[Ohiogift] New OAGC Resources Available; New State Superintendent; Brief Gifted Operating Standards Update

[Ann Sheldon]

While theGeneral Assembly had a busy week, there is no new information on the bills weare watching that impact gifted students. There are, however, two new OAGC resources available for the giftedcommunity: 



1.      OAGCPosition on High Quality Professional Development for Teachers Providing GiftedServices – This document was printed in part in the Spring OAGCReview.  Due to popular demand, OAGC hasdeveloped an electroniccopy of the position along with all the relatedappendices. The position was developed in response to the huge increase in thenumber of districts reporting gifted students being served in the regularclassroom. Based on OAGC surveys, the majority of classroom teachers providingthose services are receiving little to no training. This document is based onmonths of work of a special OAGC committee composed of members from highereducation, researchers, and gifted practitioners in both districts and ESCs. Theposition was unanimously approved by the OAGC governing board and reflects bestpractice research. 

 
2.      2016State of Gifted Education in Ohio – An updated gifted factsheet outlining the state of gifted education in Ohiobased on the latest data provided by the Ohio Department of Education. Datafrom the areas of identification, services, staffing, funding, and performancemetrics are provided. In addition, the data are broken down by district typologyand by sub-group when possible. The most striking trends are a decrease inidentification and a huge increase in services (mostly in the regularclassroom) with an alarming decrease in gifted staff.   



Gifted Operating Standards Update --There was a short discussion about gifted standards in the achievementcommittee where committee members asked for a better definition of services andpersonnel and possibly a committee to review waivers for innovative services.ODE will be working on new draft language that may be previewed in June. OAGCwill be invited to address the board in July after the new language is madepublic. Committee members also wondered why ODE couldn’t share best practiceswith districts. 


State Board Selects a New StateSuperintendent – The state board of education met for three days week, twoof those days spent almost entirely interviewing state superintendentcandidatesOn Wednesday, the state board selected Paolo DeMaria as the new statesuperintendent. Mr. DeMaria is a former executive vice chancellor of the Ohio Boardof Regents, Associate Superintendent for School Options and Finance for theOhio Department of Education, director of the Office of Budget and Management(OBM) for Gov. George Voinovich, chief policy advisor for Gov. Bob Taft, andfinance director for the Ohio Senate.  Hecurrently is a principal consultant at Education First Consulting. Hehas worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations. Thevote was unanimous and enthusiastic. Mr. DeMaria spoke to the board brieflyafter the vote. To view Mr. DeMaria’s application for the position, pleaseclick here: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2811241/Paolo-Demaria-Superintendent-Applications-Part2.pdf

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