[Ohiogift] Fordham Institute article on Intel's ditching of the Talent Search

[Margaret DeLacy]

Friends:

Below is a link to and excerpts from an article by Chester Finn and Brandon Wright that appeared in a slightly altered form in Education Next.  In addition to its comment on Intel, the authors outline the results of their research project on gifted education around the world.

Margaret


http://edexcellence.net/articles/americas-abandoned-smart-kids


America's abandoned smart kids
Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Brandon Wright
October 21, 2015


......Intel’s recent announcement that it will cease sponsoring and underwriting the prestigious Science Talent Search, which it took over from Westinghouse in 1998, is another nail in the coffin of gifted education in the United States....

It’s another sign of America’s inattention to its high-ability learners, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances....  All sorts of data—from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, from research studies like the 2011 Fordham Institute report “Do High Flyers Maintain Their Altitude? Performance Trends of Top Students,” and from elsewhere—have shown that high-achievers made smaller gains in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era than did low-achievers. Policy efforts that raised the floor and eased the achievement gap did so at the expense of strong students, who were already nudging the ceiling. Under NCLB, schools and teachers had scant incentive to work hard with kids who were already “proficient.” And so they didn’t—especially in places full of poor and minority kids, many of whom needed extra help to become proficient.

At the same time, data from international measures such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) make painfully clear that the United States isn’t pushing nearly as many of its young people to higher scores as are our competitor nations. These include not just the “Asian tigers,” but also Canada and a number of European countries (see Figure 1). Although we fare better in the early grades, by the time kids are fifteen (when PISA tests them), our high-end results are anything but high.....

Looking beyond U.S. borders, most of Failing Our Brightest Kids reports what we learned about how eleven other countries educate gifted students, based on conventional research, site visits, and on-the-ground reports. We parse the data and took advantage of expert analysis by others—especially Eric Hanushek, Paul Peterson, and Ludger Woessman. Here’s some of what we found:

    Although countries with strong overall achievement also tend to have many top scorers, the United States cannot assume that raising the water level will do enough for the gifted education boat; it’s far too small to contain all who belong in it.
    Culture matters. When parents value education and push their kids, it makes a difference. Where competition is appreciated rather than shunned, more kids push themselves. (That’s what’s been so great—and rare—about the Science Talent Search.)
    Policy matters too. No Child Left Behind makes it essentially impossible for states to test kids on “out of grade level” material, a policy intended to prevent the tests from being dumbed down for low-achievers. The notion is benevolent, sure, but this policy also makes it impossible for states to truly track academic gains by high-achievers. A provision in the House and Senate reauthorization bills would solve this problem—at least, it would void the current ban—but this is not yet law.
    Waiting for high school to beef up the offerings for high-ability kids is a mistake, particularly for smart students from disadvantaged circumstances who depend on the school system from day one to help them realize their potential.
    “Differentiated instruction” sounds great, but in the end, it’s no substitute for separate learning opportunities, supplements, acceleration, and enrichment programs. Rare is the teacher who can do right by her ablest pupils at the same time she provides slower learners the attention that they need.....
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/ohiogift/attachments/20151021/bc66fcbd/attachment.html>