Georgia Association for Gifted Children March 10, 2015 Gail Humble, Gifted Program Specialist

1. Georgia Association for Gifted Children March 10, 2015 Gail Humble, Gifted Program Specialist Georgia Department of Education ghumble@doe.k12.ga.us

2. What Is “Gifted” ? • Studies of giftedness in the 1920s and 30s brought about instruments to measure “intelligence.” • Lewis Terman and LetaHollingworth spearheaded some of the first widely published research on gifted. • The Space Race of the 1950’s and 60’s signaled the need for significant change in education.

3. The 20th Century – a time of advancements in education and psychology which brought empirical and scientific credibility to the field of gifted education. Legislation was passed (PL94-142) to guide and fund the education of handicapped children. While gifted students were not included, some states started exploring the need for gifted classes. National Defense Funding provided. Javits Grants.

4. The 21st Century – Research continues in the area of gifted students. The Javits Grants program is recinded and renewed. • Through the years, the definition of gifted has been expanded to become . . .

5. “ Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.”

6. Georgia – a leader in Gifted Education • Beginnings – 1958 – Georgia became the first state to pass legislation requiring districts serve gifted students. • Margaret Bynum, Mary Frasier, Paul Torrence • Multiple Criteria Identification implemented in 1994 -95 • Currently, one of four states to fully fund gifted education

7. And Today? Rule 160 – 4 – 2- .38

8. Determination of Eligibility Option A/Psychometric: After assessing the student in all four areas, the student must meet eligibility requirements in the following areas: • Mental Ability: ≥96th percentile (grades 3-12) or 99th percentile (grades K-2) on a standardized test of mental ability - Composite/Total Score only. • Achievement: ≥90th percentile on Complete Total (not a CORE Total), total reading, or total math section of a standardized achievement battery .

9. Determination of Eligibility Option B/ Multiple Criteria: A student must meet eligibility requirements in three of the four following areas (one area must be from a nationally normed-reference test): • Mental Ability: ≥96th percentile on a standardized test of mental ability - Component or Composite score • Achievement: 90th percentile in Complete Total (not a CORE Total), total reading, or total math section of a standardized achievement battery • Creativity: ≥90th percentile / ≥90th percent on a creativity assessment • Motivation: ≥90th percentile / ≥90th percent on a motivation assessment

10. Gifted Eligibility

11. FUNDING

12. FTE • Gifted Education is one of 19 categories of instruction funded through the state’s Full-time Equivalent Funding Formulas (FTE) • For more resources and information about FTE, go to: http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/qbe_reports.public_menu?p_fy=2000

13. What is a Gifted Segment? Segments(1/6 or Instructional Day) Grades K-2 = 45 minutes Grades 3-12 = 50 minutes (approximate)

14. Full Time Reporting • Five key points: • Class size – set by the GA BOE Resolution process http://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/Policy/Pages/Class-Size-Information.aspx • Teacher has Gifted Education Endorsement or a non-renewable certificate issued by GA PSC • Gifted Education eligible and served student • Gifted Education course number • Differentiated curriculum, instruction and/or assessment.

15. Gifted FTE Data FY 2015

16. Our Challenge Today • Research shows that our most talented students do not advance at the same rate as students who achieve at the “lower” and “middle” levels on nationally normed tests. • We must commit to giving gifted and talented students a curriculum that challenges and engages them. • We must challenge ourselves to identify students in all of our under represented groups.

17. The Excellence Gap • Goal of Education Reform – Close Achievement Gap Among Different Demographic Groups • Success at the basic and proficient levels • Excellence Gap growing • Research shows the gap between high achievers tended to increase between Grades 3 and 8. • The percentage of White students scoring at the advanced level increased slightly while those of Black and Hispanic students were essentially stagnant. (Information based on study of NAEP scores from The Center for Evaluation & Educational Policy)

18. Excellence Gap – All Students

19. If We Fail to Nuture Advanced Potential? • Underdevelopment of habits of the mind – less need for the struggle or persistence that promotes advanced learning • Lower achievement gains • Deterioration of potential skills and decreased enthusiasm for learning • Patterns of underachievement, lower performance and/or behavior issues • Hidden Abilities

20. Decreased personal satisfaction and self esteem • A fixed mindset • Less productive and engaged lives Teachers must accelerate instructional pace and level to exceed core learning targets or those students will not be challenged to continue to learn.

21. The reality is that we cannot change students’ backgrounds; we cannot influence what happened or did not happen before they came to us. Our power is in how we use this next step – this current learning opportunity. Bertie Kingore Rigor and Engagement for Growing Minds

22. Recognize realistic and relevant high-level expectations Integrate complexity and depth in content, process, and product Generate cognitive skills Orchestrate support systems and scaffold success; and Refine assessments to guide instruction and benefit learners

23. Gifted Delivery Models

24. Gifted Models and FTE

25. 2014 - 15 FTE Weights Gifted Ed. Regular Ed. Kdg. $4,056 (4,032, 4,582) $4,037 (4,012, 4,559) Grades 1-3 $4,056 $3,141 (3,123, 3,531) Grades 4-5 $4,056$2,531 (2,516, 2,834) Grades 6-8 $4,056$2,512 (2,497, 2,790) Grades 9-12 $4,056$2443 (2,430, 2,744)

26. Delivery Models Georgia Code: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_codes_detail.pl?code=20-2-152

27. Fast Facts on Delivery Models

28. Approved Delivery Models

29. Number of Segments Per Instructional Model Resource = no more than 10 per week Cluster Model = no more than 2 per day Advanced Content = no limit Collaborative Model = 8 segments per class, 3 classes + one gifted teacher

30. Resource (pull out programs)

31. Gifted Education Delivery Models

32. Cluster Grouping

33. Collaboration:

34. Internship/Mentorship (9-12) • A gifted student works with a mentor to explore a profession of interest. The gifted program internship teacher assigned to supervise the internship/mentorship program maintains close contact with both the participating student(s) and the selected mentor(s) to ensure acceptable progress toward the student’s individual learning goals which are based on the approved Georgia standards based curriculum. One or two instructional segments per day may be counted at the gifted FTE weight for students participating in the gifted internship/mentorship program. Each internship/mentorship student must have a contract which document the work to be done, the learning goals for the gifted student, the dates and amount of time the student will be participating in the

35. Approved Innovative Models • The GaDOE encourages the development of innovative programs for gifted students which are clearly in accordance with the needs of the gifted learners and the philosophy of the district. If a school district desires to implement a gifted program delivery model other than one of the models described above, the district must submit a description of that plan to the Gifted Education Specialist at the GaDOE. The plan must clearly describe the rationale for the special model, the goals and objectives for the program, the advanced nature of the curriculum which will be provided to gifted learners, how the model’s effectiveness will be evaluated, how gifted FTE funding will be generated and documented, and the anticipated fiscal impact of the model (i.e., how many FTEs will be generated).

36. Early Childhood

37. Early Childhood Gifted Education • Focuses on recognizing, developing and nuturing the strengths and talents of our youngest students. • Research shows that an interactive and responsive environment in early childhood supports both cognitive and affective growth and establishes a pattern of successful learning that can continue throughout children’s lives (Clark, 2002; Smutny, 1998) • The creation of rich and engaging learning environments can enhance and put young children on the path to academic excellence.

38. Early Childhood • Characteristics of young, gifted students includes, but is not limited to: • The use of advanced vocabulary and/or the development of early reading skills • Keen observation and curiosity • An unusual retention of information • Periods of intense concentration • An early demonstration of talent in the arts • Task commitment beyond same-age peers • An ability to understand complex concepts, perceive relationships and think abstractly

39. Necessary Core Elements • Flexibility in the pace at which learning opportunities are provided – curriculum compacting, acceleration, additional time to explore topic in depth. • Challenging and content-rich curriculum that promotes both critical and creative thinking • Opportunities to build advanced literacy skills • Ample and varied materials • Instructional strategies that foster an authentic construction of knowledge based on exploration, manipulative resources, and experiential inquiry.

40. Early exposure to advanced concepts in age-appropriate ways • Learning opportunities that provide choice and the development of independent problem solving • The identification and use of individual student interests to encourage investigative behaviors • Interaction and collaboration with diverse peer groups of children having like and different interests and abilities

41. Experiences that range from concrete to abstract • Opportunities for social interaction • Engagement in a variety of stimulating learning experiences • Environment that supports healthy risk-taking

42. Creativity

43. I know that it is possible to teach children to think creatively . . . I have seen children who had seemed previously to be “non-thinkers” learn to think creatively, and I have seen them continue for years thereafter to think creatively. E Paul Torrance

44. Can Creativity Be Taught? • Increase creativity consciousness and creative attitudes - the single most important component of teaching for creative growth. • Improve students’ understanding of creativity. • Strengthen creative abilities through exercises. • Teach creative thinking techniques. • Involve students in creative activities. • Foster academic creativity.

45. Teachers can: • Reinforce creative personality traits (confidence, curiosity, risk taking, playfulness, artistic interests) • Promote independent learning, self-evaluation, and fantasy and imagination • Help students cope with failure and with peer pressure to conform • Establish a creative atmosphere • Raise awareness of blocks to creative thinking

46. Creative Abilities • Fluency Flexibility • Originality Sensitivity to problems • Problem defining Visualization • Analogical thinking Involving students in creative activities - independent research projects, Future Problem Solving, Odyssey of the Mind – are sound ways to develop creative skills, abilities, attitudes and awareness.

47. According to Torrance, creative teaching and learning includes exploring, questioning, experimenting, testing ideas and other activities. Creative learning includes sensing a problem; formulating hypotheses or guesses; testing, revising and retesting the hypotheses; and communicating the results.

48. Thinking Skills Intelligence can be learned, nurtured, and grown. Ability is a repertoire of skills and habits that continuously and incrementally expands. Arthur Costa

49. What the Research Says • Gifted Education Strategies Work • Acceleration Works • Grouping Works • Curriculum Compacting Works • Advanced Placement Works • Pull-Out Programs and Specialized Classes Work

50. Infuse into everyday teaching • Critical thinking • Creative thinking • Problem finding and problem solving • Metacognition • Domain-specific patterns and forward reasoning • Correlational reasoning • Reflective inquiry • Questioning created for memory, divergence, convergence, aesthetics, and ethics • Socratic discussion