Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Board of Ed: gifted and talented education

 the backup is here

I'm coming back here after a bit of this to say: we are not operating from a common understanding of what gifted and talented even is, and this presentation is a very clear demonstration of that. It's all over the place. 

Riley: maximize potential for all of our students
Department is hiring for this, but he suggests that this should perhaps be part of a larger conversation about meeting the needs of all students

and now the Lawrence High School theater troupe is performing

Regina Robinson, Deputy Commissioner presenting
"centering equity"
whose voice is heard, who's going to benefit, who is going to be most burdened
Thomas Zorich, center for strategic initiatives
will be turning to school level presenters
continuum K-12

Stacey Ciprich, Abbott Lawrence Academy
Lawrence High School had 6 separate high schools when entered receivership
receivership changed that model
Abbott is is an accelerated studies program
priority: rigorous academic instruction, robust enrichment, partnership with families
Cambre Santos-Tavares: now a Spanish teacher, graduate of Abbott in its first year
graduated with a year and a half of college credit
tools for being successful in life
junior class vice president Maya Salazar
wanted to be challenged while still doing things like theater
build really close relationships with teachers; teachers not interrupted 
talent in our school
"has made me believe in myself in many ways"
students are required to do 25 hours of community service by the time they graduate; and must participate in at least one sport or extracurricular
early college partnership with Merrimack College
put students in a college-level biology class "when they had never even been in a high school biology class"
Ciara Sem, junior at Abbott, speaking about early college
preparing us for the future in keeping up with pace and balancing requirements
"have learned so much and have done so much"

MCAS and AP results

Craven says this is a great example of how receivership works and that the Lawrence School Committee never would have created this
Q on admission: a committee that considers admissions
entrance exam, essay, short answers, recommendations from middle schools
average of about 1 in 3 admissions (250 to 300 applications a year for a class of 100)

Research Questions:
What are current practices and policies
What is known about academic practices
looking at available data: "MCAS is not an assessment of gifted students"
biggest dropoff is between third and fourth grade
top 10 or so percent over fifth and sixth
West notes that the norm is that not all would stay, in any case (good point!)
Hills: percentage of students at end point? (to West who agrees)
"excellence gap" is differences between subgroups performing at the highest levels
Massachusetts has some of the highest excellence gaps for low income students

Social emotional well being of advanced and gifted students via survey
Black and Hispanic students reported less positive school climates, less support
students with disabilities reported less positive climates, lower engagement, less support
which I would think is universally true

and now we have a remote presentation from Center for Talent Development
"implementation of evidence-based practices"
"a continuum of services"
Talent development happens over time and student needs vary 
each child receives "a challenging and enriching education"
we now have a crosswalk that these out of state remote presenters have created of the Massachusetts MTSS model with their "continuum of services" model
This is a mesmerizing waste of time of a presentation.
some students we don't know are gifted until they have things that make them interested

Eric Plankey sees overlap with student interest in vocational educational: students with high interest are those who should be getting in
Moriarty: MTSS, early literacy; concept can transfer to gifted and talented
Stewart: family engagement

so all of that took two hours. Then they took a half hour plus break. Then they came back.

Then they did this for another hour. I do not have the will to summarize another hour here. 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note that comments on this blog are moderated.