Gifted students will have another education option next year after the Gilbert Unified School District governing board approved creation of a self-contained classroom program.
Under the plan presented passed 3-2 on Tuesday night, two classrooms will be created for highly-gifted students in grades four and five. The 25-student classes will be housed at Towne Meadows Elementary School. They will be open first to all Gilbert students who qualify, as well as anyone who wants to open enroll, as long as there is room.
Additional grades will be added in the future.
Board members Staci Burk, Daryl Colvin and Jill Humpherys voted in favor of the plan. Lily Tram and Julie Smith voted against it, citing budget concerns.
With approval of the plan, applications will soon be available online. Since the self-contained model is designed for the highly gifted students, a minimum score of 97 percent in two areas of state-approved gifted tests - verbal, quantitative, and/or nonverbal - plus an 85 percent in the third or an IQ of 130 will be required.
The district has 25 incoming fourth-graders and 46 incoming fifth-grade students that could qualify for the program, Barbara VeNard, assistant superintendent of educational services, told the board.
Right now, the district’s Accelerated Learning Program – or gifted program – puts a
gifted-trained teacher on every elementary campus to give enrichment in math and writing to students who qualify in grades four, five and six. They are pulled out of their homeroom for a portion of their school day. Younger students are clustered together with a homeroom teacher and receive enrichment in their homerooms.
The new self-contained classrooms will have a gifted-endorsed teacher to instruct in math, science, social studies and language arts.
Self-contained classrooms are offered now in Chandler, Higley, Paradise Valley, Queen Creek and Scottsdale unified school districts.
East Valley districts have also created gifted academies in the last few years in the drive to give gifted parents more options. Tempe Elementary and Chandler Unified school districts both created specialized schools within schools to meet parent demand.
“I appreciate that when our federal government has abandoned gifted education, that when our state has chosen to abandon gifted education, that our district has chosen to stand by us,” Stephanie Newitt, president of Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted, told the Tribune after the meeting.
The state cut funding gifted programs during the recession.
Veteran board member Tram raised questions about whether or not the district should start this new program that will cost about $88,000 per classroom to pay the teacher and provide additional curriculum and technology.
The district’s budget override failed in the fall, and there could be a $6 million shortfall next year.
“I’m supportive of bringing on a new gifted program and understand there is a need for this,” board member Lily Tram said before the vote. “ What I am concerned with because of our budget situation is, is this the right time to bring in something new? We don’t know. We know we’re going to lose another $6 million next year. What will we do then?”
For more than two years there have been discussions about changing Gilbert’s gifted program. Last year, there was a similar self-contained gifted proposal presented to the governing board. It was not approved, but the district did put together a committee draft a vision for the gifted education in the district.
That committee brought forth two ideas: first, that the district expand its gifted options and second, that the district create a program to educate highly gifted students.
The plan approved Tuesday meets the latter idea.
Last month, an idea was presented in a survey to gifted parents for the creation of regional gifted sites around the district. But it would have required students to move from their home schools if it was not selected as a regional site.
The board decided not to move on creating regional programs because fewer than half the survey responders supported the idea. But it will look at the idea in the future, according to information on the district website.
Contact writer: (480) 898-6549 or mreese@evtrib.com
Katydid52 posted at 5:52 pm on Wed, Mar 6, 2013.
I've never understood why it's rare to see an IEP for a gifted student. They can have needs that are not being met in the classroom. Students can become behavioral problems when they are bored, which can impact their attitude about school in general.
So good to see Gilbert providing a challenging environment for those students.
gilbertmom posted at 9:01 pm on Wed, Mar 6, 2013.
The plan is to grow the program each year so that eventually it will reach 12th grade. This will provide highly gifted kids with the opportunity to develop life skills in an appropriately matched academic setting – learning to deal with competition, to deal with failure, to develop perseverance and resilience, to develop study skills and social skills, etc. These are skills highly gifted struggle to learn in a pull-out gifted class and are impossible to learn in a mixed-ability class. The opportunity cost to society of NOT serving this small population? What cancer cure might not be discovered? What invention might not be invented? What computer program might not be written? The opportunity cost is immeasurable. Here's a good article to that end: http://gilbertgifted.blogspot.com/2012/06/gifted-education-is-it-worth-it.html
LiveInGilbert posted at 4:46 pm on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
As a parent of a highly gifted student I am not certain that our children can't thrive in our current pull-out gifted structure - nor that my child in this current structure and curriculum won't still be challenged and able to find a cure for cancer, find answers to cure our dependence on fossil fuels and oil or be the President of the United States. What about our Board and community's requirement to fund and provide the highest level of educational opportunities fand meet the needs of ALL students in the District - they are all EQUALLY as important. I find it ironic that a majority of this Board was voted in on a platform of tightening the budget belt, we don't need an override, and don't cut ANY student/classroom programs when guidance given to the Administration for next year's budget plan (which has a shortfall of $4-$16 million - before any sequestor effects) - and then passes this funding for such a limited number of district children???
gilbertmom posted at 5:34 pm on Sat, Mar 9, 2013.
If your child thrives in the pull-out model, then follow your parental instinct and continue with that model. I have highly gifted children who did not thrive in the pull-out setting, but needed teachers all day long who understood their gifted intensities, their need for complexity and creativity. They would have thrived in a self-contained environment that would allow them the complexity of a study across an integrated curriculum. Not every gifted child is the same and so in the spirit of the moral obligation to educate EVERY child, even highly gifted children deserve the opportunity to have a year's worth of growth in school. We would never tell our students who are participating in special education programs that their population count is too small to necessitate services. The highly gifted are just as far from the center of the bell curve as many special education students. The highly gifted also need appropriate accommodations in order to learn and grow. (Parenting Gifted Kids by James R. Delisle, Ph.D., p. 65). The research states that self-contained classes for the gifted are the most effective way to meet the needs of this unique population. (Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children by Barbara Jackson Gilman, M.S., p. 177). It may even feel embarrassing to ask for appropriate services for highly gifted students. After all, aren't they supposed to be good at everything all the time???? This is a fallacy and a common myth that is alive and well in society today. The sooner we get over it the sooner we will accept and value every student and support each child's capacity to learn. For more gifted education myths visit - http://www.nagc.org/commonmyths.aspx
5thgenaz posted at 7:48 am on Tue, Mar 12, 2013.
Meantime, district short-staffs the SPED programs, SPED will indirectly support the "Jifted" in the name of district image? Kids with disabilities deserve better, parents who feel their child is gifted? There are special schools out there already servicing the really gifted children. Enroll your child there, and see if they are truly gifted.
godhelpgilbert posted at 6:28 pm on Tue, Mar 12, 2013.
Sad but true 5thgen. I have a friend whose son is Autistic and by next year will have moved that child to three different schools in GPS simply because each school only has a "piece" of the SPED program. Autistic children have difficulties adjusting to change more so than other children, so this has been a real battle for these parents and an anxiety trip for this little boy.
LiveInGilbert posted at 9:21 pm on Tue, Mar 12, 2013.
Couldn't agree with you more 5thgen or GHG - thre are excellent charter and other schools out there and this small population has options in Gilbert and the E Valley; ensuring there is a coherent, well funded SPED program is important as well as ensuring the rest of GPS is funded for classroom educational needs, capital maintenance and paying staff (not decreasing support staff pay by 2%). How this new Board approved this yet has no real clue yet how to face a $4-$11 million dollar shortfall - and gives guidance to the Administration not to cut any programs ... not sure what fantasy world they live in, but it isn't the real one.. But remember - this same group didn't want to pass the override nor support Prop 204 because we have "plenty of money" better get to work and figure out where it is.
gilbertmom posted at 11:28 am on Fri, Mar 15, 2013.
Interesting comments. I have a highly gifted child and he has attended a different school for the last five years as we have tried to find him appropriate curriculum accommodations with teachers who have a gifted endorsement and who are trained to work with his level of intellectual processing. Most charter schools do not recognized the need for a gifted endorsement. They will target their curriculum to high achieving students who work hard. Many highly gifted students are not high achievers because they have never, if rarely, had a curriculum modified to target their strengths and deficits. If the tax payer does not value the education of every child then how do they decide which students are of value? It's my understanding that a tenet of public education was that all students are to have the opportunity of an appropriate education. GPS has many different programs for its students who need Special Education accommodations (http://www.gilbertschools.net/Page/1154). Gifted Education also has a spectrum and to appropriately serve gifted students Gifted Ed. also needs a variety of programming options. Providing appropriate education for ALL our students, including our gifted students across the spectrum, is an investment in the future that will have positive outcomes in our community. Kudos to GPS for valuing ALL children and for investing in the future.
godhelpgilbert posted at 12:05 pm on Tue, Apr 2, 2013.
I am wondering how long these self-contained classes will last before the parents decide that they would rather have their children "mainstreamed" back into regular classrooms....that their children are being singled out and bullied for being in a "special" classroom. Is this really going to help them socially? This sounds like how we treated the SPED program, and now we find that mainstreaming these children (for the most part) is actually more beneficial for all involved.