GATEway sent all candidates two open ended questions about gifted education in Rochester Public Schools. Their responses are below for you to consider.
- What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
- What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
Candidates for Seat No. 2
Candidates for Seat No. 6
Candidates for Seat No. 2
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
Since I was one of the people who originally
composed these questions for school board candidates a number of years ago, it
would give me an unfair advantage to answer them now that I am a school board
candidate myself. However, if anyone would like to discuss the topic of
gifted and talented education in Rochester Public Schools, I am always open to
meeting with them.
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
Since I was one of the people who originally
composed these questions for school board candidates a number of years ago, it
would give me an unfair advantage to answer them now that I am a school board
candidate myself. However, if anyone would like to discuss the topic of
gifted and talented education in Rochester Public Schools, I am always open to
meeting with them.
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
I think any program that
provides resources for students to thrive and achieve is important in any
public education setting. However, because there has been data to show
graduation rates are lower for students of color in Minnesota and RPS, there’s
a greater responsibility for programs like Gifted and Talented to ensure they
are working hard to identify students of color into these programs. According
to a study published in 2016 by AREA Open, a peer-reviewed publication of the
American Educational Research Association found that the odds of black students
getting into the Gifted and Talented program is 66 percent lower than it is for
a white student, and Latinx students chances are 47 percent lower. Is this
because students of color are less gifted than their white counterparts, or is
there some racial biases in how students are being tested for these programs?
When we look at the number of students of color enrolled in RPS and those that
are in the Gifted and Talented program, what would the numbers tell us about
how we are doing? Is the current G&T program helping to close the
graduation rate disparity for students of color?
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
I believe that Gifted and
Talented services for students in the District are currently lacking
in support and resources. Even though the program has received additional
funding, it only maintains the current status quo. There are currently 8 to 9
teachers in the district dedicated to the Gifted and Talented program for a
school district with almost 18,000 students. That is a heavy lift for those
teachers. However, it’s not any different from other programs such as for
students with special needs and Newcomers classes. Even at the High School
level, they are lacking enough instructors to teach AP and Honors courses. In
my opinion, it is important to provide the funding and resources that the
students need to develop to their fullest potential. Students who are not
challenged in school may become disengaged and can end up becoming disruptive
in class, or worse -- drop out altogether. At the end of the day, it is
important as a school board member to ensure we are doing what we can with the
budget we have to provide the support and resources students need to become
successful at school and in life. Moreover, it’s also our duty to find ways to
better fund the district in order to provide world-class programs like Gifted
and Talented.
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
Candidates for Seat No. 6
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
I want our District to make decisions that
support all students' learning and growth and allow our teachers and staff to
bring their best skills and ideas to the classroom, so gifted education must
have a central role. When we talk about the needs of our student populations,
and competition for scarce resources, the needs of gifted students always needs
to be on the agenda, alongside the needs of children of color, immigrant and
refugee students, special education students, and students from low-income
families. From my experience with the student population in Rochester, the
needs of our students often cross into multiple categories, including gifted
services. Our Gifted Services staff have also brought numerous innovations to
District curriculum and programming over the years, which have served as models
or content for other District programming.
I have seen the importance of gifted services first-hand. Gifted
programs and staff contributed so much to both of my children's educational
successes. The pull-out programs and collaborations and conversations between
gifted services staff and their classroom teachers made the difference between
a frustrating school experience where they would have been disruptive in the
classroom to a positive, engaging and challenging school experience.
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
Resources have always been and will always be an
issue. We are fortunate to have the dedicated state funding and that the
district has supplemented that funding with local general fund dollars for
gifted services, although the resources remain underfunded. Furthermore, we
cannot take for granted that the resources for gifted services will always be a
priority. Therefore, I believe the District needs to be more intentional in
their assessment of and public communications about the current status of
gifted programming and share highlights of successes and what we need to
improve.
I was a member and the facilitator for the
Gifted Services Advisory Committee (GSAC) from 2007 until it was discontinued
in 2013. GSAC was a group of parents, teachers, staff, administrators and
community members who met monthly to talk about the current status of gifted
services in RPS, talk about best practices in the gifted services field, and do
short-and long-term planning for new programs and services. So much of what we
see in gifted services came from that committee’s work and conversations,
including the highly-gifted elementary and middle school programs, cluster
grouping and differentiation, Primary Education Thinking Skills (PETS) for all
first graders, prevention of cuts to gifted services during previous district
budget cutting cycles, adding additional gifted services staff, and alternative
identification methodologies. GSAC helped develop an annual presentation to the
school board on the number of students in gifted services by school and grade
and other demographic factors, expenditures, staffing, program implementation
and outcomes. That information was so helpful to parents and the school board
in their understanding of where gifted services were and improvements needed.
I believe the Gifted Services Advisory
Committee needs to be resurrected, with a new generation of parents, staff and
community members to discuss, research and provide input to the direction of
gifted services in RPS. There are many areas of gifted services programming
that the gifted services community and the board need to hear about:
• Primary
Education Thinking Skills (PETS) for all first graders
• Results of the
Purdue University partnership for the total school cluster grouping and
differentiation at Bamber Valley, Gibbs and Franklin
• Outcomes from the
highly gifted program at Friedell
• Status report of
implementation of the highly-gifted program at Kellogg
• Strategies and
status of identifying of students from under-represented groups for gifted
services
This reporting would be essential to helping
the school board decide if the resources for gifted services are adequate to
meet the needs of today’s Rochester students, and help to re-ignite the
conversation on innovations in gifted education that we have not been
considering. It would also help to educate the community on the status of
gifted services and the needs of our gifted students and hopefully spur
conversations on how community resources and partnerships could be used to
enhance the gifted services programming.
1. What role do you see gifted education playing
in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
2. What is your view of current services for the
gifted students in the Rochester School District?
No response given.
