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I am glad to hear that the gap is narrowing, but only if all groups are still doing better each year. If the top performers are standing still or going backward, then the news isn't good.

Debora,

The February 2007 issue of the School Administrator is devoted to the theme "Gifted Education Left Behind." There is also an article in the current issue of the Duke Talent Identification Program titled "RIDING THE WAVE (http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/articles/vol7no3_ev.html):
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While many gifted students are deemed "proficient," they may not be achieving any academic growth over the course of the school year. If every student's growth was assessed from year to year, the testing probably would reveal that gifted students are stagnating or losing ground.

A teacher from a rural school system within North Carolina, recently called to indicate that she had obtained and analyzed gifted student end-of-grade test score data from her school system. Her analysis revealed that 38 percent of elementary school gifted students and 50 percent of middle school gifted students in her district exhibited regression or no growth across the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years. This data is disheartening, especially when you consider that similar results likely can be found in school systems throughout our country.
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This makes sense as most of the time, money and efforts in GC are put into saving the bottom of which some of the kids will eventually drop out anyway. (Much of this due to satisfying NCLB.) We are cheating our top students in meeting their needs and taking them to the levels of their full potentials. Many of our bright students are bored.

Are you now saying that the gifted students in GC aren't challenged? Does that mean that a student that is number 1 in their class doesn't really measure up? So number 2 would really only be in the top 100 in a good school? I thought Terry Grier's efforts to get more kids to take AP classes was to challenge them? Do you have any data to show that GC gifted students aren't getting any growth or are you making that up? I think the Duke Talent project is making references to NC not GC. GC is doing a good job!

The Real Truth

RT,

The GCS Statistician, Dr. Gongshu Zhang, gave an in-depth presentation to the board on January 9 and discussed this very issue. He also made another extensive presentation last year.

Both times he warned that our top performing students are not performing to their potential and the strides made in performance increases are seen with the other student populations - not the highest performing students.

These presentations are online on the GCS website. I encourage you to study them and call Dr. Zhang if you have questions.

His research supports the idea that the number 1 student in a GCS school could very well be ranked much, much lower in other schools outside of this district.

I'm saying many of our younger students are bored as they have to wait in class while teacher assistants and teachers have to spend more time with stuggling students because of all the NCLB rules. I'm saying that bright students shouldn't be placed next to slow students so they have to teach them. That isn't their job. We should have teachers who have the time and the challenging material to stretch then to their full potentials starting at the youngest ages possible. I'm saying bright kids learn on their own, read, teach themselves but think how much more they could know if these children were given the attention we give to the bottom of the ladder.

I'm saying AP classes are challenging as they should be but we need to reach out to more students at an earlier age and grow this potential.

I'm saying Numbersgame is 100% on the money. I heard Dr. Z say the this exact same thing.

You really need to start watching board meetings RT and take notes so you can get your facts straight.

Well if Dr Z said it, then it must be true. The information out of GCS is always accurate. Thanks for informing me Numbersgame.

The Real Truth

I think I'm in love with Terry Grier.

The Real Truth

False poster,

Not the forst time this has happened but someone stole my signature.

The Real Truth

The U.S. Department of Education just released a report comparing different states' 4th and 8th grade reading and math "proficiency" standards to national standards in the NAEP. The study was based on 2005 data.

For both grades and both tests, North Carolina's benchmarks were substantially below the national "basic" standard and even farther below the national "proficient" standard. In fact, North Carolina had the lowest (easiest) standard of any of the states for 8th grade reading and the second lowest for 8th grade math. Renorming has likely made the math tests tougher. Nevertheless, it is discouraging that many students still fail to meet even these easier standards.

Dave,

Thanks for the link. Interesting but troubling data. Nevertheless, we should point out that under Terry Grier's leadership GCS is near the top in NC so I imagine if you compared GCS against the same data as opposed to the State average we would look a lot better. Have you made that comparison?

The Real Truth

RT, do you have data to support the claim GCS is "near the top" according to this SAME comparison (NEAP and the NC pathetically low standards)? Does that mean GCS students are scoring just below the very worst-performing districts in SC, which ranked quite high? Aren't these comparisons about the rigor of the individual state standards, compared to NEAP? If so, isn't it moot if a district does "well" on a "poor" standard?