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Archive for February, 2009

If You’re in MoCo…Upcoming GT Meetings

Posted in Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Well, better late than never.  Not one but *two* meetings on GT issues are slated for March.   There’s this from the Asian American Parents Advocacy Council:

All are invited to attend a program sponsored by the Asian American Parents Advocacy Council:

“What Does Preserving MCPS’s Commitment to Gifted Education Mean to the Community at Large?”

Thursday, March 5, 7:00-9:00 pm
Wootton High School Media Center
2100 Wootton Parkway, Rockville 20850

Speakers:

  • Marty Creel, Director, MCPS Department of Enriched and Innovative Programs (responsible for GT education)
  • John Hoven, GT advocate and past President, Gifted and Talented Association of Montgomery County (GTA)
  • Preston Rico, AAPAC President

Should be, ahem, interesting.  I feel sorry for Mr. Creel already.  It seems like a large part of his job is to be publicly pummeled by parents late into the evening.

And then there’s this from the MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee:

The MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee is pleased to announce that we have added a meeting to our schedule. It is a forum regarding the global screening process involving students in second grade, and the pilot programs being conducted at two elementary schools to provide services to students without labeling them as gifted.  Participants will include the principals and other stakeholders from Burning Tree and Georgian Forest Elementary Schools and representatives of the MCPS Division of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction.

The meeting will be on Monday, March 16, 2009, at 7:30 pm in the auditorium of the Carver Educational Services Center (CESC), 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850.  The meeting will be open to the public and ample parking is available.

For questions, please contact Susan Joyce Thomas, Chair, MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee.

Background:

On December 16, 2008, the Board of Education issued a “Board Statement about Gifted Student Identification.”  It said, in part,

The global screening process, as required by Policy IOA, Gifted and Talented Education, will be conducted for all second graders this year as it has in past years.

It is correct that Montgomery County Public Schools is conducting a pilot program in two elementary schools–Burning Tree and Georgian Forest–that provides gifted and talented services to students without labeling students. The screening process at these schools–including assessments, staff surveys and parent surveys–is still conducted, but staff does not label students at the end of the process. Students in these two schools still receive the same opportunity for accelerated and enriched instruction as students in schools where the label is still used.

MCPS has been engaging parent and community stakeholders in a robust discussion about the system’s policy on gifted and talented education and will continue to do so. This discussion and parental input will be important as the Board of Education’s Policy Committee considers revisions to the policy some time during 2009.

It is true that among the options that will be considered is eliminating labeling in favor of a services-based model. In this model, students are still screened for their readiness for advanced work and parents are provided the recommendations from the screening so that they are fully informed of their children’s readiness to excel at a higher level. Students are then provided advanced work based on the results of the screening process, consultation with parents, and the ongoing assessment of students’ needs.

I wonder how these “pilots” comport with the MCCPTA’s recently passed Resolution on School System Pilots which resolves ” the Montgomery County Council of PTAs will not support any school pilot programs for students that omit parental input and feedback before any pilot programs begin.”  Hope someone asks whether this was the case at these schools.

[Update:  Almost forgot...MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Advisory Committee holds its meetings on the 2nd Thursday of each month.  The next meeting is Thursday, March 12, 7:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. at the Carver Educational Services Center, Room 127.]

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I Surrender: Twitter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on February 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Okay, I’m in. I held off on the whole Twitter thing for the past year and half. While I was all over Facebook and other social media for work, I just didn’t see the point in my quasi-personal life. Who the hell had the time? But I finally caved for work, and do now see how people are using it creatively and effectively. So SwitchedOnMom is in. Don’t expect daily blow by blow of what I have for breakfast. And don’t expect that I’m going to be following your breakfast exploits either. It’s going to pretty sparse. But I think it could be interesting to Twitter certain upcoming GT meetings, for example. Or not.

Here\’s the link to my Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/SwitchedOnMom.

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Stand and Deliver

Posted in In the News, Learning, School, tagged , on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

File under “What took them so long?”  The New York Times this morning has a story about ergonomic furniture that allows students to sit, stand, perch, wiggle and jiggle.  You can read “Students Stand When Called Up, and When Not” here.

The children in Ms. Brown’s class, and in some others at Marine Elementary School and additional schools nearby, are using a type of adjustable-height school desk, allowing pupils to stand while they work, that Ms. Brown designed with the help of a local ergonomic furniture company two years ago. The stand-up desk’s popularity with children and teachers spread by word of mouth from this small town to schools in Wisconsin, across the St. Croix River. Now orders for the desks are being filled for districts from North Carolina to California.

It’s one of those things that makes one wonder why someone didn’t think of this ages ago.  I mean, what adult would put up with the hard chairs and awkward desks that students have used for decades?

I still am eternally grateful to M.’s third grade teacher, who was completely fine with the fact that she liked to stand over her chair, legs apart, and leaning over her desk.  She just put her toward the back of the room, where it wouldn’t bother anyone, and that was that.

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The Now What

Posted in Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Pity the parents at Eastern. At last night’s meeting you could feel the anger and bewilderment as the realization sank in that this move to a 7 period schedule is a done deal as far as MCPS is concerned.

Made clear last night, no, this was not a result of budget cuts, except perhaps indirectly.  Seventy-seven percent of teachers on staff requested that the scheduling issue be reopened, as is their contractual right, even after a thorough stakeholder consultative process the previous year.  The PTA president actually stood up and apologized to the gathered body of parents and student for heeding advice to have them hold off on their e-mails to the Community Superintendent, School Board members, and other MCPS staff.  The Community Superintendent, for his part, said those e-mails and calls to him wouldn’t have mattered actually, because his role was to see that the contractual process between the teachers and MCPS happened the way it was supposed to…not to influence the outcome.  MCPS leadership acted on the recommendation of the principal, following the process.   Evidently the principal was not able to persuade or muster resources or do whatever it would take for her staff to stick to a schedule that was conducive to the magnet.

With that realization sinking in, that this is a done deal, the conversation shifted to the “what next?”  The principal and Mr. Creel ( who once taught at the magnet), trying to be positive, stated that the program had originally been designed for a 7 period schedule, that it had worked 10 years ago.  It was hinted that things like the music program could possibly be offered after school, which evidently was also done 10 years ago. I guess that was before our area’s killer traffic took hold–a parent protested that her child has a bus ride of 45 minutes to an hour and would get home at 6 p.m.  A student noted that in a straw poll of her music class, only 3 students would remain if the choice of electives came down to music and a language.  The response was a kind of shrug and a statement that parents were going to have to make some hard choices….

[Completely lost:  the irony of *humanities* students losing an elective and possibly having to choose between studying a foreign language and taking an art or music class.]

This attitude, this “well, if you don’t like it, leave or don’t come” attitude angers me.  Why?  Because it abandons any notion that programs like this are meeting a legitimate educational need, that they are programmatic service.  To assume that these kids can just as easily be accommodated in their home middle schools is to assume wrong, (although that’s what MCPS is selling these days).  Especially when students don’t necessarily have the luxury of returning to a high performing school that might possibly provide an appropriate peer group.  It goes to the point of why we have these programs.  If MCPS officials shrug and say, “well leave,” they are as much as saying the whole thing was a crap shoot / lottery ticket in the first place.

MCPS is saying they want to move in the direction of “not labels, but services.”  And yet they are potentially allowing the magnet–a “service” for highly gifted students…highly verbally gifted students (the math magnet’s integrity remains)–to for all intents be dismantled.  Not to be paranoid, but.  MPCS can allow the magnet to wither and die (something some oponents have wished for for a long time) by parents voting with their feet,  and yet come away with clean hands.  It’s rather brilliant, actually.

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A Magnet Program Diminished

Posted in Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 23, 2009 | 13 Comments »

Don’t advocate vociferously at your peril.  That’s what parents at the Humanities and Communication Arts Magnet at Eastern Middle School are learning, belatedly.

On February 10 parents were advised that a decision had been made to move the school from an 8-period block schedule, to 7 periods.  Eastern had been one of the few middle schools still on an 8-period schedule (notably, the Math/Science/Computer Science middle school remains one of them). Upon learning the news the PTA requested a meeting with appropriate MCPS officials to discuss the negotiations and decision, and that meeting is taking place tonight at 6:30 p.m. for one hour with Dr. Heath Morrison, Community Superintendent, and Mr. Marty Creel, Director of the Division of Enriched and Accelerated Instruction in attendance.

The scheduling change is important for the magnet program because the magnet includes an “extra” required class, media, during all three years (Sixth graders are also required to take reading).  With an 8-period block schedule, 7th and 8th grade magnet students can still take the required classes, a foreign language and an additional elective.  By moving to 7 periods, a period–and an elective–are lost.

The implications are significant for arts programming at the school, with students potentially having to give up playing an instrument in a band if they still want to, say, apply to an IB program, which requires the equivalent of a year of high school foreign language study.  Some have suggested that students will have to pursue music instruction outside of school, something many parents simply cannot afford.  And no, the PTA shouldn’t have to step in and offer afterschool enrichment opportunities. Aside from the time issue (some students ride the bus for 45 minutes or more), this should be the school system’s responsibility.

Another impact of a 7-period schedule is significantly shorter class periods. Longer periods allow teachers to go more into depth during each class session and allow for lots of group and student collaboration, one of the hallmarks of the magnet curriculum.  Naturally the schedule change impacts the wider school community too, cutting the opportunity for academic support classes for those students who are struggling and potentially diminishing the elective offerings for the rest.

It’s noteworthy that a very comprehensive and inclusive process was conducted just in the previous academic year at Eastern. The outcome of the decision process was a majority vote of the representative committee in charge to keep the 8-period schedule.

However according to teachers’ union rules, teachers can ask for a decision to be revisited. Some of the teachers were not happy with the outcome and asked for the issue to be reopened, feeling that the previous year’s process wasn’t transparent. More importantly, some felt it unfair that they were teaching six classes in an eight period schedule, while teachers at most other schools teach five classes out of seven.  This, some argued, was making it hard for the school to recruit teachers.

So this year a completely new committee was convened, including no representatives from the previous year’s process.  Also not included:  magnet teachers–despite the fact that magnet students comprise roughly 300 of Eastern’s 800 students.  Also absent:  arts teachers, ESOL teachers, student representatives. And this year’s decision is final and binding for the foreseeable future, according to Larry Bowers (MCPS, Chief Operating Officer) and Stephen Bedford (MCPS Chief Performance Officer).

I hope the parents and students have some pointed questions tonight about the “process”–and the advice they received to hold their fire and let the “process” run its course.

This change is yet another blow to gifted education in the county.  And keep in mind, this is one of the vaunted “services” and “gifted programs” that MCPS says it will continue to provide under its revised Policy IOA on gifted education.  What is particularly painful is that this is happening to the Humanities and Communication Arts program, an area already so woefully under-supported by MCPS.  By weakening the program, even fewer parents will make the choice to apply and send their kids there.  Fewer students, increased pressure to simply do away with the program altogether.

What a depressing way to start off the week.

[P.S. they should have started a Facebook protest months ago...]

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Differentiated Instruction? Implications for GT?

Posted in School, tagged , , , , , , on February 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

For months (if not years) parents in the Special Education community have been cautioning GT parent advocates, “watch what’s happening to us, because your kids are next.”  Well MCPS has just released a new report, Evaluation of the Phase Out of the Secondary Learning Centers: Final Report, and it’s worth a close read.

Differentiation as a strategy is mentioned throughout the report.  It’s the same strategy that MCPS says can be employed successfully to meet the needs of gifted students in heterogeneously grouped classes that are being rolled out in middle school under the Middle School Reform plan.  GT parents have been very skeptical. Now it’s shown they have cause for concern.  Because it’s not working, at least not for special ed kids:

- A majority of classroom professionals who responded to the survey indicated that they have increased their use of differentiation with the inclusion of transitioned students in their classrooms. Differentiated activities were observed in only 27% of the Grade 6 and 23% of the Grades 7–11 classroom observations. (page viii)

- Promote efforts to improve differentiation. Very few differentiated activities were observed, although teachers indicated that they had increased differentiation to meet the needs of the transitioned students in their classrooms. Comments from some school staff members indicated that the composition of their classrooms with transitioned students now included a wider range of abilities to access the curriculum. Therefore, differentiated activities are more important than ever. (page x) [Emphasis added.]

With the inclusion of the transitioned students, it was expected that teachers would need to provide more differentiated instruction (e.g., different activities, formats, or outcomes). Only (27%) of the Grade 6 classes and 23% of the Grades 7–11 classes displayed any differentiated activities at any time during the lesson. Only 8% of the Grade 6 classes and none of the Grades 7–11 classes included differentiated activities throughout the lesson (see Tables E-12a and E-12b). [Emphasis added.] (page 14)

So teachers knew they were supposed to differentiate more, thought they were, but were found not to be.  Also of interest, this statement:

Another limitation is the scarcity of available student outcome measures that can be analyzed across grade levels. Therefore, it is very difficult to show growth that occurs from one year to the next. In the current analysis, only the MAP-R RIT scores were used to measure growth from Grade 5 to Grade 6. Neither MSA scores nor course grades could be used for this purpose. (Emphasis added.)

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Paper Cups and String

Posted in Gifted, School, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »

What’s a parent who wants to be informed about and discuss GT issues in MoCo need to do?

The official media generally lags behind what is actually happening.  MCPS?  Grab your computer mouse/shovel and start digging on their website because it won’t be easy.  Real life face-to-face opportunities–other than the random conversation in the school pick-up circle–are rare, and for the most part stage-managed affairs.   And well, yes, there is this lovely blog, but it’s only one person’s take on things–though you’re welcome to discuss via comments.

No, the Modern 21st Century Solution for many time-pressed yet inquisitive parents seeking up-to-the-minute information is the Yahoo! Group listserv, convenient because many already subscribe to school listservs. But some puzzling things have been going on in GT Listserv Land lately.

The Gifted and Talented Association of Montgomery County’s  GTALetters listserv (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GTAletters/) is the “big daddy” of GT listservs.  Nothing new here.  Open to all, lightly moderated for spam, it’s described thusly:  “Discussion is serious-minded, frank, and occasionally intense.  Topics include advocacy for appropriate instruction in the home school, honors courses and magnet programs, accelerated math, college search, curriculum and assessment, understanding the opposition, charter schools, minority student achievement, and more.” Lots of questions, announcements and wide-ranging discussion.  With 10 years worth of archives, it’s widely linked to and a valuable resource for anyone interested in gaining insight into the recent history of gifted education in the county.

There is also the GTLiaisons listserv (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GTLiaisons/).  This list was created four years ago as a discussion list for “parents, GT Liaisons and all those who are interested in gifted programming to share information about Gifted and Talented Education.”

And finally, there is the  MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MCCPTAGiftedChildCommittee/).  Formed in May 2007, it was originally an “announcements-only” list”for PTA/PTSA GT Liaisons.”

Got all that? Three GT listservs.

Now enter the Washington Post story in mid-December on MCPS “eliminating” the GT “label,” sparking all kinds of parent questions and parent activity.  (Start reading the archives as of 12/16 if you missed it.)  GT advocates began posting information in earnest all over the place.  People–many of them parents new to the issues, or new to the GT Liaison position–began asking questions as they tried to figure out the arcane policy making process, not only of MCPS, but MCCPTA.  And soon some changes started occuring in Listserv Land.

  • In mid-January the settings on the GT Liaisons list were changed so that a reply went to the original recipient…not the entire list…potentially inhibiting the flow of information.  That was fixed after members took note.
  • On February 17th it was announced that the MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee listserv, previously “for PTA/PTSA GT Liaisons” only, would now be “open to anyone interested in the work of the MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee and advocacy related to gifted education.”
  • A day or so later virtually every message in the message archive and every file uploaded by the MCCPTA reps on the GT Liaisons list was deleted.

Weird and puzzling.  Unclear is whether the reps themselves have left the list as well or are still “listening in.”  But in any case, by quietly removing files and messages, GT Liaisons and others on the GT Liaisons list have been denied important information and context about discussions that have taken place over the past four years concerning GT issues.  It should be noted that the newly welcoming MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee has no member-accessible files section and it remains one-way communication from the MCCPTA leadership.

So here’s what we’re left with.  An open to anyone, freewheeling GTA listserv with a clearly stated pro-GT agenda.  A potentially freewheeling discussion listserv mostly for PTA GT Liaisons…but seemingly without any MCCPTA participation…that is difficult to find and that you can be sure MCCPTA isn’t going to be advertising. And the MCCPTA-sanctioned and managed “announcement-only,” one-way communication list.

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Mr. Bean Punjabi Remix

Posted in Uncategorized on February 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Because everyone could use a little Mr. Bean at the end of the week.

more about “Mr.Bean punjabi remix“, posted with vodpod

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