Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Achievement Trap

I came across this report tonight and thought it was an interesting read. I've considered how the problems of obesity and diabetes have cut deeper and wider through the lives of lower income Americans. It looks like there is a similar relationship when it comes to lack of services for high achieving students and the gifted.

http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap.pdf

It's long but these parts stood out.

Inky, you find the most interesting articles! Thanks for posting this sort of stuff here. I really appreciate it because I'm too lazy to go looking for it, but it's stuff I ought to be reading.

Thank you!

Thanks for the article Inky. The information is not shocking. I think we all knew that was the case. But I wonder who was the report created for? Is this organization in a place to have a voice where it matters? That is my curiosity because reports at the best if not viewed or given much weight because of who produced it tend to just be paper wasted. So since I am not familiar with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Could someone enlighten me on them?

I appreciate being able to find people to discuss this with!


I hadn't heard of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation before either.


The advisory board for the report had people from some high profile organizations: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Harvard University, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, The Education Trust, former Deputy Secretary, US Department of Education.


Even though there was a short article in Time magazine, it doesn't seem to have made any obvious impact in shaping the debate on changes to NCLB.

I really liked how this article ended since I'm currently frustrated with the lack of gifted services for young children.


http://www.jkcf.org/news-knowledge/media-coverage/no-child-left-behind/

Reading the report, I kept thinking of the heartbreaking story of Chris Langan that Malcolm Gladwell described in Outliers. The report helps me frame the debate about the tough decisions Barack Obama mentioned in the inaugural address. Cutting funding for gifted education is seen as an easy choice when it's viewed as an elitist attempt to preserve power among the higher income groups. We know it's not that simple but I struggle with the gap between knowing this and being able to put it into words that will change another person's perception.

I think very few of the teachers in our school district care about students reaching their potential. One of the few who did care has gifted sons who are now adults. She told me she thought my son was highly gifted and it was my duty as a parent to homeschool my child because he would not get an appropriate education at that school. Our town still doesn't have a library and just voted against building one. The school library is not very big. I don't know what would happen to a gifted low income child in our town. Teachers would not let them read anything above their grade level at school. They would still make them do busy work for homework to use up a lot of their free time and this would make it harder for them to learn anything beyond grade level.

Last year I talked to a retired teacher at my church about it. She said it was too bad that kids like my son would fall through the cracks at our school. The attitude here is that this is just the way it is, that we have a small town school and they shouldn't have to change for anybody and if we don't like it, we can leave. I learned if you complain about the school in a small town, people don't like it, especially retired school teachers. They don't like people moving in from the city, trying to change things. They like things the way they are. They like the fact that they are really good in football. They once produced a Heisman Trophy winner. That is certainly more important than academics as far as they are concerned. They seem to think that all boys are supposed to play football or at least basketball and that there is something wrong with you if you like to read, don't do sports, and instead like musical theatre.

Unfortunately, this attitude isn't limited to small town schools. It probably goes a long way in explaining the continued rise of homeschooling... 1.5 million in 2007. Thanks for sharing your story Lori.