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The GT coordinator at DD's school approached me yesterday with an interesting opportunity. There is an area GT networking conference being help in town in May. It is for all of the area GT coordinators to get together and figure out what each other is doing and how they can help each other, etc. There is a scheduling conflict with this and our coordinator, so she asked me if I would be interested/willing to attend in her place!! I'm am pretty excited about this chance to see what they are all thinking and doing, not to mention to get a chance to put my 2 cents worth in as a parent.
I'll let you all know how it goes.

WOW kerry!!!! What an opportunity! Please report back!

Oh man! What I wouldn't give for that opportunity... Keep us posted!!

That's so great that you get to go!

Sounds like you have established a great rapport with your school administration as well. Good going!

Chris,
Yes, we have been lucky with the rapport. DH and I are also in the middle of helping the school find and implement a new science curriculum, so we've got some influence there too. It is nice that the school is so small that we're able to be so involved.

Well, I don't know where to begin with sharing what I learned. It was a really good meeting, and I learned an awful lot. I will probably have to do this in pieces since it is so long, but we'll see.
First, the main issues discussed were over/under identifying GTs in our rural/poor area. Some districts have been pretty much letting everyone in, and others have not been identifying those who really should be. Most districts are using Nnat, CoGat, KOI, and Torrents (sp?) to identify those eligible for services. But then the problem is that there are limited to no services actually available. Most of the school have about 2 kids per elementary/middle or high school who have been identified. So the admin does not see the justification for spending money on the kids who "will be fine" and don't need to be worried about.
Most schools are also just at the point of starting the paperwork for kids to get ALPS, and only those students from grade 3 and up. Most staff here do not know how to write ALPS and are pretty concerned that even when they are written they will not be used properly.
Most programs in the area are only an overnight trip somewhere cool once a year, and no other support during the school year ! There is great opposition from most local admin and teachers to doing anything special for gt kids becasue we have so many barely making it at the other end of the spectrum.
I was given a few great ideas for curriculum and websites that I'll put in the next post. (I have to go find those papers.)

William and Mary have developed curricula for Math, reading/lit, science and social studies that are aimed for gt kids. We looked at the literature one and it looks really good. I then checked out the science one and it too looks good. You can check them out at W&M curriculum
Then along with a book review about Love for learning motivation and the gifted child (which was highly recommended) the following websites were given as places to find cool things to get and keep kids motivated:
visual thesaurus This is a word web thesaurus. It allows you to put in a word and then a web is made of a ton of synonyms and antonyms. If you click on a word, that becomes your main word and another web appears. With the free trial you can do 6 webs before it tells you you need to buy it. But, it allows you to go back and make as many 6 web iterations as you want.
The next few, we didn't get the exact URL for, but they can be googled. And, I think they said that they are all free!
Verizon has a site called thinkfinity.com
intel thinking tools
microsoft photostory (digital book making)
inspiration.com (also kidspiration.com) - you can make a mind web or put your ideas in outline form and it will switch the form back and forth from one to another.

The state of Colorado is also starting a review of gt programs in the state. On a 4 year basis 4 people from the staet will visit each BOCES or district and do a review of what is happening with the gt programs. They will then give suggestions about how to improve and concerns they have. So, they are starting accountability for the districts. There is a big problem in the state of gt students not showing growth throughout the year after grade 4. So, they get identified in grade 3 and show growth, but then that is it. (Obviously an issue) In fact there are many cases of gt kids scoring the highest in some areas of the CSAP tests (state tests) but not even scoring proficient in others.

Finally there are plans for more meetings next year to address things like writing ALPS (most around here do not know how to do it), informing parents of programs and services (there is very little parent involvement here because most schools are close mouthed about what is happening), and the CO assoc. for gt's annual conference is Oct 5th and 6th in Denver.

It was interesting to hear how the gt coordinators from the area see things and what theya re dealing with. They are facing a lot of resistance from the higher ups to do much of anything for gt kids. They are very frustrated with the situation (almost as much as the parents I know are). They too thought it was interesting to get a parent's opinion on how things are perceived.

wow Kerry great job. still if the bar they set is so high that they only id 2 kids per 1000 then they have a total LOG mismatch problem. The resources they are developing are great for MG kids but the kids they identify are going to need cross age programing of some kind. So Great that they have you. Great to hear that there is going to be some accountability.

Most schools in the area have less than 1000 kids total in all grades, k-12. (there's only 120 kids in DD's k-6 school)
But, yes there is a huge mismatch going on.