Gifted and Talented Program

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Woody Calleri
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Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:52 pm

Gifted and Talented Program

Postby Woody Calleri » Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:14 pm

I attended the Gifted & Talented presentation on February 26. Given that the G & T program received a D on the state report card last year, I had high hopes that I would hear from the administration about how they were going to address this situation and improve the program. Unfortunately, that was not the situation. The presentation was hastily put together and came across as the administration simply wanting to say that they met with parents rather work with them to improve the program.

The focus of the presentation should have been on what we are doing to fix the program and provide our students with the best education possible. Instead the presentation was an example of our administration not looking to solve problems but wanting to apply window dressing to a legitimate area of concern. As one parent stated to me “they are not concerned with the quality of the program and improving it, they just want to find a way to improve the report card grade.”

The problems with the presentation included:
• No presentation material was handed out
• Many slides labelled “Westlake High School” – we can’t create our own slides?
• Many slides not covered – the presenter skipped over numerous slides. If they were not of value that should not have been included.
• The presenter read several slides verbatim to us. It felt like a way of running out the clock so that they did not have to answer questions.
• A discussion of several items not relevant to the Gifted / Talented program
• There was no central theme / message nor was there an action plan to address the situation

In addition, the presenter made it clear at the start of the presentation that there would be no opportunity for stakeholders to address their concerns directly to administration (“we should park our questions on sticky notes, post them on the wall and the administration would post answers to they on the website in the weeks to come”).

While it may not have been the goal of the administration, the impression given was that they did not want our input; instead they just wanted to say that they met with the parents / stakeholders. The whole thing felt like they were just patting us on the head and telling us to run along while they took care of this issue because we would not understand how things worked.

There is another presentation on March 3. I remain hopeful that the following questions will be addressed.

• Who is on the 3 committees? How were they selected? Are they from all schools and stakeholders?

• Why wasn’t a survey sent out / sent home to the current participants asking them for their feedback / insight on the current program? Why were parents only addressed now with less than a month to go for their opinions and ideas?

• What problem(s) are the changes addressing? – Tough to decide if the changes are needed / helpful if we do not know the problem they are meant to address. The concern from the stakeholders is that the changes and discussions are nothing more than window dressing (putting lipstick on a pig) rather than actual solution to the problems we face. For example, last year we had our 7th grade math students take the 8th grade exam. This exam covered Geometry which they had not been taught yet. The only reason for the change was so that we could get “bonus points” on the state report card. It had nothing to do with improving on student’s knowledge and skill with math. Are the changes being discussed more of the same?

• Many have complained that the G&T program just teaches 1 year ahead (5th grade material in 4th grade) without adding any depth and rigor to the instruction. What are we doing to address this concern?

• Are we going to keep the current self-contained program and add ‘clusters / pull outs’ to it? Or are we looking to reduce the size of the self-contained program by focusing on adding “clusters / pull outs instead?

• Are we looking to start the program earlier or will it still start in 3rd grade?

• Feedback the administration received from our G&T alumni indicates a need for more instruction / work on critical thinking and writing. What is being done to address this concern?

• The presenter made the comment that we need to provide our teachers with training so that they could better serve our students. If this is true, what are we doing to improve our hiring practices so that the teachers have those skills when they come to us?

• What parts of the G & T program does the administration feel need to be improved? Strengthened? Revamped?

• As a district how are you addressing the curriculum for teachers? What training are they receiving?

• The split classes (2/3 and 4/5) were highly rated by both teachers and parents, why were they ended?


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