So I sent off an email to our local school board, basically asking them if they are doing anything different. I had heard through the grapevine that they failed an audit for gifted & talented programming (no shock there), and are perhaps more open now to figuring out what they can do for this segment of the population.
Because this post does not indicate an in-depth knowledge of the current gifted program at the local public school, I might have taken a different approach. Specifically I might have researched everything available on the district website, then formulated questions, possibly including;
- written open records requests:
-- for board minutes & board committee meetings discussing gifted program, within past school year
-- for audit report of the gifted program, recommendations, and implementation timeframes
- list of questions to ask at meeting (or to verify information found on website, because websites change):
-- description of gifted program (gifted students study at grade level? one year above?)
-- entrance requirements for gifted program?
-- single subject acceleration (SSA) available? For which subject(s)? How many are single subject accelerated, in child's grade? Criteria/process?
-- whole grade acceleration available? How many accelerated at child's age? How many in the school? What is the criteria/process, does it use the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS)?
The Director of Curriculum & Instruction offered to meet with me next week and I want to look at this as an opportunity to start a dialogue and be part of the solution.
Some may say that you and the school have not yet mutually defined a problem, for which to be part of the solution. Be careful, for just as parents may predetermine what the problem is, schools may also pre-determine that the problem is the parent and/or the child.
they do not want to be losing their "best" students to other districts that are way outpacing them in terms of at least attempting to build decent GT programs
Do you have a list of such districts, and have you spoken to them... is your child eligible to attend through open-enrollment, etc?
a point I made rather clearly in my email to the district
Ouch. Not generally recommended, unless you have at least one other better option guaranteed (in which case you may not be meeting with this school).
So my main question to all you lovely people who have walked this walk...what were the best resources you used when starting these conversations?
Honestly, the best conversation opener may be a variety of questions, the answers to which may help "comparison shop" among schools or districts. The first meeting with the district could be dedicated to fact-finding, in which you each get to know more about the other, identify areas of agreement & good "fit", and any areas which may require effort.
Can you quickly point me to articles, research, lists of questions and answers (I don't want to be stumped if they ask me questions
), really any ideas that you think will be helpful would be most appreciated!
This may depend largely upon what your goals are for the meeting, and for going forward.
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Acceleration Institute - Karen Rodgers: inventory forms, and book
Re-Forming Gifted Education I should add that they think they have a GT program already, which is far, far, far from the truth. They have AP classes in the high school, and a few pull outs for middle schoolers, but that is about it. From what I understand none of the teachers have any gifted training, and they treat the gifted population as high achievers only, not understanding the full scope of their needs.
These points may provide a solid basis for additional questions -
- What level of gifted students do they program for?
- Have they had outliers with IQ 145+, 99.9th percentile?
-- What programming was available for them, or created for them?
-- What degree of flexibility? Take pre-test and skip a unit? Take term post-test and receive SSA?
-- What ability grouping exists?
- Which positions do they have in support of gifted students?
-- What gifted training/credentials do the gifted support personnel possess?
You may have read this elsewhere on the forums... there is a crowd-sourced list of
tips on preparing for a meeting.
