Thought some of you may be interested in this article:
A Beacon of Light and Hope: The Growth Model and Its Potential for Evaluating the Academic Progress of Gifted Learnershttp://vagifted.org/VAG_Winter08Vol29No2.pdfIn a phone interview with the author of this article on October 11, 2007, Phil Collins, Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement in Glenview, reported that MAP data, normed by NWEA every five years, helped his school system see that some of their gifted students and high achievers were, in fact, coasting.
�Those students are good workers and hard workers in class and get along well with the teacher, but are they really being challenged the way we could challenge them and in the way we should challenge them? In some cases, we found they are really not, so it caused staff, principals and teachers to say �OK, what do we need to do differently?� If we did not have the growth data, I don�t know that that issue would have ever been brought to light,� said Mr. Collins.