Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Johns Hopkins - How can so many kids be invisible?

Released August 16, 2016 by Johns Hopkins School of Education, Institute for Education Policy:
"How can so many students be invisible? Large numbers of American Students Perform Above Grade Level."
1) Link
2) 16-page PDF

This bit of research is a must-read for all parents and teachers having experience with one or more students who are performing at least one year above grade level.

In beginning to acknowledge the 15-45% of students who are performing one or more grade levels ahead, possibly the 10% reported as 4 years ahead in Reading and the 2% reported as 4 years ahead in Mathematics may also have their academic/intellectual needs recognized and met.

Hopefully this may begin to open doors to widely accepting a policy and practice of aggregating children using flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability in each subject area, without regard to chronological age so that each child is presented with appropriate curriculum and pacing in their zone of proximal development.

This would better emulate the larger world beyond the school environment as workplaces, hobby clubs, sports teams, etc include a mix of ages.

Thanks for posting this.

They seem to be confusing (at least when talking about the MAP) average performance for a particular grade level with mastery of grade level content and skills.

Would you quote the part which gave you that impression? I'm not disagreeing, but if that's there I missed it (possibly skimmed too fast) and don't find it when I go back to specifically read the section about MAP.

I quickly noticed that the report is consistently speaking in terms of "proficiency"... which means average or meets grade level expectations; it does not mean advanced. However they compared standardized test results (MAP and others) of various grade levels.

JMO, but I think the US education is behind many other developed countries. The curriculum especially at the elementary to middle school levels, are too shallow and too slow for many kids. The reason why there are a lot of kids performing above grade level is because the material is too easy. Kids that are struggling to keep up should be placed in a different track or slower paced education. The rest of the kids should not have to suffer through tedious repetitions or explaining their work when they already clearly know the answers.

Thanks for sharing the link. Good report.

This report confirms that many kids would benefit from grade skips. Most of the kids who are in the 98th/99th percentile in their grade level would benefit from a 1 to 2 year (or more) grade skip. Many who oppose grade skipping are concerned about social adjustment, but if you grade skip an entire cohort of kids together(or even just two kids together), that problem goes away as these kids now also get a cohort of age peers in addition to getting the proper level of education. Think of what this would mean too for the schools, how much money we could save by moving these kids through K-12 quicker, 11 years of education vs. 13. Many kids can enter college by 16. It's a win-win-win for all.

I wonder if this is actually true. The schools will be left with a higher percentage of students who cost more to educate (ie special ed, ELL, etc.) With less students the schools will get less money through ADA but have more expensive students.

I have been looking at testing etc in NZ this week. As far as I can tell he is testing at about the 94th percentile in maths which seems low for a PG kid. But it is between 3 and 4 years ahead of standard. I haven't worked out whether they used the adaptive version of the test yet so it may just be he did year 5 maths as well as a year 8 or it may be he got the hardest question right etc but it does show that the number who would benefit from at least SSA.

I'd say its true, from this perspective:

- "How much money we could save", where "we" is the American Taxpayer.

- "It's a win-win-win for all", where:
--- one win is for the kids who do not need to be bored in school by repeating curriculum which they've demonstrated prior knowledge of, on standardized tests, but rather can move on to a challenge worthy of their potential and learn something new.
--- A second win is for the American Taxpayer; This NPR webpage from 2012 shows an "average" of $10,615 per public school pupil per school year.
--- A third win may be for the teachers who do not need to teach to as broad a span of readiness and ability in each classroom.
--- A fourth win may be for the students studying at grade level, as research indicates these children may stretch more and perform at their best when taught among academic peers:
1) http://www.casenex.com/casenet/pages/virtualLibrary/gridlock/groupmyths.html
2) http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rbdm9204/rbdm9204.pdf

I see this as an admission or belief that public schools are spending less than a fair share to educate gifted students or those who've demonstrated prior knowledge of the upcoming year's curriculum; This would tend to make teaching the Common Core Standards a ceiling, not a floor.

I also see this as a belief that the role of gifted students or those who've demonstrated prior knowledge of the upcoming year's curriculum is to function as cash cows being milked for their government funding allocation so that these funds may be spent on others while ignoring their own educational needs. I find this demeaning and dehumanizing to the gifted population and those who've demonstrated prior knowledge of the upcoming year's curriculum.

I also wonder whether part of the quoted statement's premise is true: that ELL students would not be among the 15-45% performing above grade level? The research study does not provide results by demographic... possibly further research could look into that. Some special ed students are also functioning above grade level, especially 2e kids... as mentioned by parents on this forum.

I don't know if what I suggested is true, but if I'm going to advocate to my district that they should accelerate students because it will save money then I'd better have the numbers to back it up.