Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments mandated curriculum

Has anyone else had mandatory curriculum adopted that applies to gifted? There's a text book that will be used with all Albuquerque Public School classes. This is mandatory, no deviation allowed. I view this as an attack of gifted ed.

My kids are in the Edgewood-Moriarty school district and we don't have anything mandated for gifted. It's up to the individual school to decide. I hadn't heard that APS had mandated curriculum for gifted. Is it new?

It is. APS will implement this 2010-11 school year if the legislature gives them text book money. There are no exceptions per APS-enriched and gifted will have materials provided by the company to use in addition to the text. I have not found any independent research on this program.

The real intent is to bring test scores across the city to a common number (ie lower).

In Santa Fe, where we are currently revising APS's gifted handbook for our district, there is no mandated curriculum nor are there secondary school programs.

This is becoming a question here in MI with the new Michigan Merit Curriculum, first effective for 2011, then for 2016. The original drafts include the option that these classes "can" be taken prior to high school but leave it up to the school districts to decide if they choose them to be, which may close even more doors in a state that has no GT legislation.

Given the state of our legislature (NM), you may luck out & there will be no funding for the textbooks. What a silly thing to mandate a text for gifted. Have you seen the book? What is it? I could see if it were cultural literacy--philosophers, great essays, bios of historical figures, or other general information that would enrich and make our kids more well-rounded (I envision something like "What a 5th grader needs to know" Core knowledge curriculum). But to mandate it takes away the possibilities that can come about in gifted classes with excited learners who what to delve further into a topic. It makes me nervous that APS is adopting this because APS generally sets the tone for the rest of the state...