Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advocating at the school board level.

Does anyone have suggestions, strategies, or advice on advocating with the school board? What will open their eyes to the need for gifted education or acceleration?

I have a meeting tomorrow with the school. I don't plan on it getting me anywhere. I know I will have to go up the chain, but when I get there(school board)I need to have all my ducks in a roll to make a compelling argument.

Any ideas?

I have a friend who helped start a K8 charter school geared for gifted children who were not succeeding in the district's traditional programming. She said that they focused on dropout prevention as a justification for their school because they knew this was a hot button topic in her district. While this may not be a direct concern for your child, it may get their attention regarding the need for gifted ed. You might want to do some research on the estimated percent of gifted kids among high school dropouts. I want to say it's around 30% but I don't remember why that number is in my brain -- I may be way off.

Thank you knute. I will research it. I don't know if I will be able to find anything here in New Hampshire. This state doesn't ID or recognize gifted students. We're a red state.

Good luck with your meeting. As a fellow NH resident I definitely feel your pain. We have never tried to advocate outside the school level so I have no advice there. We have gotten "some" sucess working closely with the principal of the school my son attends.

Have you spoken with the District Superindendent? Also it can be worthwile to have aprivate conversation with a board member first. See if one will meet with you, ask for thier input. If your in a big district, just keeping moving forward as needed up the chain of command.

crisc, I set up everything for my last spring. I had my son in an excellent placement this year, but unfortunately his teacher fell and hit her head. Now she will be out of school indefinitely. To top it all off, before school started the principal was replace with someone else.

Edwin, I haven't spoken with the Superintendent yet. I'm still trying at the school level. I'm anticipating a fight to the top.

Has anyone ever tried the minority approach to gifted education?
I'm not sure it would work, but it might be something worth investigating. Just throwing out ideas.

When I advocated to the school district two years ago, I overwhelmed them with facts and statistics. Numbers from studies regarding acceleration, drop out rates for kids not id'd or given accomodation.

I gave them test results, talked about DYS recommendations, gave them printed material off a couple of sites.... Eventually they submitted due to sheer volume (or just the need to make me shut up!) I never raised my voice or got emotional. Just the facts. Interestingly, once they agreed to the initial acceleration, it was like a floodgate. Suddenly at the school level, everyone was falling all over themselves to help.

I kind of got the impression that up until the district said it was ok, the school was afraid to make the move.

Great ideas. I have been compiling rather large portfolio of facts already. We just opened our new high school last year, so I don't have any drop out rates on our town. The new high school opened for 9th and 10th grades. This year it's going to 11th grade and next year we will have 12th.

Also the common thought is, you can find any study you want with the internet, which is true to an extent. Hopefully with enough of them saying the same, it will have an effect.