Parents question Pennsylvania proposals for gifted students
Pennsylvania is taking steps to make gifted education available to more students, but that has done little to quell long-standing tension between parents and school districts over how the state's brightest are educated. The proposed changes on course to become final this summer make clear that districts must use more than an IQ score to identify gifted students—as most other states do. Just how much impact the clarification will have is uncertain. State officials had no estimate of how many more students would be identified or the potential cost to districts. While most area school administrators interviewed said they already use more than an IQ score to evaluate students, education advocates disagree. The tension between gifted-education advocates and public school districts exists across the country as districts grapple to raise the achievement of failing students, a requirement under the No Child Left Behind law. "What do you do with a child who is ahead in a No Child Left Behind world?" asked Rose Jacobs, a member of the Bensalem School Board in Bucks County and the eastern region affiliate coordinator for the Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE), an advocacy group for parents and teachers of gifted students.
The regulation changes—developed with input from parent advocates—also require the state education department to set a schedule for auditing districts for compliance. And they require that teachers are assigned fewer gifted students starting in 2010. The law reduces the allowable number from 75 students to 65 per teacher. Some parents are skeptical that the new rules will help their children. "There's neither a carrot nor a stick for a district to comply," said Joe Brouch, a parent in the North Penn district. "It's up to the parents to file legal action." The law has no provision to cover legal fees for parents even if they win. And, no on-site monitoring is required to see if programs are meeting student needs, parents complain. "They look at paper compliance, not appropriateness of programs," said Felicia Hurewitz, a Haverford Township School District parent and board member with Pennsylvanians for the Education of Gifted Students, another advocacy group.
The federal government doesn't require that gifted students be identified or served, leaving that decision to the states. "It's nice to know there's a big state that has this on the radar screen," said Jane Clarenbach, director of public education for the National Association for Gifted Children. The association estimates that 6 percent of the student population in the United States should be identified as academically "gifted," but only 50% to 70% of them receive services. Not identifying a student can deny them an adequate education, parents say. Emily Leader, deputy chief counsel of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said school districts comply with the law when providing gifted education, but that doesn't equate with "the absolutely best thing we could possibly do. We wish we had the money and the resources to do that."
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/27/08, By Susan Snyder