Rockyview Action for Gifted Children

1
Rockyview Action for Gifted Children

• Presentation to Board of Trustees of Rocky View
  Schools
• June 18, 2009

2
Rockyview Action for Gifted Children who are we?

• A parent association, formed by a group of
  concerned and motivated parents
• Want to advocate for the advancement of gifted
  education in RVS
• Want to fundraise on behalf of RVS to provide
  funding toward gifted programs in the school
  district

3
Who are the gifted children?

• Definition
• Students, children or youth who give evidence of
  high achievement capability in areas such as
  intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership
  capacity, or in specific academic fields and who
  need services and activities not ordinarily
  provided by the school in order to fully develop
  those capabilities

4
Characteristics of gifted learners

• Early learners with high energy
• Fast mental processing
• Long attention spans
• Can conceptualize and synthesize
• Can make mental abstractions easily
• May ignore details
• Asks complex questions
• Keen alert observer

5
Characteristics cont..

• Evaluates facts, arguments people critically
• Impatient, perfectionist
• Creative, inventive original
• Emotionally morally intense
• May be self-critical and skeptical
• May not share interests with classmates
• Asynchronous development

6
Gifted learners in RVS

• Approximately 5 of the 16,000 students in RVS
  are gifted 800 children
• Approximately 4 have currently been indentified
• Need to put programming in place to meet the
  needs of this population

7
What does the research say?

• What is gifted programming?
• Differentiated curriculum, instructional
  approaches and resource material for K-12
• Flexible instructional pace
• Opportunities for grade or subject skipping
• Socio-emotional guidance and counseling
• Comprehensive and coordinated structure across
  the district

8
What does the research say?

• Why do gifted kids need specialized programming?
• Achievement level of high-ability students falls
  dramatically when they are required to do routine
  work at a routine pace
• Many gifted kids already know up to 40-50 of
  material to be covered in class
• Gifted learners need to continually challenged in
  order to learn how to learn
• Need to be grouped with like-ability children to
  allow more appropriate, rapid and advanced
  instruction
• Unique socio-emotional needs

9
Types of gifted programming

• Acceleration
• Grouping / clustering
• Curriculum compacting
• Advanced placement
• Pull-out programs / specialized classes
• District-run special programs
• Fewer repetitive drills and more challenging
  concepts in class

10
Gifted programming requires funding

• Funding must be consistent with program goals and
  sufficient to meet them
• Funding should be equitable compared to funding
  of other local programming
• RVAGC will provide funding in partnership with
  RVS once charity status is registered

11
Whats at stake for these kids?

• Gifted students currently languish in regular
  classrooms
• Can become unmotivated, frustrated, disillusioned
  and bored, if not challenged
• Can lose interest, learn bad study habits and
  distrust school environment
• May mask their abilities in order to fit in
  better with average-ability classmates
• May drop out of school, and/or significantly
  underachieve

12
Gifted programming at RVS

• No formal programming in place at RVS
• Any current programming is solely at the
  discretion of school administration and/or the
  classroom teacher
• No standardized policies, guidelines, programming
  options or PD opportunities for teachers
• Vast disparity of services between districts and
  across RVS
• Parents are experiencing a high degree of
  frustration
• RVAGC will work with the newly formed Special
  Needs group to assist schools in implementing
  standardized programming for gifted children in
  RVS.
• RVAGC will provide a toolkit for parents of
  gifted children to help them understand the
  gifted program and the preferred protocol in
  dealing with issues at a classroom level.

13
What changes can be made?

• Mandatory testing and identification of gifted
  students
• ongoing screening of incoming students
• use CCAT or equivalent group test
• Mandatory clustering in each school, in each
  grade
• clustering is highly effective and no-cost
• enables teachers to streamline, enhance, enrich
  and compact the curriculum more easily and
  efficiently
• Enables gifted learners to meet and relate to
  like-ability peers

14
What changes can be made?

• Teacher training resources for clustered
  classrooms
• Comprehensive staff development program
• Time and support for teachers to prepare and
  develop differentiated plans, materials and
  curriculum
• Standardized, consistent guidelines for gifted
  education
• Clear and effective communication between RVS
  gifted coordinator and school administrators
  teachers
• Division-wide programs for gifted children

15
What changes can be made?

• Diversity of resources and materials should be
  made available to teachers
• Over 100 years of research is available
• Technological support (computer licensing and
  access)
• Acquisition plan for purchasing new materials for
  schools should reflect needs of gifted learners

16
What changes can be made?

• Move toward congregated settings in each area
  within district
• RVS is currently losing gifted students to CBE
  GATE program, private schools in Calgary, and
  home-schooling programs

17
Summary

• Gifted children desperately need the resources
  and support of parents, teachers, administrators
  and trustees to fully develop their potential
• Gifted students are our pipeline of talent and
  a valuable resource for the future
• RVS has a legal and moral obligation to meet the
  unique needs of these learners
• We would like the trustees to fully endorse the
  gifted program and help us to set direction and
  provide leadership on this issue
• RVAGC wants to work with all stakeholders to
  provide a leading-edge and progressive gifted
  program

18
Bibliography

• National Association for Gifted Children
  (www.nagc.org)
• Hoagies Gifted (www.hoagiesgifted.org)
• Centre for Gifted Education U of C
  (www.gifted.ucalgary.ca)
• Calgary Association for Bright Children
  (www.abccalgary.org)
• GATE Parent Association (www.gatecalgary.ca)
• Society for Advancement of Gifted Education
  (www.gtecouncil.com)
• AB Association for Bright Children
  (www.albertaabc.org)