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Report: Rhode Island State Advisory Committee of the Gifted and Talented -- September 29, 2005
Does New Wording In State's Basic Education Plan Suggest New Paradigm for Rhode Island Gifted Education?
'Beyond Grade Level'
At the Rhode Island State Advisory Committee of the Gifted and Talented meeting held on September 29th, Ina Woolman, coordinator of Gifted Education for the Rhode Island Department of Education announced that she is working to have the State Education Department phase out the term "gifted and talented," in some cases, and replace it with "beyond grade level."
The new term has already been written into the state's Basic Education Plan, Ms. Woolman said. And may soon replace "Gifted and Talented" as a designation within the organizational structure in the Department of Education's Office of Special Needs.
RIAGE President Carolyn Rosenthal said that RIAGE does not endorse the change in wording, expressing the view that the Education Department should continue using the term "Gifted and Talented." While acknowledging the importance of providing curricula beyond grade level for children who need it, it is nonetheless true that "many gifted and talented children are not working beyond grade level for a variety of reasons, including poverty and minority status," according to Rosenthal. These students also require programs and other assistance that addresses their unique needs, Rosenthal said.
State Offers Some Backing To Proponents of Gifted Education
Also at the meeting, Ms. Woolman explained that a long held interpretation of state regulations pertaining to gifted and talented programs, was that these rules were only in effect in cases where gifted and talented programs were actually funded by communities. But this is no longer considered a proper reading of these regulations at the state level, she said. Ms. Woolman also announced that The Department of Education's Office of Special Needs is preparing a letter advising the state's Superintendents of Schools of this revised interpretation of these regulations.
This change was viewed as a potentially positive step forward by Ms. Rosenthal, depending on how aggressively the State Department of Education promulgates this new interpretation. "But we need to find out more about this," she said.
Advisory committee member Vanna Donoyan suggested that school departments would be more likely to take this change in interpretation more seriously if the advisory was signed by the Education Commissioner, Peter McWalters. Ms. Woolman replied that she was working on that, but it was unclear at this point whether that would happen.
RIAGE urges Commissioner McWalters to support this initiative by Ms. Woolman.
RIAGE representative Kerry Joyce said he didn't think parents of gifted children would wait for their Superintendents to receive this advisory, and might very well invoke these changes made to the Basic Education Plan now in place, in seeking more individualized curricula for their children. Ms. Woolman acknowledged that these changes as they stand now could offer parents and students some leverage in working out arrangements with schools and school departments.
Vanna Donoyan also said that in the course of her work with the RI Department of Education in the areas of state science standards and the new proficiency-based high school graduation requirements, that programs for gifted and talented students are beginning to be viewed more favorably, and that she believes these programs will garner more support at the state level in the not so distant future.
RIAGE hopes to find out more specifically what Ms. Donnoyan is referring to in this regard and plans to address the issues with her at the next meeting. RIAGE member Deirdre Lovecky, Ph.D. Director of the Gifted Resource Center of New England was skeptical that these new standards would in and of themselves benefit gifted and talented students, and might well have the opposite effect, if the central focus of the state's initiative in this area was another round of general proficiency testing. These proficiency tests do little to meet the needs of gifted and talented students who generally are not challenged by the tests or by the way the material designed for preparing students to pass the test is presented, according to Dr. Lovecky.
Program Inventory
Ms. Woolman also handed out a draft of a questionnaire, called (Note the title!) "The Learning Beyond Grade Level - Inventory". The questionnaire covers programs, plans and progress within four areas:
1. District Level Context, Policies And Supports, which seeks to find out to what extent school departments currently support and plan to support learning beyond grade level expectations.
2. Classroom-Level Curriculum & Instruction That Supports Learning Beyond Grade Level, which looks at how teachers determine structural levels, classroom strategies used, percentage of students involved and district tracking of these efforts.
3. School-Level Strategies That Extend Learning Opportunities Beyond Classroom Level, which is intended to determine what schools are doing to offer extra-curricula activities, such as Science Olympiads, etc as well as concurrent enrollment programs (middle and high school, or high school and college) to facilitate beyond grade level opportunities.
4. Specialized Programming Providing Support For Specific Abilities and Interests of Students, which would include things like mentors, advanced subject area tutors and distance learning etc.
The inventory will initially be sent out to three school departments, that are considered generally supportive of gifted and talented initiatives: Coventry, Cranston, and Pawtucket.
RIAGE President Carolyn Rosenthal welcomed the progress being made in this area, while taking not of the use of the term "Beyond Grade Level" in the title of the questionaire.
These developments announced by Ms. Woolman leave many unanswered questions for RIAGE members such as:
1. How exactly did this new interpretation of the regulations come about?
2. Is the new interpretation less subject to change than, say, the old interpretation?
3. What was the process involved in changing the wording of the BEP from "gifted and talented" to "beyond grade level"?
Other Business At the September 29the Meeting
Award
It was also announced at the meeting that RIAGE would formally recognize Vanna Donoyan at the 11th Annual New England Conference on Gifted and Talented Education in Killington, VT for her outstanding work on behalf of gifted education.
Ms. Donoyan began her teaching career 8 years ago as a teacher of the gifted for the Coventry Public Schools in RI. She has worked as a peer coach, new teacher mentor, and differentiation consultant for teachers in her district, state, and New England.
Throughout the years, Ms. Donoyan has advocated for a challenging curriculum for the gifted students and twice-exceptional students in grades K-12. She has presented at conferences, published, and participated as a member of the building committee in Lincoln, RI that designed a new middle school facility that focuses on adolescent development, children with varied talents, and a curriculum which meets the needs of the gifted child. Vanna also co-chaired the revival of the Parents of Gifted Children Advocacy Committee in RI.
Community Outreach
In addition, advisory committe member Diana Reeves discussed how some states have been offering seminars for parents on how to meet the emotional needs of gifted students. Ms. Reeves believes that similar offerings in Rhode Island could be a great community outreach tool. RIAGE is looking for ways to address the needs and concerns of parents of gifted students and will hold a family Fun Day on December 7th at the Cranston YMCA in that effort. RIAGE looks forward to hearing more about what other states are doing in this regard.
Community Action
Jason Lin of Westerly, the webmaster for the Rhode Island State Advisory Committee On Gifted and Talented Education spoke about his involvement with Westerly Innovations Network (WIN) The WIN Team, which helps direct the energies and abilities of many of Westerly's gifted and talented public school students into community action.
Earlier in the year, five student members of WIN represented the U.S. at the Volvo Adventure International Competition held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their program to educate, promote and coordinate the recycling of what they call "e-waste" was selected from among student entries from across the country and overseas. The team came in 3rd place winning $4,000.
Welcome
Another attendee of the meeting was Claire Hughes, Ph.D., Chair of the Research and Evaluation Division of the National Association for Gift Children (NAGC), who recently moved to Rhode Island with her family. Dr. Hughes has a doctorate in Special and Gifted Education from the College of William and Mary and was a Professor of Gifted Education at the University of South Florida where she helped bring their masters in gifted education program online.
The meeting discussed the possibility of Dr. Hughes representing Rhode Island at the NAGC National Conference to be held in Louisville, Kentucky on November 9-13, 2005. And it was later decided that Dr. Hughes would indeed represent Rhode Island at the national conference.
Dr. Hughes expressed a strong interest in getting involved and advocating at the state level, and members of RIAGE later expressed great enthusiasm at this addition to Rhode Island's community of advocates for gifted education.
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