<p>It is unfortunate that so many states are not addressing the needs of the gifted student. It is also true that children with IEPs are getting many services and the gifted students very often fall through the cracks. That is why it is so important to have early identification for these kids so that parents could also foster the type of experiences that these kids will thrive in.</p>
<p>In our school district I noticed something very unusual. Many of the kids labeled very early on did not excel later on in middle school or highschool. I believe the reason for this was that they went through school with peers who knew they were the gifted kids and of course the kids themselves knew they were gifted. It was expected that everything would be easy for them and as a result they did not want or have need to put in the study time. When the challenges presented later on, they were not accustomed to the level of work or the studying that was required to do well. Had these kids been properly addressed early on they would not have breezed through the early years and they would have been prepared with the study skills necessary to succeed. I will also note that when these kids went to college they had finally found their place and most of these kids are doing very well. It should not have taken all of those years for these kids to have finally arrived at a place that they felt comfortable to be who they really were. It is way too often that gifted kids are labeled as the nerds and because of this negative connotation they dumb down or pretend to be interested in the more mainstream activities that have nothing to do with academics. </p>
<p>It really is important that parents of gifted kids recognize that their childrens needs should be met in much the same way that a special education child needs to have his needs met. As parents it is important to be your childs advocate in these matters. If the district can’t address it than seek out opportunities in the community or through the many wonderful programs that are available. If money is an issue there are plenty of books available in the public library that can help parents do a great job with their gifted kids.</p>
And the system can be political. In my school system, it seems that a disproportionate number of teachers’ kids get identified. Minorities also get a boost in identification. </p>
<p>I agree with a previous poster that the designation means less as the student progresses through the school system. My kids never wanted to take the special gifted electives in high school. There were other far more interesting courses to take! (The gifted “lounge” was nice, though!)</p>
<p>I never heard of politics in gifted kid identification.</p>
<p>In my town, parents can ask the school administration to give tests to their own kids although the kids are not recommended for testing by teachers. But this does not help if your kids don’t reach the cutting scores.</p>
<p>Most kids are bored at school, gifted or not, they all need to be much more challenged and excited, than wasting their time on boring busy papers. GrandDaughter complains about math sometime being too easy, she hates it when it gets that way. It is her favorite subject, and I hope she will not loose interest. There are a lot of kids out there in the same situation. My own D. never loved math (she considered it one of boring classes, she needed very little time for it). She liked more challenging classes like Bio. It is sad. It si totally not recognized at school that all kids need to be challenged in all classes, otherwise, they get into all sorts of trouble not mentionning fact that most are very poorely prepared in math which affects their ability in classes like Chem., Physics, going to engineering,…etc.</p>
<p>CTTC’s comments show this really depends on the school district. In our local district, minority kids are underrepresented in the G&T designation, in part because teachers in suburban schools with larger caucasian populations tend to be more enthusiastic about recommending kids for testing. Urban teachers tend to recommend few, if any, kids. It’s a different kind of political issue.</p>
<p>My experience is more like ST’s. I think it’s more a socioeconomic thing. Minority kids at schools with lots of kids who are barely passing the state-mandated tests are the ones who are underidentified because once they are ID’d then the school would have to meet their needs, and those schools have bigger fish to fry (ie, trying to get the lower-rung kids to pass).</p>
<p>Knowledgeable and helpful people:
Does anyone’s district use alternatives to IQ testing to identify gifted students? If so, what methods are used?
Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>I remember several test:
HS First Year: The COGAT, TAP & Torrance Test of Creativity.
In 8th grade: Math SOL Standard of Learning Assessment/Algebra Standard of Learning Assessment</p>
<p>In my school district gifted students receive the same extra funding as non-gifted ESE students. Yes, both groups are labeled as ESE. In the high school a friend who is the gifted teacher doesn’t have an actual gifted class but acts more like a counselor for these types of students. She is responsible for at least three schools and her gifted students bring in over one million in extra funding. Obviously. most of the money received for gifted students is funneled to take care of non-gifted ESE students.</p>
<p>Based on having gifted children and being of the same designation I do feel that the bulk of gifted kids do not need the same amount of attention at school that most of the “lower” level ESE students do, but I definitely think they need more than they get. The amount of money actually brought in by gifted kids could be used to better serve them if schools didn’t funnel the money out to other ESE types. </p>
<p>Apparently our society looks at gifted children as being so smart that they don’t need special attention when in reality many gifted students suffer from some type of learning disability and need help. Fortunately for them, their higher cognitive skills do make it easier unless they are so gifted they can’t relate to people well.</p>
<p>Please read “Genius Denied” by Davidson and “Does this mean my kid’s a genius” by . . Moore (I think). </p>
<p>Both helped our family navigate school options. Some people are tall and have to be careful when they travel so they have leg room. Some people are left handed and do better when seated so their left arm has room to move. Some people are mentally quick and they have some needs too (including social acceptance). </p>
<p>You may do best to find other families in your district (preferably a year or two ahead of your kid) and learn what benefits/pitfalls exist. </p>
<p>Arm yourselves with information. Then you won’t be making choices in the dark.</p>
<p>I am familiar with a situation where a h.s. junior was told she was not going to be able to take the top level chemistry class because all the classes were full. Apparently there’d been budget cuts and the class was very popular. Not sure how they decided who was ‘cut’. This was unacceptable to her parents who pulled out the GIEP, reminded the school of its legal meaning and–you guessed it–suddenly they found a spot for her!</p>
<p>Having said all that–I have a a very hard time with ‘gifted’ as a label. ARen’t all our kids gifted in various ways?!! Surely they could come up with a better term. I’d hate the label if I were a kid these days!</p>
<p>All kids are gifted in one way or another, but in the school setting if a child is deemed intellectually gifted than they should be offered classes that challenge them in the classroom. Now, some of them won’t take advantage of that as a number of intellectually gifted kids are lazy as are kids in every category. Anyway, an athletically gifted child doesn’t need an IEP that specifies they have to have a higher level science class, but hopefully this child is challenged on the playing field. Besides, what coach is going to turn away an athletically gifted student?</p>
<p>Maybe it’s the word “gifted” that is the problem. It makes it seem like those who aren’t identified don’t have gifts. But there really are some people who are more intelligent than others, who can grasp concepts more quickly, who can understand things that some people can’t, who can go further intellectually than the average person. I know we live in a society where we want every child to feel good, etc. but it doesn’t bother me when I see kids who are truly exceptionally beautiful or obviously athletically superior or can do amazing things with a paintbrush and canvas. In this case, gifted usually means intellectually gifted, but the word “intellectually” gets left off and so it’s confusing. In our district, you can also get identified as gifted in art and music, which, in my opinion, is as it should be. But just as we should recognize and nurture artistic talent, we should also do it with intellectual talent.</p>
<p>My son was identified as gifted in Ohio in 6th grade. Today i got a WEP (Written Education Plan) it is 6 pages long and has exactly 5 sentences of plan on it. There is no way for me to tell how this is different in any way from regular 6th grade. It is starting to seem like this is yet another educational experiment by politicians who have promised money to some group because their sister’s cousin’s brother’s best friend’s second cousin once removed was gifted.</p>
<p>Rebeccah, here’s a link to learn more about what it means for a child to be identified as “gifted.” If you are willing to provide more specifics, there are many parents on this board who can answer your questions.
[NAGC</a> :: Home](<a href=“http://www.nagc.org/]NAGC”>http://www.nagc.org/)</p>
<p>I’m glad our state and district do not have these gifted designations or programs, frankly. Our kids did extras outside of school, and were basically grateful that the school was not that rigorous. This left plenty of time to pursue their gifts, whether academic, music, dance, or computer science. Maybe all gifted kids should go to schools that have lousy academics!</p>
<p>I tried to tell my kids that the value of intelligence was not a matter of winning competitions or being on top of the class etc. Instead, intelligence of different sorts can make people useful in many different ways, depending on the gift, and giftedness can also increase enjoyment of learning. In other words, having some abilities in academics helps people contribute.</p>
<p>I think school environments, with all these tests, grades, competitions, labels, and hierarchies can really provide a very warped view of things. I don’t blame the daughter for feeling uncomfortable.</p>
<p>My kids were identified as gifted in K - and it has not made one bit of difference in how we have educated them. Encourage your child to pursue a passion and support them in their path. They will find their own way. No administrator could have told me that my S would discover that he was an extraordinary singer and composer in 7th grade, who hates math and science. No one knows your child like you do.</p>
<p>Rebeccah, we also live in Ohio. Unless things have changed in the last three years, which I doubt, by law, the public schools are required to test children and identify them if gifted, but the school system does not have to provide any services to its identified gifted population. If the public school systems elects to provide services to its gifted population, they must follow the laws set forth by the ODE.</p>
<p>You may want to review the Ohio Department of Education’s website to make sure that your school is following the requirements for gifted education. Our public school was receiving state money to provide “gifted” services, when in reality, the school’s gifted program did not meet the State’s requirements. They ended up being audited by the state and losing state funding.</p>
<p>Kids have some choice about keeping their gifted status under wraps. One of my kids finished in the top 3 in the Midwest Academic Talent Search one year, and attended a summer program at Davidson. Except for a couple of teachers (one she invited to her MATS award ceremony, another who wrote her a rec for Davidson), she has not told anyone at school. Then Davidson invited her to be a Davidson Young Scholar; she didn’t apply, it was based on her performance at the summer program. She hasn’t told anyone about that, and asked me not to mention it to the school. She doesn’t have any hangup about being smart in class, and does well in most of her classes, but just doesn’t want to have to explain and be singled out as different from the other kids.</p>
<p>I will say (although the original post is old now) that for us the services and information sources from something like a WEP would have been a lot more useful to us when D was younger. By the time they get to high school, there is more differentiation available in the classroom by ability (AP and Honors courses). I also think there is nothing wrong with the OP’s D turning down the Decathalon opportunity; all kids need to do ECs that they get pleasure out of, and it sounds like she loves sports.</p>
<p>I see this thread has been revived. Too much misinformation about giftedness out there. The Hoagies site mentioned is a good place to start. I feel so lucky my state and school district tried to give an appropriate education for ALL students, not just the slow, average and bright ones. Gifted kids can sail through the most rigorous curricula- why not let them work up to their ability instead of making them march in place? There is as much a range in giftedness as there is in retardation- the highly gifted have many needs the modestly gifted don’t. Parents who feel their kids did fine without extra school intervention likely have less gifted children than those who have greater needs. The slightly slow child needs just a bit of time/help in regular classes, likewise the slightly gifted child thrives with what is commonly available in every school.</p>
<p>Read the Hoagies site and the Davidson Institute one. Even if you have a gifted kid who has been grade accelerated et al you will be humbled by how smart some kids are. Refusing or giving a label does not change the fact of being in the very top percentiles of intelligence. Nor is intelligence the total sum of a person. But to hobble a kid to make them fit in or more average is criminal. Our society with its “no child left behind” policies is forgetting that EVERY child deserves an education. It is not education when a child starts a grade knowing the material and doesn’t learn a grade’s worth in the school year. The “one size fits all” education doesn’t work- we learned that for slow kids, it is time to universally apply it to fast kids. The big problem- money. </p>
<p>Etc. Enough on my soapbox. Parents- take advantage of every appropriate opportunity for your kids that becomes available. That is the best gift you can give them. Never let “fitting in” stand in their way. Kids know who is smart even without the label. Think of the word “gift”- it is something good.</p>