Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Try to fix public schools from inside?

Has anyone tried to fix their public school from the inside?

Did you try being on the Board?

Talking to the Superintendent?

Speaking with the school principals?

We are trying to figure out how to fix the public school problems in our District.

Do they run top down? Bottom up?

There are so many people employed, who do we start with to strengthen our District?

Thanks for any ideas / thoughts. Appreciate your time.

I don't think it is possible.

In NYC, it is bottom up. Parents do amazing fundraising. Now that we are in Toronto, in a similar gifted/gen ed combo school, I felt like she was in private school in NYC.

But there was $700 raised per student each year, plus grants to add a computer room, or redo the library.

The money paid for Spanish teacher, a really good music room and teacher, chess teacher, technology, computer teacher. But if you don't have organized parents, it doesn't happen.

I don't know but I'm trying from both ends. I've tried from the bottom talking to the school with limited success. Now I'm on our board's Special Education Advisory Committee to try from the top. I've been told by my predecessor that she quit because she felt she couldn't make a difference but I have to give it a shot. Hopefully something will make a difference.

I think that very much depends on what you're trying to "fix"
If you're talking about "fixing" gifted education, you really can't fix it until there is a working knowledge of the topic among those who have the power to make decisions I've found, so perhaps the best way to start and continue a gifted education fix is with a push for administration to understand the issues, best practice, and differences involved with gifted education. It's my opinion that until that's in place, you'll continue to bang your head on the table.

I think we should learn from -

http://basisschools.org/national-rankings

BASIS Charter Schools educate students at an internationally competitive level, with BASIS students ready to compete with their top-performing peers in Finland, Korea, or China. BASIS Tucson North and BASIS Scottsdale fifteen-year-old students proved this in their 2012 results on the OECD Test For Schools. These results place the BASIS Model above the acclaimed Finnish and Korean education systems, and on par with Shanghai, the world’s best.

My interested is piqued !

Yes!!!! I was talking to a friend who knows all about DS and who is a teacher in our board at the school that used to host the gifted pull out. I mentioned I was joining the SEAC and her first reaction was "I always thought it was odd that gifted fell under spec ed since the other groups have way bigger issues to deal with.". I muttered a stat about gifted kids having high drop out rates and that was all I managed to get out. I wasn't expecting that from her at all.

Yes. A lot of the academic enrichment programs in our school are run by parents. But this doesn't change what happens in the classrooms and doesn't change the "mainstream" thinking of the teachers. Maybe in the long run it will bring about changes. But for now it appears like band-aids.

You first must convince administration and teachers that change is needed or nothing will improve / change. In order to convince them change / improvement is needed, you need to educate them and it's not likely that it's going to be YOU that educates them, it's likely going to be someone with academic credentials. If there is a parent group, I'd suggest bringing in a key note speaker and arranging multiple sessions during multiple staff enrichment days as a start in the right direction.

I agree with this.

Money is money is money. Changes in mindset are priceless.

DS's K teacher this year was mentored by a teacher who specialized in gifted ed. Boy, does it ever show.