[Ohiogift] [OATAG] How The U.S. Is Neglecting Its Smartest Kids

Mon Aug 24 22:23:23 EDT 2015

Thank you, Margaret for you comments on this article. Recently I had 
a conversation with several very intelligent and well-educated people 
about the neglect of gifted in Salem-Keizer Schools. They all thought 
I was totally wrong. They insisted that their children got a great 
education ( although all of them graduated in the 1990s) and said 
that the IB program and AP programs were wonderful.

This is part of the problem. When parents don't even know what is 
best practice and think that just because a program exists it is a 
sign of a quality education. What they did not know was that the IB 
program is only available at 2 of the high schools, and not all 
schools have the full range of AP classes. The quality of the 
programs are not all that good at some of the school, even though 
they bear that name.

An AP program may teach the curriculum, but if the students do not 
get much out of it, it is not of high quality. Students should be 
able to get a high enough score that they can get college credit from 
the class. Many only get 2s and 3s unfortunately.

Most parents even if they took the time to sit in on an AP class 
would not know if it were challenging or not. As a former teacher  I 
sat in on a few classes a number of years ago that were supposed to 
be the 'creme de la creme' of classes and it was sorely lacking. It 
was not even close to the quality of class that I took 20 years 
earlier in my high school 'college prep' classes. In looking at my 
children's AP  textbooks I was very discouraged to see a major lack 
of depth. I hope that some things might have changed, but I am not so 
sure.

The standard of what is 'quality' education has been lowered from 
past generations. In my opinion we are failing all of out children, 
but most especially our brightest.  Unless parents are willing to 
advocate for better curriculum, we will continue to fall behind other 
countries. U.S. schools are not competitive on the world stage and we 
are already beginning to see the negative results of this lack of 
excellence.

I wonder if most people know that when a foreign exchange student 
comes to the U.S. to study, they must repeat that grade once they get 
home. They do no learn enough here in order to get credit 
academically. They only get the personal experience benefit, but not 
a schooling benefit.

Sad

Susann Kaltwasser

At 3:44 PM -0700 8/24/15, Margaret DeLacy margaretdelacy at comcast.net 
[OATAG] wrote:
>
>
>Anya Kramenetz has published a story on National Public Radio 
>entitled "How The U.S. Is Neglecting Its Smartest Kids"'
>August 24, 2015 5:58 AM ET
>
>http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/08/24/432869964/how-the-u-s-is-neglecting-its-smartest-kids?
>
>It consists of a description of the research carried out by Chester 
>Finn in advance of his new book, due out in a few weeks.
>
>The profile ends with this astounding comment, evidently inserted by 
>the author herself:
>
>"In the background of this book, there's a bigger issue: There's not 
>much research supporting exactly what works best for gifted 
>students. "
>
>Gifted education is one of the most thoroughly researched fields in 
>education. It has accreted more than a century of studies including 
>several "metadata" studies (studies of studies) and several US 
>Federal government reports in addition to government reports by 
>several other developed countries. We absolutely know what works for 
>gifted students: ability grouping, acceleration, and advanced 
>classes.
>
>The research is overwhelming. A decade or so ago, I tallied studies 
>on ability grouping alone and came up with thousands. If I started 
>burning the paper that these studies were originally published on I 
>could heat a large school for years to come--which would probably do 
>more good than the studies themselves have accomplished.
>
>What we lack is implementation. It's so much easier to claim that no 
>one knows what to do than actually to do something politically 
>difficult.
>
>A few resources are below.
>
>I would have shared them with NPR but I can't get my password to 
>work. If you have better luck, feel free to comment on the article.
>
>Margaret
>
>A reasonable place to start is the NAGC:
>http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices
>
>There are also the numerous research-based publications of the 
>National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented:
>
>http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/nrconlin.html
>
>summarized in a brief brochure for "policy makers"
>http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/Trifolds/A9511.pdf
>
>__._,_.___
>
>Posted by: Margaret DeLacy <margaretdelacy at comcast.net>
>
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>__,_._,___

-- 
Susann Kaltwasser
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