IAGC "QUESTION OF THE MONTH" Blog Posts 

Introduction to Gifted Education

Julia Link Roberts

Tracy Ford Inman

Jennifer H. Robins

 

This is a new (2018) publication of Prufrock Academic Press (www.prufrock.com).  The book is a comprehensive survey of the field—“soup to nuts”. Chapters focus on the history of gifted education, conceptual models, characteristics of gifted learners, curriculum and the design of learning environments, instructional approaches, program models, diverse learners, and professional development. A strength of the book is the section on diverse learners, which consists of six chapters addressing the needs of LGBTQ, low income, rural, culturally and linguistically diverse, and twice exceptional gifted learners. This book is a good resource for any professional library and could be used in whole or in part as part of a professional development program. 

Explore the awards and scholarships available through the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC). Two scholarships, up to $1,000 each, are available for students grades 1 through 12. Opportunities for educators and parents include scholarships to attend the annual conference, funding for projects that support gifted students, and recognition awards for distinguished service and leadership.

Information about the various opportunities is online at iagcgifted.org/Awards-and-Scholarships.

Deadlines are in November. Apply or share information with colleagues and students! Questions? Contact IAGC at Director@IAGCgifted.org.

Meeting the needs of high-ability students requires looking beyond the traditional "gifted identification" protocol.  In this blog post, Patricia Steinmeyer shares ideas about how schools and teachers can help all learners to reach their potential. https://pslearns.com/2018/07/31/the-gifted-identification-trap/

ABC NewsChannel 20 covered the new acceleration law last night:

"District 186's Gifted Program continues to help former student thrive"

https://newschannel20.com/news/local/district-186s-gifted-program-continues-to-help-former-student-thrive

And again tonight: 

"Law requiring schools to create gifted student policies takes effect" 

https://newschannel20.com/news/local/law-requiring-schools-to-create-gifted-student-policies-takes-effect

The Daily Southtown wrote an article about the new Illinois Acceleration law, which requires all districts in the state to have a written acceleration policy.  Interested in reading the article?  Find it here: 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/news/ct-sta-early-entrance-kindergarten-st-0731-story.html

Are you interested in helping to form an IAGC Social Emotional Special Interest Group?  There is an organizational meeting planned for  April 19th from 11am-12pm at the Center for Identity Potential offices at 1440 Renaissance Drive, Suite 440 Park Ridge, IL 60068, to begin discussing what this group should look like and what its goals should be.  We are at the beginning of this process so all ideas, thoughts, and support will be helpful.  

If you are interested in joining us, please follow this link and register so that we know how many are coming and can plan appropriately.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iagc-social-emotional-committee-meeting-registration-43907111352

If you have questions or comments, please contact the organizer: Jenny Nilsen.  

The new report Is There a Gifted Gap? by the Fordham Institute shines a glaring light on how unevenly and unfairly services for high-ability students are distributed throughout the state of Illinois and how out of step we are with the rest of the country. 

A few important statistics from the report underscore just how far behind Illinois is in providing equitable access to gifted services:

• Only 35.2% of schools in Illinois offer gifted services, which is far below the national average of 68.3%.
• Only 32.8% of Illinois’ high poverty schools (where at least 75% of students receive free or reduced price lunch) have gifted programs, which is drastically lower than the national average of 69% of high poverty schools with gifted programs.
• In Illinois, high poverty schools are far less likely to have gifted programs than low poverty schools (high poverty = 32.8%; low = 57%).  This is in stark contrast to the fact that, nationally, high and low poverty schools are equally likely to offer gifted programming.
• Even within the relatively small number of Illinois schools that offer gifted programming (35.2%), black, Hispanic, and low-income students are significantly underrepresented in these programs.

The Illinois Association for Gifted Children has been a voice for disadvantaged high-ability children, arguing that the steep drop in the number of Illinois’ elementary and middle school districts that offer gifted programs – from over 80% in 2003 (the last year that the state provided funding to districts for their gifted programs) to 27% as of 2016 – has had a disparate impact on black, Hispanic, and low-income students. 

The State Board of Education, legislators, and the Governor heard our message and supported the passage of the Accelerated Placement Act this past year, which requires all Illinois districts to create policies allowing early entrance to Kindergarten and 1^st grade, whole grade acceleration, and single subject acceleration.  This is a great step forward in providing advanced students with appropriately challenging learning opportunities, but we have more work to do to close opportunity and excellence gaps, and to ensure that we identify and nurture talent equitably throughout Illinois. 

The Gifted Gap report helps emphasize how critical it is that Illinois continue to strengthen its policy support for advanced students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Visit our Policy & Advocacy webpages and contact the co-chairs, Carolyn Welch (carolynEwelch@comcast.net) and Eric Calvert (eric.calvert@northwestern.edu), to get involved!

One of the featured speakers at the annual conference of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children is Dr. Sally Krisel. Sally has been a strong and vocal leader in the field of gifted education and is currently the president of the National Association for Gifted Children. She strongly believes that gifted education practices are best practices for transforming education. Sally asks, “What if gifted education turned out to be our country’s secret weapon in total school improvement? What if the best way to improve education for ALL children is to focus on ways to engage and challenge those who are gifted?” Sally enacted her beliefs about the value and effectiveness of gifted education practices in the design of a special school in Hall County, Georgia. Educators at DaVinci Academy implement personalized programming with a problem based curriculum, enabling students to create projects and showcase their work to authentic audiences. Sally’s sessions at the conference will help teachers understand how they might also use gifted education practices to recognize and develop the abilities of many students and impact their schools.

IAGC represented educators, families, and community members who care about high-ability students throughout the development of Illinois' ESSA accountability plan over the past year and a half, and it paid off! The Thomas B. Fordham Institute in its "Rating the Ratings: Analyzing the 51 ESSA Accountability Plans" gave Illinois a perfect score, along with six other states. 

Illinois will now hold schools accountable for the growth of all students across the achievement spectrum, without diminishing weight for the growth of students above the proficiency threshold. We are also on the cusp of getting a new accountability indicator added that will measure student participation in enrichment and acceleration opportunities. Stay tuned!

From the Fordham Report released today, November 14, 2017:

"Altogether, twenty of the fifty-one proposed school rating systems are either good or great—earning at least two strong grades and one medium. And those of seven states—Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Washington—are the best, having received perfect scores."

Students in need of financial support for a special project or program, educators looking for professional development funds to work with advanced learners, or administrators looking to recognize staff dedicated to identifying and developing exceptional talent in young people are encouraged to apply an IAGC award or scholarship. Visit the awards and scholarships web page for details.