| |
| From
the West Virginia Department of Education |
| Playing
To Your Strengths |
Vickie Mohnacky
One of the sessions
that I attended at the National Association for Gifted Children
(NAGC) Annual Convention and Exhibit on October 31, 2008,
was titled "Cultivating Healthy Gifted Programs and
Services" by Rebecca D. Eckert, University of Connecticut
and Joan K. Jacobs, Lincoln Public Schools. The presentation
summary stated, "If you have ever worried about the
future of gifted education, you are not alone." Not
that I am worried about the future of gifted education in
West Virginia, but there are concerns being voiced by teachers
and parents with the changing approaches in special education.
So I attended this session to find tips, tools and techniques
for the continued development of gifted education in West
Virginia.
The presenters began
with defining a healthy program (not in any particular order):
State mandated services
Policies and procedures in place
Services provided under a plan
Teacher preparation in gifted education
required
Funding
Achieving students
Buy-in from general education teachers
Student satisfaction
Parent satisfaction
These are a few signs
of an unhealthy program:
Poor community perception (elitism)
Poor school perception (just fun and games)
Only students from high/middle income families
identified
The presenters recommended
taking a positive, proactive approach in building awareness
and support. They suggested answering the question, "What
are we doing well?" and then playing to our strengths.
With this in mind, I began a list for West Virginia:
Gifted services are mandated by state code
Policies and procedures are defined by
state regulations for the education of exceptional children
(Policy 2419) which includes students identified as gifted
Gifted services are covered under an Individualized
Education Program (IEP)
Given state policy and an IEP, students
and parents have procedural safeguards
State special education funding which can
be used for gifted education
99.9 percent of students identified as
gifted score in the mastery and above level on state's standard
test
Teaching endorsement in gifted education
required
Dedicated teachers
State organization
List serve
Web site resources
Reviewing this list, gifted
education in West Virginia has many positive elements. This
does not mean that we ignore problems such as identification
and funding, but in building support, we should identify
what is working and then work for continued growth and development.
|
|
