Gifted Students Are Seldomly Given What They Need During Their School Years, New Study Confirms
I hardly know where to begin; but I can tell you I'm angry.
A popular discussion in my LinkedIn groups is about the recent article in the New York Times, by Chester E. Finn, Jr.: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/opinion/gifted-students-deserve-more-o...
I could add quite a bit to that article myself. For example, things have not improved much for gifted student education in some regards and have gotten far worse in others. As most people know, schools deny an ability to even identify who is gifted before the children have already been bored-to-tears, under-educated, and socially out-of-synch for at least two to three years, often longer! I developed an online "test" for IQ (The Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted Online Assessment, here on this site) that parents can access when their child is younger than school age. It's an uphill battle getting anyone to know such a tool even exists. And --- you guessed it --- schools I've approached about this tool are not only not interested, they won't even tell parents about it.
I used to think I could work with the schools, but the vast majority don't want anyone intruding or messing with the way they do things, I've learned (the hard way). I am now convinced that only when parents have access to the correct, true information about intelligence ... and particularly their child's intelligence ... will they be in a position to force changes in the way schools treat gifted students. If they don't have to change, they won't. Money talks, and funding follows the child. If enough parents (of gifted children, those whose scores, even when dismally under-educated, still pull up a district's average) take their children elsewhere, the schools will have to sit up and take notice. Heck, I found out that when kids are in movies (as one of my kids was between the ages of 10 and 13, plus one more stint at age 19 when he faxed in his homework to MIT for three months so he could do the movie), the movie people are required to provide free tutoring to the child actors. Tutoring is always at the child's level, not the common level of kids of the same age. (For the curious, follow the trail with "Can't Hardly Wait," "Dick Tracy," and "What About Bob").
In fact, the gate-keeping, the legal efforts other groups --- and individuals --- are taking to keep parents of gifted kids from knowing what their children really need --- or giving it to them once they do learn and speak up --- are increasing all over the world! The very recent trend of requiring psychological licensure for anyone who would do an educational assessment of a child is just one such method that has become expected in several countries and more than half of our states. Someone with actual pedagogical (teaching) experience or the very visceral experience of being a gifted person or rearing gifted children (parents), going back to school for an advanced degree in anything other than psychology (and psychology licensure requires doing a 2,000 hour unpaid internship under someone who quite often doesn't even know the topic) doesn't "count" as qualified to evaluate for giftedness or guide others in how to meet their needs. Unfortunately, Dr. Finn doesn't even know about all of this gate-keeping.
I hardly know where to begin.
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Comments
Gifted in schools
Deborah, I completely agree with your assessment. I am a mom of three gifted kids that are now in a wonderful school... but it took years of head banging before I fully realized that the school they were in originally would never ever be able to address their needs. BUT that is not why I am writing. After my experience with my oldest child, I decided to go back to school to become a school psychologist so that I could directly help gifted kids. Boy was I wrong in thinking I could do a darn thing in the school system. During my pre-internship experience, I learned that I wasn't allowed to work with gifted kids... they weren't funded by NCLB (the apparent source of funding for my future paycheck). Gifted kids were served by no one. The prevailing assumption was, "they will be fine, they're smart, they'll figure it out." The director of my program even told me that I'd make a great school psychologist if only I'd focus on the kids that "really need me." I was absolutely blown away by the condescending nature of the comments I received and the widespread assumptions that gifted kids a) don't really exist, and b) even if they did, they certainly don't need specialized services. One other thing I learned... the newer IQ tests have a virtual ceiling of 150. There are expanded scales to predict higher IQs but the test ceiling only goes to 150 so there is no way to identify anyone above that level. Further, as a child ages, it is expected that they will answer more questions correctly, thus be closer to the ceiling. This makes it even harder for a child to score in the top range. One missed question at the age of 10 or 12 and a much lower score for that particular section results. There just aren't enough harder questions. The tests are now primarily designed to find deficits, not high intelligence. Why? I actually asked and was told that there is no money in testing for giftedness and therefore no incentive to create tests for such. With the research needed to validate and norm the tests, it simply doesn't make monetary sense for the test companies to do it... all the funding supports struggling students and those charged with servicing those struggling students are who the tests are sold to. I could go on and on and on... It's so frustrating. Needless to say, I left the school psych program and am a 600 hour internship away from receiving my masters in counseling - a degree that will allow me the flexibility to work with whomever I choose, independent of the public school system.
the school psych also learning the hard way;-)
Wow. I wish you'd left your name. You sound like me in almost every way. I had to scratch my head a minute to wonder if I'd somehow contributed to the writing of your comment. The parts about the ceilings on the tests. So few people understand that or get the implications. And we're talking educators here, the people who are charged with teaching all kids. It is so good that you weighed in because I needed a friend today;-) Thanks so much. ~Deborah
NAGC conference
Are you going to the national conference in November? I'll be there with the Special Schools division. Happy to talk more. ;)
Nikki Myers
Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning
November's NAGC
No, Nikki. I have been to at least a dozen, probably more, over the years, but I have some unresolved issues with how NAGC is approaching things and want to work that out before I'll consider spending that kind of time and money again. I would love to connect with you some time, though, so contact me by email at dr.ruf@educationaloptions.com and we'll set something up. ~Deborah
Teaching Gifted - top down model
Deborah, I have long held the belief that by teaching from 'the top down' we negate the need for differentiated gifted programs in our schools and take the problem away. Instead of teaching from the 'bottom up' as most do today, the top down model is easy by comparison.
Top Down model idea
I think that the Top Down Model ignores the needs of other learners. Plain and simple, I am for grouping by readiness to learn for each subject. We need more of a "campus" idea that allows educators to bring more kids who are "on the same page" together for instruction. Administrators need to learn more about the needs of their students and how to provide and support scheduling and movement that allows for this. right now, teachers are expected to solve too many problems without the framework for doing it. ~ Dr. Ruf
Salman Khan & education
Wouldn't it be great if schools regularly had mixed-age groups together? My daughter just turned 3, and I've been amazed to see the big leaps she makes in complexity of play scenarios when playing with her older friends who are 4-5. It seems like there are big cognitive leaps that persist (permanently!).
Have you read Salman Khan's book about using technology to allow every child to work at their own pace? He has had some great results in remedial classes where kids who were well below grade level (& considered slow) worked through math lessons in a logical progression, not moving forward until they had mastered each concept, and not only did they typically attain grade level but actually a lot of them went way beyond and then were advanced learners. It makes me wonder about how many gifted children we are neglecting. The way public schools work in the U.S., it seems to me they serve almost everyone badly. (Except maybe for disabled children who do get a lot of help.)
I was absolutely miserable in school and want my daughter to have a much better experience; we are considering home schooling. There's a lot of social pressure to treat all kids the same. Your book has been invaluable to me in thinking about the experience of gifted children in schools. Thanks for your good work!
Schools Chased the Smart People Away
I was admitted into Carnegie Mellon's electrical engineering program at age 15 and eventually graduated from Harvard Kennedy School. (Got bored, so of course I'm a.b.d. like any self-respecting flighty 'genius' would be.) After working quite successfully as an engineer - I've held both titles of Senior Engineer and Senior Scientist (I was even a "rocket scientist" for a while, as well as other equally fascinating work such as a pro-se litigant, statistician, published writer, musician, karate school owner), I decided I wanted to teach.
Oops. Even though one fine university offered me tenured-track teaching positions in five different fields (accounting, statistics, macroeconomics, operations research and management), I "am not qualified" to teach high school math. (I obviously would never teach at a university with such low standards, lol. I've never even taken a macroeconomic course! I was into microeconomics.)
We home school. Despite being born (15.5 weeks early) with irreversible brain damage covering 75% of his brain, a condition that causes blindness and a host of other serious ailments requiring 10+ surgeries to date, our 14-yr old son is only slightly behind his peers in math. His reading and reasoning skills are far superior. He recently received a national award for saving a stranger's life and was elected into the Boy Scouts Honor Society (Order of Arrow). He's still brain damaged, but we don't accept that as an excuse for him not trying.
My husband is even more awesome than am I. He builds things and he is great at teaching others how to build. Ironically, he has a math teaching degree from a teaching school so he can get a job teaching math even though he hates it. He can't get a job building or teaching others how to build. So he built us a magnificent home.
Society loses when we keep our talents for our family. Society's loss is our gain.
schools chase smart ones away
Thanks for your great post! The rules about who can teach are laughable, of course. I was challenged legally this last spring by a major public school district (Memphis) for asserting that a youngster I'd assessed was only behind on his math achievement because they wouldn't allow him to accelerate or receive instruction at his intellectual level. My PhD in Ed. Psych, Measurement and Evaluation, and years of actually teaching school, don't include a licensed psychology degree or 2,000 hour supervision by another LP (which is all-the-rage now for some not-at-all-clear reason), so the district wanted to shoot the messenger rather than "buckle" to the requests of this boy's parents to accelerate him in math. The Psych Board in my state, MN, had a criminal investigation of me thanks to Memphis's complaint (I was cleared, thank goodness) for practicing psychology without a license. Gate keepers everywhere you turn, but the schools themselves are the worst about this. I used to dream that I was actually working "with" the schools!
... and don't get me started on licensure issues. I'm glad your husband used his skills to build you a beautiful home. The people who work with me do so because of what I can do for them, not because I jumped through every hoop along the way (although few would call my experience and education skirting the system). I've even used unlicensed contractors myself over time;-) Such a rebel.
"highly qualified"... check out charter schools
The rules for "Highly Qualified" I believe began with the No Child Left Behind legislation. If you're still interested in teaching, try charter schools~ some have waived licensure as long as other criteria for 'HQ' are met. Also, there are some private (and some charter schools) schools specializing in gifted who would love to have someone who 'gets' where the kids have been.
check out charter schools
I really appreciate your encouraging comments. Thank you. I have taught school already for 7 years in two different states, so I could start again in that field by getting a provisional license. No, the license I don't have and didn't ever want is in psychology. I was challenged for giving IQ tests and cleared. Oh, my. If you could see (you can, actually; they're posted) my credentials, you'd be shocked that this is even an issue. Why would it be preferable to have an LP instead of (rather than "also") an experienced teacher with a PhD in Ed Psych, Test & Measurement? This is a bit nutty and this is also why I am planning to talk to groups like NAGC about posting that parents need a qualified mental health professional, a licensed psychologist, to test their gifted kid. What? Is this a mental disorder? Or is it an educational "fit" issue? I believe it is the latter. ~Dr. Ruf
If Parents Only Knew
Deborah,
Your comments are spot on! The money is key! That's the way for parents to hit schools where it hurts, but too many can't afford to leave public schools. Also, as a fourth grade teacher, who uses my gifted certification daily to meet student needs, I have realized that parents just really don't know what their children are missing. In my school, there are three fourth grade classrooms with a total of 22 identified gifted students. The gifted kids who sit in the other two classrooms don't get much differentiation at all because of lack of knowledge and training in the other teachers. The parents of those kids don't have any idea what their children are missing out on because they don't know what the kids should or could be getting in another setting.
It seems that we need to set up a "Revolution of Rising Expectations" in gifted education. We need to expose the gifted kids and their families to truly engaging, developmentally appropriate learning opportunities. Once they see what is possible, how could they ever be satisfied with the one-size-fits-all education experience that most schools offer.
The problem is...how do we create the exposure? How can we make that happen? Ideas anyone?
Karen
how to create more exposure?
I've been working on it for years and so have a lot of other people, Karen. My thought is that it is not a pitiable group and it isn't obvious that they have special needs. It usually isn't a big deal to someone until they actually know someone -- such as their own child -- who is sad, lonely or miserable and it becomes clear that "boredom" isn't just about school work; it's also about not having true soul mate friends. In the long run, it really does come down to emotional needs being just as important. It's a very tricky subject really.
Teacher Education
I believe teacher education is key, and research shows that universities where gifted courses are offered are more likely to have more gifted awareness and techniques in the other courses as well. However~ the number of universities offering those courses has declined over the years. There does need to be parent advocacy for teacher training, which puts more impetus on teachers to ask for the training to be available, and I also believe advocacy at the state level to put pressure on universities to provide the training... and accreditation organizations to check that the training is there. And state legislature to also required Advanced Learning Plans (can be as 'simple' as an advanced goal and the support to meet it) for each student created by teachers with specialized training...
Deborah. I love your comment
Deborah. I love your comment and you are so right. I have tutored gifted children that have extremly bored in the classrrom. The gifted student would raise her hand never to called on. In an assessment of her the teacher said she couldn't read and didn't know her sounds when she was reading at third grade level since she was five years ols. Instead of having the gifted student be th emodel for kids to aspire to . The teacher showed agnst and disparement against the gifted child. One of my students was removed from the public school and nows goes to Elgin Academy. The other fought it out in the public schools and is now in gifted. But the first three years of school were wasted. The school treats gifted students as weird and tries to ignore them or dumb them down. Instead teachers should see this and marvel at . Inspiring others to acquire some of the talents of those special children.
Right on, Debbie!
And why do you never mention Hook?
Why never mention Hook?
Because there are so many children actors in Hook that I don't want to get bogged down explaining which one he is. He is still hounded by "admirers' and I don't want to use his name and add to the difficulties.
why not mention Hook?
This is the kid who won't let me post photos of my grandchildren. That's why;-)