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I was asked to help organize and lay the foundation for the GT program at the high school level. Right now our students are enrolled in the advanced classes (we offer weighted classes, 5th year languages, AP classes and Level II Science classes and the students have the option to attend college classes since we are about a mile from 2 colleges) and have a multitude of fine and applied arts classes to fulfill their academic and creative giftedness, as well as the option to pursue independent study/projects. There is no "one" person that provides resources, keeps track of their successes or accomplishments outside of the classroom settings (grades and teachers do that). The guidance counselors seem to be chasing those with greater or more observable difficulties; behavior, learning support services, counseling, scheduling, academic weaknesses etc.
What should I be asking/planning/providing? I'd love to hear suggestions from a parent's perspective as well as from those who have experienced good but not over the top programs. Remember, I'm just laying the foundation or structure, painting the picture of what it "could be". I'm not sticking around long enough to measure it's effect. I'm too close to retirement and was asked to do this in conjunction with revamping and revising another program, for which I'm certified and confident about developing policy and future goals.
I'm not sure what you're asking...it sounds like you already have advanced opportunities for these kids. Or do you want to add an extra level? Regular, advanced, GT?
My high school offered several levels of courses. There were regular, honors, GT, and AP. They added IB my senior year. Science was only offered regular/AP. Math/English/History had all levels. Languages were regular for years 1&2, honors year 3, and AP for 4/5.
Instead of AP calculus, we had an arrangement with the junior college to teach a few sections of the course on my high school's campus. The teacher was employed by both the high school and the CC, and we completed 2 semesters of college level calculus during the year. I loved it, because then there was no AP exam to pass, and I found my calculus prepared me a lot better than the kids in my class who had AP.
All the guidance counselors were up to date on what was offered at the CC, and had substitutions for every class on campus. Most kids took extra classes at the CC over the summer, so that we had time for more subjects during the year. I took a biology class, political science, and US history course at the CC during my summers. That freed up time to take extra AP sciences.
The school also offered "zero period". It was all GT classes, taught an hour before school started. You could sign up for whatever (I took english one year, and math another), and it freed up an additional period during the day for an extra class.
If you have specific questions let me know. I graduated HS in California 6 years ago, so I'm not really sure what it's like now, but that's how it was when I was there
I was asked to help organize and lay the foundation for the GT program at the high school level. Right now our students are enrolled in the advanced classes (we offer weighted classes, 5th year languages, AP classes and Level II Science classes and the students have the option to attend college classes since we are about a mile from 2 colleges) and have a multitude of fine and applied arts classes to fulfill their academic and creative giftedness, as well as the option to pursue independent study/projects. There is no "one" person that provides resources, keeps track of their successes or accomplishments outside of the classroom settings (grades and teachers do that). The guidance counselors seem to be chasing those with greater or more observable difficulties; behavior, learning support services, counseling, scheduling, academic weaknesses etc.
What should I be asking/planning/providing? I'd love to hear suggestions from a parent's perspective as well as from those who have experienced good but not over the top programs. Remember, I'm just laying the foundation or structure, painting the picture of what it "could be". I'm not sticking around long enough to measure it's effect. I'm too close to retirement and was asked to do this in conjunction with revamping and revising another program, for which I'm certified and confident about developing policy and future goals.
Grade-Skipping
How about providing advocacy for grade-skipping or subject-skipping, about which the research is very conclusively positive, whether assessed along academic or social, short-term or long-term lines? Many highly gifted students' time is essentially wasted in lower-level coursework, and they could benefit tremendously by having an advocate who could look into alternatives for them -- testing out of the class, for example, or placement into AP earlier than the "traditional" age of junior/senior year.
Tutoring/Mentoring
Having students paired with a tutor or mentor at the professional or university level would be an incredible advantage. Securing internships or summer jobs for students in a particular career field would be a tremendous benefit for the students in your program.
Those are two ideas which are essentially very inexpensive, and yet would go a long way toward meeting student needs.
As a parent of high school kids with all those same options I would be questioning the need for a G/T program. What is the purpose of this program? Honestly, I don't know of any high schools that have a G/T that have AP classes and access to college classes. Frankly, it is a waste of money.
As a parent of high school kids with all those same options I would be questioning the need for a G/T program. What is the purpose of this program? Honestly, I don't know of any high schools that have a G/T that have AP classes and access to college classes. Frankly, it is a waste of money.
Well, AP level classes are generally only your junior/sr year (with some exceptions). For example, there is no AP geometry or AP trig--just AP calculus (and stats, I think). My high school offered GT classes for Freshman/sophomore/jr level classes, until you got to the AP level.
I'm a huge advocate of the tutoring/mentoring~as that is part of the school to work transition program I'm currently developing. That's the part I'm confident and comfortable about expanding and including gifted students. A number of opportunities come across my desk for mentoring programs, internship spots, short term projects, volunteer positions and requests for outside tutoring.
I hadn't thought of advocating or researching the "skipping classes" option. I could certainly pitch that to our administration and departments heads. It seems to me that a student should be allowed to skip a class if they have mastered the material, even if they don't receive credit, but are permitted to take other level classes or higher level classes before their "grade level". If they don't pass the test, it's a good indicator that they need to stay in the class and learn the material. I see it as a justifiable suggestion for all parties (students, teachers, parents).
There's no money being funneled into this program. They are adding it to my current job duties, so I'm trying to be realistic about what a developing program would look like. Since we offer all of the classes/courses at different levels, I'm pitching this position as more of a resource person who can put these opportunities into the hands of students and encourage them to pursue them. I don't do enabling well.
The 0 period concept is unique, but we are already in school from 7:45 until 3:15; issues such as transportation, teacher contract time, conflicts with sports practices (AM practices are common in this district) would conflict, and we have NO flexible scheduling in our building or daily schedule. I don't see a change in schedule to meet the needs of a small handful of students in this case.
We currently offer all of the levels General, College Prep, and College Prep. Accelerated (CPA) in all areas, all levels except for arts, music and general electives. At the high school level the student schedule is selected individually for each student. They may take CPA Math and a general history, along with German III CP and AP Biology~so we offer it all. So the students are getting the challenging classes where needed to recognize and accelerate their strengths. We are moving into a consortium with other school districts to develop an academy that would include IB programs.
As a parent of high school kids with all those same options I would be questioning the need for a G/T program. What is the purpose of this program? Honestly, I don't know of any high schools that have a G/T that have AP classes and access to college classes. Frankly, it is a waste of money.
With all due respect, GG, AP classes are being watered down considerably now that the College Board and other schools interested in placing highly on the Washington Post's Mathews List are filling classes with lots and lots of students.
This would ordinarily not be a bad thing, necessarily, were it not for the fact that many students in the AP classes are not particularly prepared or motivated. They (or their parents) just want the "AP" on their transcript.
Faced with a classroom of many students whose needs are (effectively) below AP level, the teacher has the unpleasant choice of teaching AP material and failing a significant percentage of the class, or remediating the students and try to get somewhere in the AP zone. Maybe. By the end of the year. Perhaps. More teachers choose option #2 than option #1. This leads to students getting "good grades" in AP class when what they've really done is demonstrate decent mastery of average-level course material. Since the Mathews List only counts how many students took the AP -- not how many actually passed it -- it basically doesn't even matter to the school if the student fails.
Blinded by hubris, students and parents often don't really acknowledge what many teachers, most likely, have been telling them all along: their student may not truly be prepared for AP...that is, until that student gets a score of 1 or 2 on the exam. Even then, some students and parents remain in denial and blame everyone-- the proctor, the school, the AP, the teacher, everyone but themselves.
Bottom line, gifted education works differently. A strong, motivated student -- precisely the kind who'd do well in AP generally -- is not the same as a gifted one. There are specific learning differences that need to be addressed in different ways.
The 0 period concept is unique, but we are already in school from 7:45 until 3:15; issues such as transportation, teacher contract time, conflicts with sports practices (AM practices are common in this district) would conflict, and we have NO flexible scheduling in our building or daily schedule. I don't see a change in schedule to meet the needs of a small handful of students in this case.
Ooh, I didn't think about that. My district did not offer any transportation except for special ed students, so parents were responsible for getting kids to school regardless of when their first class was. If you had 1-6th periods, you started at 8am. If you had a 0 period, it was 6:50am. Luckily, it was mostly jr/seniors who took 0 period classes, so we had our licenses by then and could drive ourselves.
Teachers loved it because they could teach their 5 periods of the day 0-4th and leave before lunch!
Another thing to think about is how athletic credit is received. I know most of my fellow AP/GT students played sports as well (true overachievers!). I was lucky that my school granted PE credit to students who played on a sports team during the year. My soccer practices were after school, so I still had 6 periods during the day to use for academics, rather than having to use one for PE, and then play soccer after school anyway. That benefited all students, really--it allowed all athletes to pick up another elective or academic class, and made the PE classes less competitive to the non-athletes.
Good luck with this venture. I would be trying to court a younger teacher to assist you so that there will be some continuity when you retire. It's great that your district thinks enough of these students that they are willing to provide additional support. It can only help the district to have all the data in one place regarding services for GT youth.
You may want to consider helping students coordinate dual or early enrollment in community colleges or universities. Also, helping students find summer programs for their rising junior and senior years would be helpful, as would foreign study programs. Some schools have on-going exchanges between sister schools in other countries. Perhaps your FL teachers would have contacts with teachers abroad.
In addition to using exams to place students across the curriculum in advanced classes without requiring prerequisite "seat-time", students should also be able to enroll in more than one foreign language. If your district has FL in the eighth grade, a gifted student should be able to study 5-6 levels of foreign languages before graduation.
Additionally, keep in mind that not all people who are academically gifted even want to study at the university level. Some may prefer to learn a skill or trade and become entrepreneurs. They should be paired with local businessmen to perform internships in their desired fields. Students who want to be artists and craftsmen should be similarly directed.
You could help your district get a reputation for being particularly helpful for this cohort of students, which might lead to greater interest on the part of parents who are seeking these services in a public school. That, in turn, holds the possibility of greater funding through the taxes gained from increased home values.
Sounds like a win-win proposition!
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