WLWV Parents’ Association presents: A Conversation with OATAG
(answers were provided by Margaret DeLacy from OATAG, Judy Smith from SENG, and the WLWV district TAG coordinator, Julie Lane)
General questions for OATAG:
1. What is OATAG?
Mission: OATAG advocates for the needs of talented and gifted children; serves as a resource for families, educators, and communities; and provides direction for excellence in education. We are a non-profit, full-service organization dedicated to helping Oregon's gifted youth reach their full potential.
2. Who are its members?
“OATAG is a grass-roots, volunteer-driving organization with representatives around the state. We are teachers, parents, administrators, counsellors, students, homeschoolers, grandparents, instructional assistants, legislators... anyone with an interest in gifted education in Oregon! We are the people who are in the trenches, day-in and day-out, working with individuals who have different learning needs from others in their classrooms.” (Officers and members of the Board of Directors are listed on the website) www.OATAG.org
3. What are OATAG’s goals / legislative agenda?
OATAG Advocacy Agenda 2011-13 and OATAG 5-year Vision Statement (2010) [see website]
4. Are there local chapters? What do they do? Is there a West Linn / Wilsonville chapter?
OATAG is a statewide organization. There are no formally organized local groups, although OATAG members are active in parent or professional groups in their districts.
Academic questions for OATAG:
1. What services are school districts’ responsibility to provide to accelerated students?
Under Oregon law, school districts are required to identify, from K - 12th grade, the top 3% of students in English, Math, and aptitude, and those with the potential to be in that group. Afterwards, they are required to assess those students’ learning needs across the spectrum. The district is then required to offer differentiated curriculum to the students.
2. What are best practices in the classroom for educating TAG kids at the primary/middle/high school level?
A strongly recommended practice is cluster grouping across the school/district. It saves teacher prep time, saves money, and connects academically matched students.
3. What is the the relative cost of these best practices?
Costs vary depending on the practice. For example, there may be no cost associated with some forms of subject or whole grade acceleration. Establishing residential schools for highly and profoundly gifted can be very costly. Providing access to online courses for an individual or small group might be mid-range expenses.
4. Many children would benefit from minor accommodations to their educational needs. Some children require major accommodations. What are some examples of these, both minor and major?
There can be great differences between students ability even if they are all identified as TAG. A student with an IQ of 135 is unlikely to need the same degree of accommodation as a student with an IQ of 180. Students who are gifted may also have learning disabilities (e.g. dyslexia, dyscalcula, dysgraphia) or other conditions (e.g. ADHD, Autism Spectrum, Bipolar) that require different accommodations.
Policy questions for OATAG:
1. What state resources does the state intend to put into TAG education? Do they fund it at all? How do other states fund TAG education?
The State of Oregon appropriates $350,000 per biennium for TAG; most of this supports the services of the Oregon TAG specialist.
2. How does TAG education work in Washington State, for example?
States vary in the support they provide. See the NAGC website for their State of the States comparison.
3. How does TAG education work in other Oregon districts?
It varies widely between districts. Many rural school districts are very small. Beaverton has three SUMMA middle schools, and Portland has the ACCESS program.
4. What is HB 2180? What is SB 330?
HB 2180 corrects a longstanding problem with the TAG mandate. Beginning July 1, 2011, districts must submit the TAG plans that they have been required to have by the TAG mandate to the Department of Education. This will give the TAG specialist access to district information which will allow for increased accountability and more effective and timely assistance to districts for improving identification and services. SB 330 establishes a task force on instruction of talented and gifted children for purpose of making determinations related to instruction of talented and gifted children.
Gifted questions for OATAG/ SENG:
1. What is SENG?
Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted is an organization that focuses on the social and emotional needs of gifted. They offer articles on their website; webinars; an annual conference; and whenever possible, parent discussion groups based on the book, A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children by Webb, Gore, Amend, & DeVries.
2. What are some emotional needs of gifted children?
Gifted children need to be challenged in their area of academic interest, and need a peer
group that understands them. They thrive emotionally when connected with their peers.
3. What resources / recommendations do you have for nurturing the social / emotional needs of gifted kids, when it is not necessarily "cool" to be gifted?
The Gifted Kids Survival Guide by Gailbraith & Delisle (Free Spirit Publishing) is one resource directed toward helping kids understand themselves and others.
Questions for WLWV District TAG Coordinator:
1. What resources are provided by WLWV school district at the primary level?
Primary level is where the bulk of testing occurs. Teachers/students/parents complete a "Personalized Instructional Plan" noting the student's area of identification, and possible strategies to meet student's need in said area. We use flexible, skill-based groupings; multiple entry points; compacting of curriculum; and a variety of differentiation strategies to meet students' needs. Also offer GE-sponsored enrichment opportunities, both school and district-wide.
2. Middle level?
See above for strategies, also advanced level classes in core areas, electives with academic focus. See attached for middle level personalized instructional form draft* (varies slightly by school - also used somewhat differently at each of our middle schools).
Also PCC, Lewis & Clark & Reed College classes for high/middle school.
Online classes (Stanford EPGY, Johns Hopkins CTY, [SOESD]) for elementary / middle.
3. High school level?
AP classes, PCC, Lewis & Clark & Reed College classes for high/middle school.
4. What training do teachers receive to accommodate TAG students?
Teachers receive ongoing Professional Development opportunities in differentiation, often with a focus on Gifted Education. We have been fortunate to have had workshops led by Susan Winebrenner and Charlotte Danielson. Our teachers are also encouraged to explore
outside offerings - including OATAG conferences, etc. (I believe we had two of our educators attend last year's October conference at Reed, to return and share information
with their instructional teams.)
5. Is the curriculum provided by WLWV designed to give teachers a format for differentiating aptitude levels among students?
Please see above. Our teachers are guided (both through Professional Development opportunities and through onsite resources, such as instructional coordinators and counselors) to focus on gifted learners' rate and level of learning.
6. In particular, what is the impact in the blended classrooms in terms of the provided curriculum? Is there extra staff support given to a teacher if they have a large number of TAG students?
While I don't have specific data as it relates to blended classrooms, when making class placements, our staff always takes into account a variety of factors. Additional information on this can be requested of the assistant superintendent. Classroom teachers always have the support of their administrative team in providing resources and solutions for dealing with large numbers of identified gifted learners. This may take several forms, including, as previously mentioned, flexible, skill-based groupings.
7. How are kids identified in the district? When are they identified?
14.5% of our district kids are identified. They are identified by the RAVEN test (kindergarten) intellectually. Kids who move into district later are also given a (different) RAVEN test. The OAKS tests are used for kids 3rd grade and up (academic identification). Those are the 2 areas mandated by the state of Oregon - intellectual and academic. We do identify kids all the way into high school. All of our identified students are identified appropriately and are "Talented and Gifted" according to the formal dictates of the Mandate.
8. What do the different RAVEN tests look like?
The Raven Progressive Matrices are a series of geometric puzzles, requiring deductive reasoning that gets progressively more complex. It is a puzzle-based test and is non-verbal so quite appropriate for our youngest learners. You can see a copy of it at any of our primary schools
9. What do you think of these cost -neutral ways to implement TAG in the classroom?
(Following each is a description of how WLWV implements it):
early entrance (kindergarten):
we do have a district policy that kids need to be 5 years old before entering kindergarten;
grade skipping:
we do not have a formal district policy against it, but each case is looked at very closely and there must be overwhelming evidence in favor of grade advancement (concern over telling the difference between true giftedness and someone who has had early enrichment, then talent will plateau out);
advanced level courses:
online for elementary / middle school; elementary schoolers have taken classes at the middle school, middle schoolers have taken classes at the university
compacted courses:
this is not required of teachers, but is encouraged, so you can ask for an independent study or flexible skill-based project
continuous progress in the regular classroom:
part of our teachers' job is to measure rate and progress of gifted kids' learning, in order to measure that they are progressing at the appropriate rate and level
concurrent enrollment in advanced classes:
multitude of options for that in the district. Implementation across the state is primarily at the discretion of each district.
credit by examination:
If the district cannot find provide appropriate opportunities for the child within the public school setting or framework, then we do have an obligation to provide for that. Ex: a high school student who had taken so much French that we ran out of French at the high school. She was a gifted learner. She was academically gifted, but there is not subset for languages or science. But the district realized that her gift was in languages. So the district developed a relationship with PSU and adjusted her schedule so that she could take the class at PSU.
It is important to communicate your child's needs to your child's teacher regularly. If your child is bored, these are methods that can work. If you are unhappy with the result after talking with your classroom teacher, the recommendation is to speak the instructional coordinator. At the middle school, the recommendation is to go to the principal or assistant principal. At the high school, go to either the counselor or the principal. As a parent, if you have a relationship with someone other than the principal, such as the counselor or asst principal, it might make sense to speak with that person.
10. What is our TAG budget and how is it spent?
Most of it is on teacher development. The budget for the current school year was $302,012. This is primarily allocated to professional development, staffing (a portion of our instructional coordinators' salaries is paid through this).
11. In light of the fact that instructional coordinator positions are being cut and/or reduced next year at all schools, how will this affect TAG education? What extra steps should parents be prepared to take as a result?
At this time, our administrative staff is highly aware of the fact that our Gifted Education testing and implementation will be impacted on some level by our staffing changes. While I don't have specifics as yet (as you can imagine, all of the details are still in the process of being defined), parents may rest assured that plans are in process to ensure that all necessary steps are still being taken for our identified children and that any disruption will be kept to an absolute minimum.
12. Are the off-school day activities self-supporting or are they partially funded by the district?
Our enrichment activities are intended to be self-supporting. The registration fees we take in from activities are used to fund staffing, supplies, presentation fees, transportation (if applicable) and the like. In a sense, they are partially funded by the district by way of the organizational staff that arranges them (i.e. my position is funded by the district and a component of my job is to arrange for district-wide enrichment classes - the same is true at the building level; the activities themselves are self-funded, but the arrangement thereof is handled by an employee whose salary is financed by the district payroll.) The district also allocates scholarships for those students in need; this money is also district sponsored.
What are recommended after-school / outside of school programs for academic enrichment?
Destination Imagination
Saturday Academy
Odyssey of the Mind
ORTOP (Oregon Lego Robotics)
UO (www.uoyouth.org), Western Oregon, OSU, Southern Oregon University (http://www.sou.edu/youth/academy/index.html) offer a summer overnight camp for gifted kids (scholarships are usually available)
Reading list:
Teaching Gifted Five Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options by Deborah Ruf
Re-Forming Gifted Education: Matching the Program to the Child by Karen Rogers
Students in the Regular Classroom by Susan Winebrenner
http://www.2enewsletter.com/
Upcoming events:
MENSA conference, July 4th weekend.
SENG conference, Seattle, WA. July 15-17.
OATAG conference, Reed College, October 22nd. Keynote speaker is David Lohman, one
of the authors of the CogAT test for giftedness.
