Each week we round up and highlight various articles, blog posts and links relating to or of interest to gifted children and/or education. Some of these may pertain to a specific region, others will be on a national or international level. We hope you find value in each of them.
Please let us know of any relevant articles/blog posts you find by contacting us.
How Segregated Gifted And Talented Programs Are Hurting America’s Poorest Students
via Think Progress
These segregated gifted and talented programs represent the glaringly unjust educational opportunities afforded to students across our nation, and they lead to wasted talent. As the National Society for the Gifted & Talented notes, the identification of gifted students is often arbitrary. In some places, these decisions are made before children enter elementary school, and what often gets a child into a program is not an objective measure, but the ability of parents to advocate for their childrens’ admission.
I Think My Child is Gifted
via Live Do Grow
After spending twelve years in one of the top twenty largest school districts in the country, which also happens to have some of the highest achieving student bodies, countless parents have sat before me and said “I think my child is gifted.” Parents would refer to test data, report cards, work samples, and personality traits that they believed demonstrated that their child required placement in our full time gifted center program. There were anecdotes about children being bored in school and therefore not showing their best work, and stories about students not feeling well on the day that our school administered ability tests that measured verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning skills. Not to mention the examples that parents took out of shiny manilla folders of the incredible and creative projects that students completed at home “just because.”
Admittedly, as a teacher, you learn to take these stories and conversations with a grain of salt. These were PARENTS talking. What did they know?
Those parents, knew a lot.
They knew and know their children. They were their child’s first teacher and see their child every day demonstrate thinking in the real world. They see what their child is capable of across settings and over time.
Voices: “Gifted and talented” disparities in DPS
via EdNewsColorado
Reading the article, I wondered if Denver looks any different. It’s not too hard to get a quick read on the data – the Colorado Department of Education lists four categories of gifted and talented: language arts, math, both language and math and other (these categories are exclusive). For simplicity, I combined all four into a single category of gifted and talented, and ran the numbers for Denver.
First some quick context. The National Association for Gifted Children estimates that about 6 percent of the total population is academically gifted. Now note first that the 6 percent estimate is for a national population, which is significantly different than an urban school district like DPS, where roughly 72 percent of students qualify for free and reduced meals – a basic indication of poverty.
When It’s Time to Cut Your Gifted Child Some Slack
via Psychology Today
It seems obvious to some but it’s a common paradoxical mind trap to new parents or teachers of the gifted: the child who is generally so utterly capable in so many settings… is equally and seemingly incapable of exhibiting similar control in other circumstances.
… Perhaps it’s a yet another aspect of how being gifted can often be a double-edged sword. Both parents and teachers alike tend to “expect more” of their gifted children. And yet that expectation is, fundamentally, unfair. There is no “fix” to this kind of “problem.” It’s life. Even gifted children are allowed to have their silly moments, just like their elementary peers. That high school girl who should have “known better” than to do something as foolish as beating out a traffic light at a busy (and apparently well patrolled) intersection? Yes, even she is subject to the same brain development benchmarks that are the hallmark of the “foolish, dangerous things those teens will do.”
Plaintiff from landmark case: School funding plan disheartening
via Lancaster Gazette Eagle (Ohio)
Echoing the thoughts of many superintendents, the fact that a few suburban districts would get huge increases in state funding under a plan from Gov. John Kasich “jumped off the page” for Nate DeRolph.
DeRolph, the plaintiff in the landmark 1991 school funding case in Ohio, is the poster child for education reform in the state. He said he was encouraged by Kasich’s promise to give students from poorer districts a fair chance, but was disappointed when data released this week showed suburban districts such as Olentangy and New Albany are in line to get massive increases in state money.
“That was a little disheartening, I think,” he said.
World Council for Gifted & Talented Children
Their world conference will be in Louisville, KY – Aug 10 -14, 2013
The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, Inc. (WCGTC) is a worldwide non-profit organization that provides advocacy and support for gifted children. The WCGTC is a diverse organization networking the globe with an active membership of educators, scholars, researchers, parents and others interested in the development and education of gifted and talented children of all ages.
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