IAGC "QUESTION OF THE MONTH" Blog Posts 

As the school year begins, a useful ritual is to check out the view from each student’s perspective by sitting in each of their places as we arrange the classroom. How easily can each student see the projector screen? A talkative friend? A view of the playground?

Considering what students “see” can help teachers eliminate distractions and physical obstructions to learning; it can also help us find new ways to motivate advanced learners.

When setting up your classroom, imagine that you are a student. Take a seat, and look around...

• Role Models and Vision: Is there a picture of an inspiring adult role model who shares my gender, culture, and/or race—a depiction that celebrates his or her contributions and achievements? What does that picture communicate to me about my future possibilities and potential?

• High Level Questions: Is there a provocative, deep question posted that captures my attention and curiosity? Is there a question that I would like to explore and discuss with my friends and family?  Is there a question that makes me think about how the themes or topics we will explore in the classroom this year may be important or relevant to my life?

• Rich Vocabulary: Is there a new, rich vocabulary word displayed that would be fun for me to learn and use? How might it relate to math, science, or the world?

• Personal Interests:  Is there any place in this classroom for my own “learning agenda?” Does this classroom have a place for me and to explore and share what I love to learn? 

When looking through a student's eyes, classroom landscape has tremendous potential to welcome and engage all learners, including advanced learners. And once teachers consider the view from the students’ seats, classroom spaces may provide a beautiful vantage point to “see” more students with gifts and talents than ever expected.

-Patricia Steinmeyer

Adapted from 2016 blog post by Patricia Steinmeyer: https://pslearns.com/2016/07/24/meeting-the-needs-of-gifted-learners-in-the-core-classroom-try-sitting-in-their-seats/

Students who are gifted are not necessarily inclined to struggle socially, and in fact, gifted children tend to be socially adept, popular, happy and confident with their friends. Gifted children have many strengths: they are often inquisitive, imaginative, and highly communicative.  They can be passionate about learning, joyful, and curious about the world around them.   

Gifted students may also be sensitive, anxious, or focused on complex questions, intense interests, and/or world issues at a young age. As a result, some gifted students may feel isolated or misunderstood by their peers.  Parents may observe that their gifted child prefers the company of older children or adults to whom they can better relate on an intellectual level. At the same time, the child may not be advanced emotionally, and he or she may encounter social-emotional challenges due to this uneven, or “asynchronous,” development. Parents should talk to their gifted children about their interests and experiences and encourage them to share their feelings about learning and friendships.  Providing situations in which their child can interact with peers with similar interests and abilities is another way that parents can help their child to feel socially accepted and confident.

Another common challenge that some gifted students may encounter is dealing with anxiety or perfectionism. Students may imagine problems that are beyond the scope of what they can solve.  They can envision a perfect, sophisticated solution, but they may become frustrated when it is not reached easily. By teaching a growth mindset--that mistakes and struggle are a part of the learning process--parents can help their gifted students to understand that problem-solving, asking others for help, and not “knowing all of the answers” are a natural part of the learning and growth process.

A wealth of books and resources are available to help parents and educators understand and meet the social-emotional needs of their gifted children.

To learn more, here are some useful resources:

National Association for Gifted Children Webpage, “Social-Emotional Issues”

Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (“SENG”) Website

VanTassel-Baska, J., Cross, T., & Olenchak, F. (2009). Social-emotional curriculum with gifted and talented students. Waco, Tex.: Prufrock Press.

UPCOMING ACCELERATED PLACEMENT WEBINAR 
AUG. 12 -  3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

ISBE’s Division of Curriculum and Instruction will host a webinar and Q&A session on the Accelerated Placement Act at 3 p.m. on Aug. 12. Registration is now available. Registration is now available 

The Accelerated Placement Act requires all school districts to develop and implement a local policy that uses a fair and equitable decision-making process with multiple measures to identify students who may benefit from accelerated placement. 

The webinar will be available after it airs on the ISBE website. Information will be posted here. Please share with your districts, other parents, and REGISTER!

Should I Talk With My Child About Giftedness?

Parents of a child with gifts and talents should help their child to develop self-awareness and a positive self-concept. Supportive parents recognize a child’s strengths and abilities, and help their children to do the same. However, it is important that children feel valued and loved not because of their accomplishments and intelligence but because of who they are. 

Parents should be cautious about praising a child for his or her innate abilities. Instead, parents should give specific praise to children for effort, problem-solving, solution seeking and incremental growth. This is because a child who hears her parents’ constant praise for being “smart” may feel that she has to continually demonstrate this to earn approval. Moreover, a child who intelligence is an unchangeable trait  may develop a “fixed mindset,” believing that talent and “smarts” should be enough for success rather than hard work and effort. 

In contrast, a child who develops a “growth mindset” understands that abilities, skills, and understanding grows with increased effort, practice, and perseverance. A child who develops a growth mindset will be more likely to embrace challenge and risk, recognizing that mistakes as a part of the learning process. 

For additional information on growth mindset, see Carol Dweck’s The New Psychology of Success (2008). A helpful resource for parents and educators about the unique social emotional needs of gifted children is The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children: What Do we Know (2nd edition) by Maureen Neihart, Steven Pfeiffer and Tracy Cross (2016).

-Patricia Steinmeyer

If your child has been identified as “gifted” --perhaps to qualify for advanced programs in school or outside enrichment programs -- summer is a great time to explore your school, community, and the Internet to learn more about the academic and social-emotional needs of gifted children.  The Illinois Association for Gifted Children website page “I Just Learned My Child is Gifted” includes several helpful resources about meeting the needs of gifted learners. Also, the National Association for Gifted Children website offers a wealth of resources related to meeting the needs of gifted learners, including a page related to potential Social and Emotional needs.

Summer also offers an opportunity to explore your community for resources (e.g. museums, music programs, libraries, weekend enrichment/summer programs) that offer enrichment experiences and/or learning opportunities for your child. You may consider attending conferences such as the Northwestern Center for Talent Development’s Annual Family Conference that will take place on the Northwestern University Evanston campus on Saturday, June 29, 2019. Also, mark your long term 2019-20 calendar for the 2020 IAGC Sliver Conference to take place February 6-8, 2020.

If your child has not yet entered kindergarten, take some time to learn about programs for high ability students in your school district. In addition to your school or district website, the Illinois School Report Card site is one place where you can find out about your child’s academic programs and enrichment opportunities for high ability students.  (For the 2018-2019 school year and after, the Illinois Report Card Act requires schools to report information about gifted programming, the number of students served, the percent of teachers with gifted training, and growth data for high achieving students.)

Acceleration is one intervention you may wish to discuss with your child’s teacher or your school principal.  “Acceleration” is when a student moves through the academic curriculum at a younger age or a faster rate than typical students.  Evidence shows that acceleration is an intervention that benefits high ability learners. (The University of Iowa’s Acceleration Institute website includes a variety of resources and information about acceleration and its benefits.)

Under the Illinois Acceleration Act, districts must have policies for early entrance to kindergarten and first grade, grade level acceleration, and acceleration in individual subjects. Your child’s school district should have information available about its acceleration policy and identification procedures for placement. The decision about whether acceleration is best for your child must involve parents and be based upon a variety of factors--not just a single test. Also, school districts need to notify parents of any accelerated placement decision with respect to their child.

Finally, when school begins this fall, make an appointment with your child’s classroom teacher to discuss your child’s learning needs. Your child’s teacher should be able to explain what types of differentiation and enrichment are available in the classroom, as well as provide information about what programs the school has to meet the needs of gifted learners. It may be helpful to ask-- “What programming/curriculum best meets my child’s needs?” Students may be gifted in different areas, so the best program may be different for each child. Your child’s teacher may also offer guidance about extracurricular and enrichment opportunities at the school designed to meet the needs of gifted/high ability learners.  

As a parent, you are your child’s most influential teacher, and play a vital role in supporting your gifted child on his or her personal and academic journey. We hope that you will discover resources, build networks, and make friendships through the IAGC to help you along the way!

-Patricia Steinmeyer (IAGC Education Committee, Co-Chair)

Your Participation is Needed Now!

This blog has been updated to reflect the online survey whose format is somewhat different than the downloaded survey.

The Illinois State Board of Education is currently asking for input on proposed changes to Illinois’ Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan. The proposed amendment will guide how public schools across the state are evaluated and rated as well as establish priorities and support for school improvement.  

Illinois’ ESSA Plan is available online. Proposed changes to the plan begin on page 47 of the document at https://www.isbe.net/Documents/ESSA-Amendment1-20190422.pdf . Several potential ESSA Plan changes could significantly impact educational opportunities for gifted and advanced students. Some of our members have spoken to these changes at the recent ISBE listening tour meetings across the state. Now we are asking our members to complete an online survey on the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) website, https://www.isbe.net/Pages/ISBE-ESSA-Amendment-Feedback.aspx

IAGC’s participation in similar ISBE requests for comment has had a positive impact. Please  consider IAGC’s positions as you take a few minutes to complete the online survey:

First Page:

Question #1: Should the weighting of academic indicators remain at  75%?

• IAGC supports maintaining the weighting of “academic indicators” at 75%. Maintaining the weight of these indicators and implementing an approach to measuring “growth” that values progress of students beginning both below and above minimum “proficiency” thresholds would help encourage more schools to provide quality learning opportunities for high-ability students and help ensure that more bright minority and low-income students have access to advanced learning options at school.
  

Second Page:

Question 1: What are indicators for a well-rounded education?

• Academic Indicators: IAGC supports heavily weighting “growth” among the “Academic Indicators.” Old No Child Left Behind-era school accountability frameworks focused schools’ attention almost exclusively on basic grade-level proficiency. Consequently, schools had little incentive to ensure that students who had already attained basic proficiency received the challenge and support they needed to continue to grow. That framework contributed to the elimination of many gifted education and academic enrichment programs across the state, disproportionately impacting bright low-income students in rural and urban schools. Emphasizing “growth” over “proficiency” will help ensure that the progress of all students is valued in the accountability framework, thereby creating an incentive for schools to restore and improve opportunities for enrichment and advanced learning. (For a primer on advanced students in growth models, see: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CTq2EgoJ32X4dsCW5GGLpIOdEps43OWrqh81F7_wpnY/edit?usp=sharing )
  
• 3-8 SSSQ Indicators
  
• • IAGC supports giving weight to the “P-2 Indicator” and the “Elementary-Middle Grade Indicator,” provided that participation in enrichment and accelerated learning options are components of these indicators. IAGC supports including the “Access to Acceleration and Enrichment” indicator recommended by ISBE’s P-2 and 3-8 School Quality Indicators Workgroups and assigning weight to this indicator. Meeting this indicator would be based on at least 5% of students participating in enrichment and/or acceleration in these grade bands.  IAGC also supports a weighted fine arts indicator at this level.
    
• 9-12 SSSQ Indicators
  
• • IAGC supports prioritizing “College and Career Readiness” and a weighted fine arts indicator at the high school level. IAGC also encourages ISBE to develop a dedicated indicator for Grades 9-12 that focuses specifically on the percentage of students in these grades successfully participating in pre-college and college-level coursework such as Pre-AP courses, AP courses, and “dual credit” courses provided by community colleges, colleges, and universities.
    
• Section 2, Part 3: “Should ISBE add growth as an indicator at the high school level?”
  
• • IAGC supports adding growth as an academic indicator at the high school level and supports weighting this indicator.
    

Third Page: 

Question 1: What should be the testing policy for newly arrived English learners?

• Of the options presented on the survey, IAGC is least opposed to the third option. However, IAGC would recommend and support a fourth option where only growth scores are used in the second year and third year (vs. growth AND proficiency in the third year). This is consistent with IAGC’s position  that growth should be the focus overall. Focusing on growth does not endorse neglecting the progress of these students in the accountability framework. Further, it would allow schools to get credit for progress of EL students and would not put schools with large EL populations at a disadvantage for earning a good rating if they effectively serve EL students who enter school  very far below proficiency but make strong progress. Finally, unusually rapid growth can be an indicator of intellectual gifts among EL students who may otherwise be overlooked. In recent years, more than ¾ of Intel/Regeneron Science Talent Search students have been immigrants or children of immigrants. And, more than ⅓ of America’s 21st Century Nobel Prize winners were themselves born in another country. Emphasizing growth may help avoid the tendency to view EL students exclusively through a deficit lens and help schools recognize and cultivate the talents of these students earlier so they can reach their full potential.

Fourth Page:  Summative Designations

Question 1:  Should ISBE change the number of summative designation categories?

•  IAGC has not taken a position on the ideal number of designation categories. However, reducing the number of categories to 2 would literally create a “binary” rating system with no room to represent trajectories of change over time. There would likely  be no opportunity to differentiate between schools where students are attaining basic proficiency with only a few students excelling from schools that are exceptionally effective in helping more students reach the highest levels of achievement.

• Question 2:  Should ISBE change the names of the summative design categories?

•  IAGC has not taken a position on preferred naming of the designation categories. However, we believe that earning the highest designation should require schools to demonstrate growth of students across the achievement continuum and progress toward closing disparities among racial and economic subgroups in the percentage of students participating in enrichment and accelerated learning options and reaching the highest achievement levels.

• Question 3: Should ISBE modify criteria for an Exemplary designation? To address Illinois’ “Excellence Gaps”,  IAGC recommends that ISBE modify the criteria for a school to receive an “Exemplary” designation to include indicators of growth and equitable access to advanced learning options. These should reflect meeting the school quality indicator for “Acceleration and Enrichment” (for the P-2 and 3-8 grade bands); year-over-year increases in the percentage of high school students successfully participating in Pre-AP, AP, and dual credit courses (in high school grades), and narrowing “excellence gaps” indicated by year-over-year increases in the percentage of low-income and minority students performing at the “Exceeds” level.
• Last section -other possible feedback: Illinois should enact an ESSA Plan that emphasizes opportunities for growth for all students and values all growth equally. Therefore, Illinois should implement either a simple linear regression growth model as recommended in Illinois’ original ESSA Plan or a “student growth percentiles” model. IAGC strongly opposes enacting a “growth to proficiency” model that would effectively endorse neglecting the growth of more than ⅓ of Illinois students. (For more information on why “growth to proficiency” models harm bright students and are unfair to schools serving large numbers of disadvantaged students, see https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-states-should-use-student-growth-and-not-proficiency-rates-when-gauging)
• • Access to gifted education and advanced academic programs declined in Illinois in the NCLB era in part because gifted and high-ability students were invisible in the accountability framework and report card system. This should be addressed by creating an additional student subgroup representing high-ability students parallel to existing subgroups that highlight the unique learning needs of students with disabilities and English learners. This would allow ISBE, local school leaders, researchers, and policymakers to disaggregate the growth and achievement of high-ability students to better identify and spread practices that support growth and close excellence gaps.
    

Once you have completed the ISBE ESSA survey, please also take a moment to forward this email to colleagues, relatives, and neighbors who care about ensuring that high-ability students in all Illinois communities can develop their talents. 

Thank you in advance for speaking up for high-ability students!

                        

Is My Child Gifted?

“My child seems to learn new things quickly.  Is my child gifted?”

Some children quickly learn to read or write. Others excel at solving problems and puzzles. Still others have outstanding athletic or creative talent. Giftedness comes in many forms, and it blossoms among all demographic groups, cultures, and personality types.  “Twice exceptional” children may have special learning needs or disabilities and also demonstrate giftedness in other areas.

One of the challenges for determining whether a child is “gifted” is the lack of a common definition or metric. In some states, such as Illinois, “giftedness” in mathematics and language arts has been defined as the “top 5% locally” (Illinois School Code,105 ILCS 5/14A-20). The top 10% locally or nationally is another commonly accepted benchmark for giftedness.¹ And when it comes to school districts, designating which students are labeled “gifted” can vary. For example, students who are in the top 10% on a nationally normed test may not be in the top 10% of students scores for the same test in a high performing district. Conversely, some schools may have a very small percentage of students who score in the top 10% nationally.  Accordingly, a child who is labeled “gifted” in one district may not be labeled “gifted” in another.

Schools have different protocols for identifying giftedness, but there is no “one test” that is determinative.  Multiple measures such as ability tests, achievement tests, classroom observations, student work products, and teacher/parent/student ratings of gifted characteristics are some common measures used to identify gifted children.

It is generally understood that a child who is “gifted” demonstrates abilities and talents that are well beyond what is expected for his or her age group. Gifted children exhibit “asynchronous” development, and may show abilities far beyond their same-aged peers. If you suspect that your child is gifted, you may want to do some background reading about high ability children, observe your child at home, and talk with your child’s teacher(s) about your child’s experience in the classroom.  Is there are particular area that interests your child? Does your child have abilities or strengths that are beyond what you observe are typical for a child of the same age? Is your child curious, always asking questions, highly observant, or imaginative? The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) has an informative webpage about characteristics of gifted children: NAGC: Common Characteristics of Gifted Children.

Ultimately, given the diverse ways that giftedness manifests itself and differences in identification protocols, the question “is my child gifted?” may lack a definitive answer. But the inquiry prompts further questions that may be even more pertinent to a child’s growth:

As parents explore these questions, the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (“IAGC”) provides a wealth of resources, and encourages and welcomes parents along the journey. We hope that you will join us!

-Patricia Steinmeyer
IAGC Education Committee, Co-Chair

1. The National Association for Gifted Children. website. "What is Giftedness?" http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/what-giftedness

All members are invited to join us for the Spring Committee and Board Meetings on May 4, 2019. Committee meetings are scheduled from 10 AM  - Noon. The Board meeting begins promptly at 1 PM. We welcome your participation in any or all events! Please register via the links on the left-hand side of this page. If you would like to attend via GoToMeeting, please contact Diane Beedy via email: director@iagcgifted.org.

Laura LaSalle, Concordia University, provides rationale for supporting gifted learners

Gifted Education.LL2019.pdf