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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 36
Junior Member
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Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 36 |
I run a gifted club and I require gifted scores.
The local gifted association once ran a club where gifted IQs were necessary but there weren't too many participants; however, it was a successful club in terms of quality. Then, somehow, parents of average children joined the board of the association and changed the rules and made everyone allowed to join. Suddenly there were a hundred average kids joining and they couldn't handle to learning. So it got dumbed down and all the actual gifted kids left (hence why I started a club). So all that's left now in the gifted association is a club for average kids.
I think that there will probably be parents teaching their kids to pass the IQ test; however, as long as you don't dumb down the learning then it'll be fine.
I run two clubs: one for gifted and one for PG kids. I suspect a few have faked the assessments given. It's unfortunate that parents have to ruin things for their kids.
Is there anyway you can access an achievement test that is two years above level? That might be a start. If everyone is allowed to join that's going to be one big club.
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 36
Junior Member
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Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 36 |
Also, there's a really old IQ test available online (I forget what it's called but it's basically the matrix reasoning part of the WISC). Maybe you could use that and don't tell the parents what the test is that's being used. It's got old norms so the top 2% on the test probably equates to the top 20% now.
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2 |
These old posts may be of interest - 1) Have you told your child about their test results? (Oct 2013) Main idea: matching the program to the child, rather than matching the child to the program. Concept discussed in Re-forming Gifted Education... also Education Planners... by Karen B. RogersJust as there is not a one-size-fits-all "special ed" program, but broad array of services to meet individual student needs...
there need not be a one-size-fits-all "gifted" program, as there exists a broad array of gifted needs to be met.
To suggest meeting various needs of gifted pupils, some schools/organizations state they offer "gifted programming" rather than "a gifted program." 2) How to Hothouse Your Kid (Oct 2013) Main idea: The same program or activity may be "hothousing" for some children... and much-sought-after academic/intellectual stimulation for other children who crave it. Note: The concept of matching the program to the child (as described in the information at the first link above) directly contradicts advice given by Kai, which describes matching the child to the program: So instead of focusing initially on identification, you should decide what sort of program you can and want to offer. Then you design your identification plan so that it is able to select those students who will be able to benefit from the program. By contrast, matching the program to the child begins with identifying a student's educational NEEDS *, then creates educational experiences ("programming") to meet those needs. *For continuing growth and development, kids need: 1) appropriate academic challenge2) true peersFor typical kids, these needs may be met in a general ed classroom, however for children with higher IQ/giftedness, these needs may not be met without intentional effort in providing advanced curriculum, and grouping for instruction with academic/intellectual peers. Some negatives which may occur when a child is not learning something new every day include these observations or signs that a child is not appropriately challenged.
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2 |
It also seems like a good model for an environment where the majority of the students are high achievers or there are parents who want to treat a gifted program as a status symbol. I am absolutely worried about this situation. Should one parent get wind that another child might be getting "special" consideration, it could get very ugly. We have to be very very cautious about how this works. Thus, the need for a very carefully thought out plan for identification. The potential for some parents/students taking offense at not being included in a gifted program highlights why many schools/organizations do not identify & label children as gifted, but rather identify needs to be met. Unfortunately, in identifying academic/intellectual/educational needs... organizations tend to measure achievement/results... therefore may include and cater to high achieving pupils, whether they are gifted or hot-housed. There may always be some false positives (students in the program but not benefiting from it... not a good "fit") and some false negatives (students not included in the program who need or would benefit from it); flexibility is needed to make ad-hoc changes to the roster. Depending upon laws and policies in effect, your identification process may also need to be sensitive to: - 2e - ethnic quotas ...All our AP and honored level classes are open to everyone, regardless of ability. There is a teacher recommendation process, but parents can override it frequently, and do. The result is that the vast majority of honors/AP classes are taught with a lot of scaffolding. For a gifted kid, that can mean a lot of frustrating busywork. My kid rarely studied, either, but she did drown in endless amounts of frustrating homework.
Examples include many more practice problems than she found necessary, but they were required, and graded. Notes being collected and graded. Having to turn in index cards and outlines for research papers, for a grade (my DD created these after her paper was finished, complete waste of her time).
I have very conflicted feelings overall about this. I agree strongly that having the opportunity to take advanced coursework should be available to every kid who wants it. I find some of the gatekeeping measures taken to prevent kids from attempting more challenging work to be abhorrent and capricious- what is the downside if the kid struggles or fails and has to,drop to a lower level class? However, the comments above about a tutor industry accompanying this kind of policy are certainly true, and we see it here, primarily with math but also foreign language and other classes.
However, if one provides access to all kids, then there has to be flexibility or adjustment of expectations. My kid doesn’t need to do a review packet, or dozens of problems set problems, or detailed index cards. And that should be up to her, not part of her grade. Having those resources available is great, and can comtribute to the overall success of all students, but they shouldn’t be a requirement. If it’s truly advanced coursework, the kids need to be able to manage it that way, the problem is many of the kids taking it are not ready for that responsibility,
It’s a huge problem- I wish you luck and hope you find a solution. Well said.
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,248 Likes: 2 |
...too many children who are surviving on little sleep and stressed, because they spend all their time in school and up late doing hours of homework. The hours of homework may be repetition, scaffolding, and support to help the child learn and achieve at high levels... OR, at least in the USA where teachers and schools are ranked and rated on achieving "equal outcomes" among all pupils... this may be " differentiated task demands" (aka more homework assigned to gifted pupils to keep them from outperforming classmates).
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Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 582
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Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 582 |
Thank you all. Lots to think about. I have created a document which outlines giftedness (per the sites mentioned so often here), links to sites that discuss outcomes of acceleration (not just full grade acceleration, but others as well), information about the Iowa Acceleration Scale, documents which help parents see pros and cons to acceleration, etc, and emailed it to the others who will be determining the program. We have had a couple of kids accelerated, but there was no procedure, just a lot of parental and teacher discussion. The idea that we can have a step by step "how to" gives comfort to the school employees.
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