will balance open-ended, stimulating, and creative opportunities for divergent thinking and analysis with meaningful, practical activities that involve day-to-day living. If gifted students spend all their time in abstract reasoning and have no opportunities to exercise their gifts in realistic situations, they may never learn how to harness their strengths in ways that are satisfying to them and enable them to make a contribution to society. They will still be gifted, but their gifts might be underdeveloped or even lost. They might become discipline problems or lethargic underachievers. Or they might become behavior problems on a spectrum that ranges from occasionally acting out in class to ending up in the juvenile justice system.

From the book: "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

The ideal classroom

2008-10-16T08:20:00.003-07:00

The ideal classroom is connected with the environment. It's a place where teachers open children's minds to the magic and charm of the world around them. If a child catches a butterfly on the way to school, the classroom should have a place for that butterfly -a place where the child can see it, watch it, study it, and enjoy its beauty.
The ideal classroom is geared to the various ways children learn. Students learn through their eyes, ears, hands, mouths, and noses. The learn in groups and alone. They learn through the use of music, art, and nature, as well as from textbooks and other resources, and the room should accommodate a variety of learning styles, including visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and others.
The ideal classroom should be filled with samples of students made products and will be arranged with nooks, crannies, and corners left open for independent projects and supplies.
The ideal classroom will change with the developmental needs of the children. The teacher will not hold preconceived notions about every detail of classroom arrangement and decor, but will be open to the children's suggestions and ideas.
The classroom in which your child will gain greatest benefit is a place where she feels connected to the teacher, the other students, and learning. It is always changing, because learning takes place in the classrooms, goes home with the students, is shaped by real-life experiences, and comes back to school in a different form next day.
You will see students who are continually involved, and they'll be able to tell you not only what they're doing, but why. You won't witness chaos, but the room won't be silent, either. There will be an almost rhythmic pulsation of children actively involved in learning, moving around the classroom, working together or independently. You will observe that the teacher and students are mutually arriving at decisions and plans, and you'll watch one-to-one communication between the teacher and individual students.
A classroom model familiar to many parents and teachers is one with several “learning centers” or “activity stations” for different types of student work. Teachers use learning centers in many different ways. Sometimes the centers are subject driven. Other times, centers are built around the ways students learn. Another center might offer materials that appeal to children who learn best visually. Learning centers can be quiet or hives of activity; sometimes there is only one student at a center and sometimes there are several students working together on a project.
The ideal classroom is student-friendly. This doesn't mean that the teacher abandons control and the children are free to do whatever they wish. It is where the needs of each child drive decisions about classrooms procedures. The teacher uses a variety of teaching methods -from lectures to media demonstrations to real-word activities to simulations- to make sure that all of the children's different learning styles are addresses. The teacher is learning coach.
The ideal classroom will also feature individualized instruction, or teaching that matches students' ability levels. For many teacher, the way to do it is to group students together according to their abilities in math and reading. For social studies an science, students work on a general theme, but individual students and small groups may investigate interest areas related to the theme.

From the book "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

Bullying and the Gifted

2008-06-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

Victims, Perpetrators, Prevalence, and Effects

By Jean Sunde Peterson and Karen E. Ray
Purdue University

PUTTING THE RESEARCH TO USE
This study provides information to parents, school personnel, and counselors that can be useful when
advocating for the safety and well-being of gifted students. The reality that many victims apparently do not report incidents to adults at school or at home means that parents, teachers, and counselors should keep bullying in mind when attempting to ascertain why a child expresses hopelessness, appears uncomfortable in school, withdraws socially, becomes hypervigilant, or has problems eating or sleeping.

Direct questions about bullying (e.g., “Have you ever seen someone being bullied?” “Have you ever been bullied?”), including references to a wide range of bullying behaviors (e.g., “Have you ever seen a student threaten someone?”), may generate important revelations. Open-ended questions are best for generating conversation without provoking defensiveness (e.g., “Tell me about recess, the lunchroom, lining up for the bus. How do the kids behave when they’re not in the classroom?” “How do you feel when you’re on your way to school in the morning?”). Teachers, in the classroom and when supervising elsewhere, need to consider bullying broadly, watch for both overt and subtle bullying, not ignore bullying when it occurs, and not blame the victim. The fi nding that gifted children and early adolescents can also be bullies suggests that teachers should be particularly alert to nonphysical
bullying, which the study found to be associated with gifted bullies, and intervene immediately.
Proactive psychoeducational curriculum for young gifted children and others, as well, can encourage
pro-social behavior and enhance coping and general interpersonal skills.

ABSTRACT
Gifted eighth graders (N = 432) in 11 U.S. States participated in a retrospective national study that explored the prevalence and effects of being bullied and being a bully during kindergarten through grade 8. No signifi cant differences were found related to size of city, race/ethnicity, and geographical region in terms of either being bullied or being a bully. Sixtyseven percent of all participants had experienced at least 1 of 13 kinds of bullying listed on the survey, more in grade 6 than in other grades, and 11% had experienced repeated bullying. Name-calling and teasing about appearance were the most common kinds of bullying, and the latter was among several kinds of bullying signifi cantly related to emotional impact. In grade 8, 16% were bullies, and 29% had violent thoughts. At all grade levels, a larger percentage of males than females were bullied, were bullied more than 10 times, and were bullies.

CONCLUSION
The fi ndings in this study have powerful implications not only for gifted education, but also for all of K–12 education. Bullying appears to be a signifi cant problem for gifted children and early adolescents. Evidence of continued escalation of certain kinds of bullying throughout middle school in this study raises concerns that bullying might continue in high school in altered, but still insidious, forms. On the other hand, the decreasing percentages after grade 6 in name-calling and teasing about appearance, the two most common kinds of bullying, provide some hope that bullying is actually less a problem during high school than earlier (cf. Long & Pellegrini, 2003). However, the continuing increase of thinking about doing something violent tempers that optimism, as well as the reality that 41% of the gifted eighth graders in this study worried about violence in school daily. Educators and parents certainly should not assume an absence of bullying just because gifted children and adolescents do not speak of it and adults do not see it.
Perhaps the most surprising fi nding of this study is that 16% of the gifted participants were bullies in grade 8, after steadily increasing in number from kindergarten on. Gifted bullies may or may not be among the proactively aggressive bullies who are perceived to be popular. Regardless, as noted in the literature, the long-term prognosis for bullies is not positive. In terms of long-term health and well-being, it is just as important for educators and parents to intervene with gifted bullies as with gifted
victims of bullying, while recognizing that the latter are more numerous, according to this study. The noteworthy percentages of gifted victims and bullies certainly stand in stark contrast to the research literature about the low scholastic competence of both bullies and their victims (e.g., Mynard & Joseph, 1997).
The fi ndings in this study can help to raise awareness of the need for proactive, prevention-oriented, systemic school programs, especially during the late-elementary and middle-school grades. No single approach is “best practice” (Rigby, 2003), and schoolwide prevention programs must be specifi c to context. Nevertheless, preprofessional training and continuing education of teachers about bullying, collaborative efforts of educators and parents to protect children from bullies, and empirically proven curricula to alter perceptions of bullying and develop effective social skills all have the potential to make bullying abnormal and unpopular, instead of accepted as a normal part of development during the school years.

Parenting a Gifted Child

2008-06-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Parenting a gifted child is like living in a theme park full of thrill rides. Sometimes you smile. Sometimes you gasp. Sometimes you scream. Sometimes you laugh. Sometimes you gaze in a wonder and astonishment. Sometimes you're frozen in your seat. Sometimes you're proud. And sometimes the ride is so nerve-racking, you can't do anything but cry.
Any and all of these reactions are normal, depending on your child and his development. Gifted children are an enormous challenge for parents. These children go through the same developmental stages that other children do, but not in the same way. One part of the child -the cognitive, or thinking, ability- is “older” that the other part parts of the personality. This situation is called “asynchronous development” because the child's intellect is out of “syn” with his less developed emotional, social (and sometimes physical) abilities. Asynchronous development can leave a gifted child, as well as parents or teachers, feeling stymied, frustated, baffled, puzzled, and confused.
Imagine, if you can, that you are five years old, but you can think like a fourth-grader. Where do you find your friends? The five year-olds are too inmature, and the ten-year-olds don't take you seriously. If they want you around at all, it's as sort of mascot, not as a peer. Physically, you can't do the things the fourth-graders can: you can't hit a ball very well; you have trouble riding a two-wheeler; you can't run as fast as they can. No matter how hard you try, you'll always be behind the physical and emotional curve set by your older classmates. It's like being a person who speaks only German and travels to Italy and France. You like being there, but because the language and culture are different, it's hard to be understood and to get what you need.
Gifted children are part of neither one of their so-called peer groups, and they are subject to teasing, put-downs, and ridicule from both children and adults. It's no wonder, then, that they sometimes feel “out-whack,” weird, inept, and angry. Their emotions, already exquisitely sensitivy, are exposed, raw, and tender, and their lack of emotional maturity can make their lives -and yours- a challenge at best and a nightmare at worst.
Gifted children have many wonderful, enjoyable qualities, but when those qualities are combined with emotional and social immaturity, the flip side of those same attributes can look less appealing.

Emotional Outlook

2008-06-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

When asked how they're feeling, gifted children who are suppressing their emotions usually say they're “fine,” even when their outward behavior shows clearly that they aren't fine. If they choose to do so, they can disguise their emotions better than most other children.
Gifted children often push their feelings down because they're frightened to show others what's going on in their inner lives. Their feelings are often so intense that the children wonder if they're “normal.” They can feel as if they're holding the ocean in a bottle; they may be afraid that if they take out the stopper, they'll be overwhelmed by the waves -than once they begin to vent their emotions, they won't be able to stop. They fear losing control, and if there's one thing gifted children need, it's a sense of self-control and belonging. So they act as normal and ordinary as possible and tell their parents what they think the parents want to hear. Most of the time, they know precisely what adults want them to say.
Friendship can be problematic. A gifted child may, after long consideration, confide deeply in one friend; that's why the break-up of a friendship can be so devastating. If the friendship falls apart, the child has no outlet for all the emotion previously shared with the lost friend. The child may then grieve deeply or show anger that seems excessive to parents.

Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

Are Children Smarter Than They Used To Be?

2008-06-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today's moms and dads have access to much more information about infant and child development that did parents a generation ago. Consequently, there are many children who are products of exceptional parenting. These children have been intellectually stimulated from birth. They've been talked to, read to, and played with. Fortunate children like these have been provided with books, games, puzzles, computer learning, music, and art materials. By the time they enter kindergarten, they can differentiate shapes and colors and understand concepts such as alike and opposite; they know their letters and numbers. They've visited the zoo, the science center, the movies, and the grocery store. They've eaten in restaurants, perhaps both fast food and “white tablecloth” establishments. They may have been taken to dance and musical performances. They may have taken to dance and musical performances. Perhaps they've attended both amateur and professional sports events. They might have been active participants in church suppers or neighborhood picnics and festivals. All of these activities give these children things to talk about and learn from.
Some of these little ones have attended preschool or day care programs that focus on both learning and self-esteem. Their preschool experience may have included children with various disabilities, so they readily accept those who use sign language or wheel chairs. May pre-schoolers have also been exposed to an extended family, whether these people are real kinfolk or their parents' friends. Exposure to other people and groups has enriched these children's lives and prepared them for school.
Their health has been guarded, too. They've seen the pediatrician or clinic health care provider regularly, and since most schools districts require immunization, the majority of students are up-to-date on their shots. They eat healthful foods, get lots of exercise, and have regular bedtimes. All of these help learning.
Although enrichment opportunities are more readily available to middle-class children, lack of money doesn't have to mean lack of opportunity. It may be difficult, but it is certainly possible for lower income families to find these same advantage, and many do. One minority principal with experience in both inner city and suburban schools says it this way: “Sometimes you have to ask for what you need. Let's be honest. Money makes things easier, but there are ways for parents go get what they need for their children

Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

Will Enrichment Make a Child Gifted?

2008-06-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

Children whose life experience has been enriched in many of these ways come to school ready to learn, and they usually excel in the early grades. They are bright, eager, and often socially adept -the public's (and sometimes parents' and teacher') idea of gifted students. But if the adults watch these children for a period of time, they may notice that by the third of fourth grade, some of the children are “leveling out,” -that is, they're performing like most of their chronological peers. They're still very intelligent, but their intellectual ability is now being challenged by more complex material. Although they may have appeared gifted in kindergarten and first grade, it's now evident that they are simply smart children who have had an enriched early childhood and who will excel in the so-called regular classroom.
Gifted children have different situation. These children may also have had careful, loving parenting, although they may or may not received the exceptional opportunities available to families with more resources. But so long as gifted children receive reasonable opportunities to explore, think, and create, their intellectual gifts generally can thrive, sometimes even with relatively little stimulation. Their giftedness is part of the genetic endowment -the potential they brought along with them when they were born. Of course, this needs to be nurtured and encouraged by their parents and others, but it exists by itself.
Introducing children to a wide variety of learning opportunities actually helps identify those who are gifted. For example, suppose a group of young children goes to the museum to look at dinosaur bones. All of the children will be fascinate by the skeletons, but the gifted child may suddenly blurt out hat brontosauruses must have been leaf eaters because they had long necks, just like today's giraffes. The gifted child is able to see relationships and make connections that aren't immediately apparent to other children. Gifted children soak up information rapidly an are usually on a constant, intense quest to learn more -and that intensity might be one of the earliest indicators of giftedness.
Gifted children are often autonomous learners and much of what they learn will be self-taught. Still, they need parents and teachers to guide them, particularly because their intellectual development often outpaces their judgment.
Just as a smart child who is hard worker and a high achiever may be mistakenly identified as gifted, a truly gifted child may be labeled as a troublemaker, a nuisance, a classroom pest, or even suspected of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The bright child may end up in the gifted class, the gifted child in the principal's office, and neither of them is in the right place.
Of course, not every sassy, aggressive, acting-out child is gifted; many gifted children are patient, polite, kind, and helpful. Parents and teachers must observe the child over time to know precisely what they're dealing with.
Smart children may indeed be more sophisticated thinkers that children of prior generations simply because they've had more experiences and been exposed to more information earlier in life. Nonetheless, smart children can be overwhelmed by the rigor and demands of a gifted curriculum. Gifted children, on the other hand, generally thrive in this type of creative and challenging environment. In fact, if they don't receive the stimulation they need for their intellectual and social growth, some gifted students will simply “camouflage” and hide their abilities or let their talents wither and die.

"Helping Gifted Children Soar"
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

Perfectionism vs. the Pursuit of Excellence

2008-04-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

There is a healthy alternative to perfectionism. It's called the Pursuit of Excellence. Here are three ways in which the two differ:

Perfectionism means thinking less of yourself because you earned a B+ instead of a A. The pursuit of Excellence means thinking more of yourself for trying something new.
Perfectionism means being hard on yourself because your aren't equally talented in all sports. The Pursuit of Excellence means choosing some things you know you'll be good at -and others you know will be good for you or just plain fun.
Perfectionism means beating yourself up because you lost the student council election. The Pursuit of Excellence means congratulating yourself because you were nominated, and deciding to run again next year -if that's what you want.

How can you become a Pursuer of Excellence? By:

determining the sources of your perfectionism
reassessing your feelings about failure and success
standing your ground against people who pressure you to be perfect
learning ways to be easier on yourself so you're free to take risks and try new things

What other ideas do you have for pursuing excellence?

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Ten Tips for Talking to Teachers

2008-04-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

Are you having a problem with a class or an assignment? Can you see room for improvement in how a subject is taught? Do you have a better idea for a special project or term paper? Don't just tell your friends. Talk to the teacher!
Many students don't know how to go about doing this. The following suggestions are meant to make it easier for everyone -students and teachers-.

Make an appointment to meet and talk. This shows the teacher that you are serious and you have some understanding of his or her busy schedule. Tell the teacher about how much time you will need, be flexible, and don't be late.
If you know about other student who feel the way you do, consider approaching the teacher together. There's strength in numbers. If a teacher hears the same thing from four or five people, he or she is more likely to do something about it.
Think through what you want to say before you go into your meeting with the teacher. Write down your questions or concerns. Make a list of the items you want to cover. You may even want to copy your list for the teacher so both of you can consult it during you meeting. (or consider giving it to the teacher ahead of time).
Choose your words carefully. Example: Instead of saying, "I hate doing reports; they're boring and a waste of time," try, "Is there some other way I could satisfy this requirement? Could I do a video instead?" Strike the word "boring" from your vocabulary. it's a word that's not helpful for teachers (and might even make them mad).
Don't expect the teacher to do all the work of propose all the answers. Be prepared to make suggestions, offer solutions, even recommend resources. The teacher will appreciate that you took the initiative.
Be diplomatic, tactful, and respectful. Teachers have feelings, too. And they're more likely to be responsive if you remember that the purpose of your meeting is conversation, not confrontation.
Focus on what you need, not on what you think the teacher is doing wrong. The more the teacher learns about you, the more he or she will be able to help. The more defensive the teacher feels, the less he or she will want to help.
Don't forget to listen. Strange but true, students need practice in this essential skill. The purpose of your meeting isn't just to hear yourself talk.
Bring your sense of humor. Not neccesarily the joke-telling sense of humor, but the one that lets your laugh at yourself and your own misunderstanding and mistakes.
If you meeting isn't successful, get help from another adult. "Successful" doesn't neccesarily mean that you emerged victorious. Even if the teacher denies your request, your meeting can still be judged successful. If you had a real conversation -if you communicated openly, listened carefully, and respected each other's point of view- then congratulate yourself on a great meeting. If the air crackled with tension, the meeting fell apart, and you felt disrespected (or acted disrespectful), then it's time to bring in another adult. Suggestions: a guidance counselor, the gifted program coordinator, or another teacher you know and trust who seems likely to support you and advocate for you. Once you've found help, approach your teacher and try again.

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Eight Great Gripes of Gifted Kids

2008-04-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

No one explains what being gifted is all about - it's keep a big secret.

School is too easy and too boring

Parents, teachers, and friends expect us to be perfect all the time.

Friends who really understand us are few and far between.

Kids often tease us about being smart.

We feel owerwhelmed by the number of things we can do in life.

We feel different and alienated.

We worry about world problems and feel helpless to do anything about them.

Do you know about other gripes?...

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Ways to support Gifted Children with learning differences

2008-04-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

IDENTIFICATION

Include students with disabilities in the initial screening phase.
Be willing to accept nonconventional indicator of intellectual talent.
Look beyond test scores.
When applying cutoffs, bear in mind the depression of scores that may occur due to the disability.
DO NOT aggregate subtest scores into a composite score.
Weight more heavily characteristics that enable the child to effectively compensate for the disability.
Weight more heavily areas of performance unaffected by the disability.
Allow the child to participate in gifted programs on a trial basis.

INSTRUCTION

Be aware of the powerful role of language; reduce communication limitations and develop alternative modes for thinking and communicating.
Emphasize high-level abstract thinking, creativity, and a problem-solving approach.
Have great expectations: These children often become successful as adults in fields requiring advanced education.
Provide for individual pacing in areas of giftedness and disability.
Provide challenging activities at an advance level.
Promote active inquiry, experimentation, and discussion.
Promote self-direction.
Offer options that enable students to use strengths and preferred ways of learning.
Use intellectual strengths to develop coping strategies.
Assist in strengthening the student's self-concept.

CLASSROOM DYNAMICS

Discuss disabilities / capabilities and their implications with the class.
Expect participation in all activities; strive for normal peer interactions.
Facilitate acceptance; model and demand respect for all.
Candidly answer peers' questions.
Treat a child with a disability the same way a child without a disability is treated.
Model celebration of individual differences.

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Ways to Support Gifted Minority Students

2008-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Communicate high expectations.
Be sensitive to the experiences and beliefs of people from different cultural groups. Get to know all students and their cultures. Consider the challenges that students may face in school.
Continuously and firmly encourage students to go to college. Discuss the neccesary coursework, test, and other preparations with students and parents.
Create a multicultural learning environment and make sure the curriculum reflects a variety of cultures.
Help students connect with role models and mentors. Organize peer support groups for students with similar interest and abilities.
Reach out to parents and family members. Enlist their support in providing encouragements and high expectations.
Provide students with a variety of learning options. Create or select activities that are engaging, active, and grounded in reality.
Listen to students' concerns, fears, and beliefs about their experiences and their education.

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Ways to Support Gifted Girls

2008-04-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Identify them early. The best age for evaluating and identifying gifted girls is between 3.5 and 7. For some gifted girls, early school entrance is beneficial.
Provide special programs that stimulate and challenge them.
Encourage them to take higher level math and science courses.
Use multiple measures of ability and achievement. Females still score lower on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the College Board Achievement Test, The Graduate Record Examination, and other examinations critical for college and graduate school admision. Most of these tests underpredict female performance and overpredict male performance.
Encourage them to take credict for their successes and recognize their own talents.
Provide material to compensate for the lack of inclusion of women's acomplishments in literature or textbooks.
Foster friendships with gifted peers who share similar interests.
Provide role models of women in traditional and nontraditional careers who have successfully integrated multiple aspect of their lives.
Avoid sex-role stereotyping. Encourage awareness of biased depictions of girls and women in the media. (As recently as January 2000, the Barbie personal computer for girls came loaded with a little more than half of the educational software on the companion computer for boys).
Encourage independence and risk-taking.
Avoid having different expectations for girls than for boys.

When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Some general characteristics of Gifted Children

2008-04-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

These are typical factors stressed by educational authorities as being indicative of giftedness. Obviously, no child is outstanding in all characteristics.

Shows superior reasoning powers and marked ability to handle ideas; can generalize readily from specific facts and can see subtle relationships; has outstanding problem-solving ability.
Shows persistent intellectual curiosity; ask searching questions; shows exceptional interest in the nature of humankind and the universe.
Has a wide range of interest, often of an intellectual kind; develops one or more interest to considerable depth.
Is markedly superior in quality and quantity or written and / or spoken vocabulary; is interested in the subtleties of words and their uses.
Reads avidly and absorbs books well beyond his or her years.
Learns quickly and easily and retains what is learned; recalls important details, concepts and principles; comprehends readily.
Shows insight into arithmetical problems that require careful reasoning and grasps mathematical concepts readily.
Shows creative ability or imaginative expression in such things as music, art, dance, drama; shows sensitivity and finesse in rhythm, movement, and bodily control.
Sustains concentracion for lengthy periods and shows outstanding responsibility and independence in classroom work.
Sets realistically high standards for self; is self-critical in evaluating and correcting his or her efforts.
Shows initiative and originality in intellectual work; shows flexibility in thinking and considers problems from a number of viewpoints.
Observes keenly and is responsive to new ideas.
Shows social poise and an ability to communicate with adults in a muture way.
Gets excitement and pleasure from intellectual challenge; shows an alert and subtle sense of humor.

Gifted children can also be extraordinarily sensitive. They often feel more than other kids their age. They tend to develop emphaty earlier that other children do. They have a social conscience and an intense awareness of the world's problems. They worry about the world, the environment, wars an conflicts, hunger and homelessness. Their emotions are intense and close to the surface.

Along with these many fine qualities can come various problems related to them.

When Gifted kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

Promoting Gifted Education in your community

2008-04-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that there is a strong need to build awareness of the purposes for gifted programs and the special needs of the students these programs serve, developing solid advocacy efforts for gifted programs has been an overlooked area in the field. Public awareness could rescue gifted programs from budget cuts and benign neglect by gathering much needed support, and parents can play a vital role in communicating with the public the neccesity of maintaining appropriate educational experiences for gifted students.

* Why Gifted Programs need Community Support?.
The educational needs of the nation's gifted students continues to be a controversial topic. The general public holds many different attitudes and beliefs relating to gifted and talented students. Unfortunately, there are also a number of misconceptions about gifted students. For example:
- they need no special programming, that they will succeed anyway;
- their families are always supportive;
- they are not aware of their differentness unless they are identified as gifted;
- they enjoy being examples for other students;
- they prefer social isolation.
These common misconceptions are directly related to the lack of knowledge many have about the characteristics and educational needs of exceptional students. If we hope to build and maintain community support for gifted programs, we must increase the awareness in the community of the unique needs and qualities of gifted students as well as the benefits of gifted education programs so we can
- resolve the equity vs. excellence debate;
- dispel myths about gifted students;
- locate and maintain funding sources for gifted education;
- recruit teachers into the field of gifted education; and
- create policies and/or mandates for gifted education.

* Equity vs. Excellence
Advocates of gifted education need to address the “Equity vs. Excellence” issue. Many community members perceive gifted programs as elitist. However, it is neither fair nor reasonable to provide equal educational programming and hold equal expectations for all students, regardless of their abilities. By providing enrichment and acceleration experiences for gifted students, we are providing them with what what they need, not superfluous or unnecessary education. Helping the community see and value the educational needs of gifted and talented students will help generate support for their special programming requirements.

* Dispel Myths
It is vital that advocates dispel the myths associated with gifted students. Several of the more comom myths are:
It is undemocratic to give special attention to the gifted. This myth relates back to the equity versus excellence debate. All students should receive educational programming that is appropriate to their needs and abilities.
Gifted students will do well on their own. Gifted students need special programs to meet their complex learning needs. Without special considerations, these students may not reach their full potential.
Gifted students should strive to be part of the mainstream. Our country was founded on the premise that all individuals would develop their natural talents for the benefit of society. We should not be satisfied with mediocrity when excellence and preeminence are necessary to compete in the ever-changing world marketplace.
Gifted students in special programs will have social-emotional problems. The reverse of this myth is probably more often true. If gifted students do not receive the necessary enrichment experiences they need, social-emotional discontent may surface.

* Improve Understanding
Educating the general public about the characteristics and needs of gifted students is of utmost importance in gaining community support. Presenting clear facts and information relating to current research can help improve the public's knowledge and perceptions of gifted children and the programs that serve these unique students.
Enhancing community support for gifted education will help locate and maintain financial support for gifted programs. Funding for gifted education is limited, with additional budget cuts occurring from year to year. In order to keep gifted programs appropriate funded, it is imperative that we improve public opinion and awareness of the benefits of quality educational options for gifted students. As taxpayers, citizens play a crucial role in the appropriation of funds for various programs that affect gifted education. As stakeholders in the system, these same community members need to be made aware of the impact appropriate gifted programming can have on both students and the community as a whole.

* Recruit Teachers
Strong public support will encourage teachers to enter the field of gifted education and to sustain, perhaps increase, the number of teachers pursuing degrees and certification in gifted education. It is essential that student-teacher ratios be kept low in the gifted classroom to ensure that the needs of these exceptional students can be adequately addressed. Whenever teacher units are cut, class size grows. Continued public support can assist in recruiting and maintaining quality teachers for gifted students.
Finally, public endorsement is desperately needed to advocate for state mandates for gifted education so that appropriate educational opportunities can be assured to all gifted students. Again, citizens play a vital role in developing and establishing policies relating to education.
Continued legislative support is needed to ensure a certain future for gifted education.

* Why parents?
There are several reasons why parents make excellent ambassadors of spreading the word about gifted education. Parents are a primary, direct link between the school and the general community. This link can be nurtured and strengthened to become a vital and valuable resource. In addition, parents of gifted children have first-hand experience with the characteristics of gifted children and youth; they can influence other parents; they can make issues relevant and clear to the general public; they may have direct contacts to those in influential positions at the local, or national level; school administrators listen to parents; and parents can network to pool their skills for formulating and effective public relations plan.
While parents can be an excellent connection to the community, to be an effective advocate it is necessary to become well informed of the issues and policies relating to gifted education within the local school districts and state. Thorough research to acquire a strong knowledge base on concerns relating to gifted education will enhance accurate communication with the public. Misinformation can create more harm than good. Below are some more guidelines and activities:
- Speak out on behalf of gifted and talented children and appropriate educational programs and services;
- Be sure to stay on top of developments in your local school budget and curriculum planning decisions. It is always easier to have an impact on key decisions before they are made, rather than trying to undo unfavorable determinations;
- Advocate as individual parents and join others as well;
- Check to see if there is a local organization in your area already working on these issues;
- Check with your state gifted education organization. They may know of activists in your area.
- Offer to work with the state association on issues in the state capital and in Washington, DC;
- Consider starting your own local group to work with parents, teachers, and your local school board;
- Help make sure that gifted education programs and services in your area, as well as students activities and competitions, receive coverage in your local paper. The public gets behind local success stories!

by Kristen Stephens.

Wisdom of Childhood

2008-04-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Relish the present,

celebrate the obvious,

ask questions ... cherish details,

think with your senses,

read with your imagination,

consult your emotions,

build on success not failure,

pretend the world is your head,

live in your body,

watch everything,

do things for no reason,

control less ... navigate more,

focus on how you see ... more than how you look,

appreciate as well as achieve,

collect tiny pleasures,

know more than you understand,

lose yourself in something,

enjoy confusion

Don't wait for reasons to be happy

By Jon Pearson / http://www.createlearning.com/

A Dozen Daily Doses of Advice to Gifted Students

2008-04-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

Empower yourselfe with knowledge, love and sense of humor.
Ask at least a zillion questions in your lifetime.
Embrace change. Life is full of surprises.
Emotion is the key to everything. Allow yourself to feel, to get angry, to be sad.
Latch on to a passionate cause and never let go.
Write down a set of values, hang them on the wal for all to see, then be proud to live them.
Slow down. Don't live your life on the surface. Take time to think and reflect. There are precious details not to be missed.
Be a history buff. Respect those who walked this earth before you. Honor them by memorizing their poems, speeches, formulas, documents, songs and theories.
Be incredibly fluent in a foreign language. Try to think and feel in that language.
Keep a journal. Your words are who you are. Remembering is a journey the heart takes and your thoughts are the only tickets needed to ride.
Be spiritual. There is a greater power than you. Developing a spiritual intelligence is a life-long journey. Star now!
Be open and prepared to love someone -many someones. The risk is always great, but always worth it.

By Nancy Johnson-Farris / http://www.piecesoflearning.com/

Steps to Becoming an Effective Advocate at the Local Level

2008-04-04T20:08:00.001-07:00

Get to know and communicate regularly with teachers interested in gifted and talented education, your school principal, your GATE program coordinator, and familiarize yourself with the program guidelines and any new laws affecting gifted education and parents of gifted students.
Become an active participant at the school site by attending meetings, serving on the school-site council, GATE advisory commitee, or PTA.
Form or join an advocacy group.
Become aware of the duties and responsabilities of your local Board of Education and how they are implemented.
Become and advocate with the local Board of education.
Encourage other community members to become involved. Lobby your local officials.
Use appropriate websites to stay current with local legislative information and action.

Author: California Association for the Gifted