Gifted Education in Northern New Jersey

Gifted Education in Northern New Jersey

I am writing on behalf of the gifted students. I am a gifted education specialist in a suburbandistrict of Northern New Jersey, and I am concerned that our top students are not getting the educational programs that they need. According the New Jersey Department of Education (as stated on their website), “the New Jersey Department of Education requires that each school district provide services to meet the needs of students who have been identified as gifted and talented. Each school district must establish a process to identify students as gifted and talented using multiple measures. These students require modification to their educational program if they are to achieve in accordance with their capabilities (N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1).” Additionally, the NJDOE states that “district boards of education shall take into consideration thePreK-Grade 12 Gifted Program Standards of the National Association for Gifted Children(NAGC) in developing programs for gifted and talented students. The NAGC standards establish requisite and exemplary gifted program standards.”

Based on firsthand experience, I do not feel that our district does a sufficient job of meeting this mandate. As I am also an active participant in our county’s Gifted and Talented Consortium, I would say that this is also the case in several other districts in our county. Our district has experienced a reduction in staff specialized to meet the needs of gifted students and we have very limited to no training for general educators who work with these students. Our classes are so diverse in abilities and teachers do not have adequate training in how to meet the academic or social needs of our gifted students. I have received many emails and calls from parents who are concerned that their children are underchallenged in the classroom and are losing their enthusiasm for learning. They settle for a school life that is not challenging and become lazy in their quest for learning.

Just recently, a parent of a sixth-grade student contacted me because their child has stopped doing any type of reading and often has at most seven minutes of underchallenging homework. This parent is greatly concerned about their child’s lack of effort. The child is complacent about school work because they get good grades. When school is too easy for our gifted students, they lose enthusiasm for learning, and they fail to develop the skills necessary to take challenges and work hard. Their education becomes hindered and is not in accordance with their abilities.

I was also recently contacted by the parent of a first-grade student. This mother has the same concern and often sees her child “making his homework harder” so that it is more interesting. I wish these were two unique circumstances, but over the past years, I have seen this happen time and time again. In discussions with many of our gifted children, I know that they are underchallenged in most of their classes. They find school too easy, are often bored within the classroom, and their teachers do not understand the necessity to provide challenges to them.

Our district currently has no standardized training and/or any accommodations for providing more challenging curriculum to advanced students. The district is supportive of professional development and supportive of gifted education, but very little emphasis is put on understanding the unique social and academic needs of our brightest children. Yes, we do have advanced literature and math classes in middle school, but this is not enough. I have been in many classrooms where all students complete the same lessons and activities regardless of ability. I have seen enthusiastic children become bored with classwork that they can do easily and sometimes these students will become disruptive. Other times they will turn to reading and spend a large portion of their day reading independently or going through rote material that does not challenge them. They get good grades but are not offered off level testing to truly gauge their aptitude or ability. Our teachers and administration are not equipped to adequately challenge our top students. This year, due to budget cuts, our top students receive even less services than in previous years as all pull-out programming and formal identification was cut from the elementary schools.

In our district, differentiation of core subjectsis the responsibility of the classroom teachers, yet with lack of training, high stakes testing, and inflexibility of scheduling, this frequently does not happen. I have been approached by some of our elementary and middle school teachers because they feel that they have inadequate trainingand not enough time to differentiate sufficiently. I do what I can, but there are too few resources to be as helpful as I would like. Other teachers express frustration with their inability to meet the needs of our top students. They are also frustrated when these students are in inclusion classes with special education students as they know that the conversation and pace of the class is not in line with the top student’s abilities. It would be ideal to have greater flexibility in scheduling so that our top students can work together in a challenging environment to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This type of situation would ideally meet their needs and the NJAGC standards.

New Jersey has a strong educational system and districts provide an abundance of services to meet the needs of our struggling students. This is necessary, but it is also necessary to make sure that our most talented students are being challenged. This is good for the future of our state and society. We have standards to help us do this, but districts do not always utilize these standards in a meaningful way and budget cuts and lack of funding from the state and national government often results in less services to our brightest students which lessens their ability to thrive.I am requesting that the NJDOE/NJSBOE make gifted education more of a priority in their strategic plans and strengthen QSAC monitoring and New Jersey laws to ensurethat districts provide appropriate educational opportunities for these students that are in accordance with their abilities.

Gifted education is so much more than having teachers differentiate the curriculum and provide enrichment. Differentiation and enrichment should be for all students, but teachers should not be expected to meet all the special needs of our highest ability and achieving students and address these standards without support and guidance from gifted specialists and administrators. Are there areas where we can improve or change? Absolutely, and I hope thatdistricts will get better state support and oversite to improve our programs as we move forward. In a time when budget crunching is necessary for many districts, it may seem like an easy area to cut back on, but it would be detrimental to the quality of our school systems and unfair to these students. Please do not forget about these students and their special needs.

Below is a highlight of the National Association for Gifted Children standards which should be used for guiding gifted education. Unfortunately, many are often left unaddressed.

Standard 1 - Self-Understanding, Awareness of Needs, and Cognitive and Affective growth.

Providing opportunities for gifted students to work together in small groups such is in pull-out programs helps to address these standards and allows gifted kids to understand their unique asynchronous development and gifted characteristics.

Standard 2 - Identification, Learning Progress and Outcomes, and Evaluation of Programming

Standard 2.6 further states that Administrators provide the necessary time and resources to implement an annual evaluation plan developed by persons with expertise in program evaluation and gifted education.

Standard 3 Curriculum Planning and Instruction

Educators design differentiated curricula that incorporate advanced, conceptually challenging, in-depth, distinctive, and complex content.

Educators design curricula in cognitive, affective, aesthetic, social, and leadership domains that are challenging and effective.

Educators use critical-thinking, creative-thinking, problem-solving, and inquiry model strategies.

Teachers and administrators demonstrate familiarity with sources for high-quality resources and materials that are appropriate for learners with gifts and talents.

Standard 4 – Learning Environments

Including Personal Competence, Social Competence, Leadership, and Communication Competence.

Educators provide feedback that focuses on effort, on evidence of potential to meet high standards, and on errors as learning opportunities.

Educators provide opportunities for interaction with intellectual as well as with chronological-age peers.

Educators provide environments for developing many forms of leadership and leadership skills and promote opportunities for leadership in community settings to effect positive change.

Standard 5: Programming

Educators regularly use enrichment options to extend and deepen learning opportunities within and outside of the school setting.

Standard 6: Professional Development - Educators systematically participate in ongoing, research-supported professional development that addresses the foundations of gifted education

Other standards state that Administrators demonstrate support for gifted programs through equitable allocation of resources and demonstrate willingness to ensure that learners with gifts and talents receive appropriate education services and that Administrators track expenditures at the school level to verify appropriate and sufficient funding for gifted programming and services.

Many of the standards also include specialized communication with the parents regarding gifted students and their education.