Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Confused in Missouri

Are there standards for gifted classes in Missouri? I know they are funded by the state. Our son is in gifted and misses almost an hour of regular instruction each day. All of the gifted students grades 1-4 miss the majority of a subject for an entire year. The kids are not required to make of the work and the teachers are not required to reteach the material. The gifted class is more of a social club. I am so frustrated because he is missing so much class time and gifted isn�t meeting his needs. Anyone knowledgeable about Missouri law? There were 25 kids in his gifted class last year. The activities they do mainly require basic recall or they are on the computer the entire time. I read all the forums and get frustrated because gifted should be filled with higher level thinking but that is not the case at our school. I know there are learning standards for grade levels but my child misses a subject all year that isn�t addressed in gifted. I can understand if he was being accelerated in the subject but missing it for an entire year seems strange. I have searched the DESE website but I don�t see anything regarding this. Thoughts?

I am not knowledgeable about Missouri law.



The guidelines indicate that the resource room model is intended to address academic as well as affective needs. Affective needs could be characterized as a social club.

What subject is he missing out on?

1) A starting point may be clicking on the link in the left-hand margin of this forum:
How gifted-friendly is your state? According to the information posted there for the State of Missouri, gifted programs are not mandated.

2) You might try researching your local school board policies online at your district or county website.

3) Based upon the DESE link provided by mckinley, it is easy to follow along and find the 15 page State of Missouri 2018-19 PDF of guidelines for gifted. You may want to print this, punch it, place it in a ring binder, and then begin to match each section or paragraph to what is (or is not) being done in your local school. Make note on any potential discrepancies which you may want to explore further, inquire about, and eventually point out (requesting the school's compliance). Take your time, research thoroughly, take good notes.

Those pages appear to be three years out of date, since it lists the wrong governor and superintendent for Indiana. The Missouri officials are also apparently out of date.

How unfortunate... looks like Davidson needs a heads-up, to update that content.

Having grown up in Missouri I can say that, unfortunately, this is pretty typical. Aside from a few gifted magnet schools in the state there are not a lot of resources nor energy dedicated to gifted education.

Hello - the Missouri (http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/region/S10025) and Indiana (http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/region/S10016) pages have been updated to reflect the current personnel. As for the statistics, we get the bulk of our information from NAGC's "State of the States" report that comes out every 2-3 years. I'm anticipating that a new one will be released at this year's NAGC Conference in November.

Math.,. It is his favorite. My main concern is that rather than being accelerated he is just missing math for an entire year. Also, the parents have not been informed. I just know because my son told me he is missing most of math this year. Due to so much time being spent switching classes there is no longer flex time for gifted. I can�t believe there are not any laws to protect our gifted kids in Missouri. The schools response was that if I don�t like it I can remove him from gifted. They do not do math in gifted. Fourth grade seems young to miss a year of math. Anyone have experience with this?