Here, again, we face multiple opinions on tracking, but in a new and improved light: gifted and talented programs. On November 20, 2007, the Board of Education of Bartlesville, Oklahoma discussed just such a plan.
Rusty Barnett championed the program, saying
“If gifted children, like all children, need a classroom experience targeted to their ability level, how shall we provide that for them?…Grouping programs, like what we’re talking about, are the best way to meet the needs of the gifted student and it doesn’t have a negative effect on the regular classroom student. And finally, it’s not tracking, it’s not like the old days.”
Well, Mr. Barnett, who exactly ever said that all children need a classroom experience targeted to their ability level? Mr. Barnett, could you please give some evidence to support your claims before begging the question? I’m not sure exactly what Rusty means by “targeted to their ability level,” but it sounds questionable to me. Surely there must be a way of allowing children specialized learning without disconnecting them from other children’s experiences. How relevant is a child’s learning, anyways, if it’s isolated from the child’s own peers’ instruction and experience?
Furthermore, Mr. Barnett, where do you get the idea that separating gifted students doesn’t negatively effect “the regular classroom student”? I would suspect that learning with more intelligent people would better the learning…and this is not an unfounded suspicion: I form my speculations from elementary-, secondary-, and college-classrooms. Also, how, exactly, does this grouping differ from your stilted, old-fashioned tracking system? You really need to put some backing into your claims, Mr. Barnett. I see no evidence that you have evidence for anything you said here.
There were a few voices against the program. One was Lori Watkins, a Bartlesville teacher, who spoke out, arguing:
“Your sadly misplaced idea of creating an exclusionary classroom for our gifted children is way behind times…We do not think it is right, let alone necessary, to push these children into advanced levels beyond their developmental readiness and one big factor of readiness is age.”
Hmmm….I’m not sure that this is the response I’d like to hear, Ms. Watkins. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the proposed programs smacks of exclusion and educational isolation and elitism, I’m with you there 100%. However, Ms. Watkins, what’s all this about pushing children into advanced levels beyond their developmental readiness? Honestly, if you can convince me that pushing children into advanced levels is a bad thing, then I’m all for tracking! If we don’t want our students pushed, I say construct different school buildings for the gifted, the regular, and the remedial! Goodness. Ms. Watkins, I don’t understand your motives at all. Are you so set against tracking that you’d put a halt to pushing the “gifted children”? “Developmental Readiness” my…whatever…what does that mean, anyway? I’m surprised Mr. Barnett didn’t use those terms against his “regular classroom student.”
Poor Mr. Barnett and Ms. Watkins. I’m afraid they’ve met the wrath of a tired, over-Thanksgivinged undergrad approaching the end of the semester. Thank you for listening to my de-stressing session, and thank you, Mr. Barnett and Ms. Watkins, for being such thoughtful punching bags.
Full article here.
“School board hears from public on gifted and talented classes”
By Jessica Miller
13 responses so far ↓
1 weathesh // Nov 26, 2007 at 5:12 am
I love the sarcasim and the way that you speak directly to the people in the article. I totally agree with you here. Both of these people are on two different ends of the spectrum. One wants to seperate students into smart and dumb classrooms, which contrary to his beliefs, will negatively affect the self-esteem of the students. As for Ms. Watkins, she doesn’t want to push the over-achieving students, which is not much better than Mr. Bartlett. Sure, it would be easier for teachers to use either of these methods, as they would only have to accommodate one particular types of student: average. An educator’s job is not to make it easier for themselves but to educate these students and to prepare them for the real world by any means necessary. Speaking of preparing students for the real world, how can that been done effectively with a tracked classroom? In the real world, ine has to work with people of all different ability levels. In my opinion, tracked classrooms are one-dimensional and only expose students to others that are just like them. It doesn’t give students a sense of what life is really like and it also keeps teachers from upholding their promise of educating students for the world outside of school.
2 My Thoughts on the Blogs of Others! at As You Like It // Nov 26, 2007 at 7:03 am
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3 eric // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:57 pm
A special and gifted classroom. Man that sounds like something that should be made fun of coming from any synical high schooler or any misinformed middle schooler. If this is a high school setting, the student should be advised to be in A.P. courses, or even college courses. If it is a middle school setting, teachers should make sure to keep the gifted kids busy (not busy work) challanging them to excel. The whole idea shouldn’t be isolating kids in smarter classes, it should be teachers are more equiped to help a student grow. Plus, when I think of gifted kids grouped together, I think of Malcolm in the Middle and how much crap those poor kids get.
4 » Fellow Classmate’s I have Responded to The Idea Men are Plotting… // Nov 28, 2007 at 4:13 pm
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5 Johnathon Giarmo // Dec 1, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I must admit that I am somewhat ignorant to this topic but I think that it’s something worth carefully considering. Is it better for gifted children to be put in classes that require more of them? I understand that if we say yes, then we open ourselves up for saying that we approve of tracking , but does this make some sense? Will children who are unchallenged become bored with their current subject. I have often heard stories of children disrupting in the classroom not because their are particularly bad kids, but merely bored with the progress the class is making.
So in this case what do we as educators do? Do we simply allow the child to be unchallenged or do we make special accommodations within or own classroom. What if we can’t make the accommodations because we don’t have time what do we do then? Do we simply allow the student to remain stagnant?
I think that, in this case, something has to be done for that student. Whether that means simply moving them up to a class that can help them, or making special accommodations in the classroom.
6 Rusty // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:25 am
Jessica,
Had you been at the meeting, you would have found that I had available a full bibliography of current research supporting EVERY point I made. The “other side” (shouldn’t we ALL be on the kid’s side?) argued from a position of emotion and ignorance on the subject, as do you. I really hope that you are NOT an education undergrad, as your preparation for entering the tracking field is sadly lacking. You are hung up on the misguided and out-of-date notion that GT education is equivalent to the “tracking” of old. It fundamentally is not. If you’d care to read up a little on the subject, I’d suggest that you start with the resources to be found at www.nagc.org or the Gifted Education section of the Oklahoma State department of Education website. I’d also be happy to email you the bibliography from my presentation (not just the snippet that made the paper). I am not , as you imply, against the regular classroom student. On the contrary: I am FOR the APPROPRIATE level and pacing of instruction for ALL students. As it stands, we are doing a good job with the “average” kids (NOT “dumb”, weathesh) but we are simply NOT meeting the needs of the gifted kids there. This is an equity issue, folks. EVERY student deserves to have the opportunity to make a years’ progress FROM WHERE THEY STARTED in any given year. The research is CLEAR that this DOES NOT HAPPEN when gifted kids are forgotten in a “regular” classroom.
Rusty
7 Rusty // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:27 am
Typo: “tracking field” should read “teaching field” - don’t try to cut/paste when angry ;)
Rusty
8 imgrundc // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:47 am
Rusty,
Unfortunately, I was not in attendance at the Bartlesville meeting; I only read the article I found online by Jessica Miller (my name’s Christina, by the way; the “Jessica Miller” at the end of my post was only a citation to her article, sorry). I suppose that if I were there, I would have seen even more evidence from both “sides,” so it would be hard for me to guess at how I’d respond then. However, from my experience, I’ve seen mostly negative results from tracking programs and IB programs (I witnessed these results both secondarily and primarily); from the article, your proposal seemed very like other programs that I’ve witnessed failing.
I don’t want you to think that I’m against gifted and talented children; your proposal’s opponents’ words also disturbed me (as I said in the article), and I also have experience watching gifted students hung out to dry. It’s a very complex issue, one that doesn’t seem to have easy fixes, and Ms. Miller’s article didn’t show me an ideal solution.
I hope my sarcasm (as weathash put it) didn’t distress you too much. Thanks for responding to my post (parts of it WERE directed at you). Good luck in Bartlesville, and I hope you all find a solution to the problems there!
-Christina
P.S. It may trouble you–I doubt it will surprise you– to know that I am an education undergrad
9 Rachel Aren // Dec 3, 2007 at 7:37 pm
An educator’s job is to educate. Like I posted on Katie’s site, I think that if an edcator attempts to seperate the groups of stduents, they would be doing a dis-service by discourage the seemingly less intelligent stdents, thus not doing their job.
Anyway, I don’t think that seperating these students will be benificial, espically in high shool. High School students can be mean, can you imange the tortue? I think that teachers should just more prepared to give these studnets challenging material in the classroom.
10 Rusty // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Christina,
Thanks for your reasoned reply. The issue is about GT education in an elementary setting. I was (before I elected to stay home as a full time at-home-dad) a teacher in a high school with an IB program, so I understand the issues. I also keep up with the research and attend national meetings on gifted education. In the interest of full disclosure, it must be said that I am sticking up for the needs of my own children…both of whom have been identified by the state as “gifted”. My daughter was tested (by the school) as reading on the college level in FOURTH GRADE…do you really think she is being challenged in the regular classroom? At least they have grade-skipped her in math, and it has made a world of difference in her attitude towards school.
I truly encourage you to read the teacher resources on the websites I suggested. I would also be happy to send you the text and bibliography of my talk to the school board. The research is pretty clear…the gifted kids DON’T learn in the regular classroom, and the “average” kids DON’T look to them as role models and don’t suffer in self esteem if the gifted kids aren’t there.
Take care,
Rusty
11 imgrundc // Dec 4, 2007 at 1:35 am
Rusty,
I haven’t really looked into the gifted and talented side of the issue as much, and when I have I mostly get results that speaking without speaking (so to speak). If it’s no trouble, you could send those notes and bibliography to my gmail account: christina.imgrund@gmail.com
I know that it’s good to look at both sides of an issue, and it’d be great to hear from you!
Thanks for viewing and responding to my post,
Christina
12 » comments, comments and more comments! “Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life.” - Brigham Young // Dec 4, 2007 at 8:51 am
[…] Christina’s Blog - Bloodshed in Bartlesville. Like I posted on Katie’s site, I think that if an educator attempts to separate the groups of students, they would be doing a dis-service by discouraging the seemingly less intelligent students, thus not doing their job. […]
13 Rusty // Dec 4, 2007 at 9:59 am
I’ll send you a few files as soon as I can (to your gmail account)…hopefully today. I’ll also send a few web links for you to peruse. Take care!
Rusty
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