Give gifted kids what they deserve

The Fordham Institute's recent report on gifted education didn't go unnoticed among leaders in Tallahassee.

"I agree with the underlying premise," said state Rep. John Legg, vice chairman of the House K-12 Committee. "The gifted kids are not getting the attention they deserve because the focus is being placed elsewhere. ... We're becoming the champions of mediocrity."

Legg tried to change Florida's gifted education laws so they would ensure all parents have equal access to information about course offerings and have all schools report how they spend their funding for gifted education. The National Association for Gifted Children applauded the effort behind HB 297, which died in what Legg called the "political crossfire of session."

He plans to revive the idea, noting it had bipartisan support in the House, at least. "It's the first bill I'm going to file if I get reelected," Legg told the Gradebook. "We've got it drafted and ready to go."

Which students are left behind? The brightest

No Child Left Behind has moved the needle for struggling students. But it hasn't done much for those who excel, says a report released today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The think tank found while the bottom 10 percent of students have made solid academic gains in recent years, the gains for the top 10 percent have been minimal.

Fordham isn't alone in raising troubling questions about this potential downside to accountability. Teachers worry about it all the time, as this 2006 St. Petersburg Times poll story showed. But the new report is sure to put more of a spotlight on an issue that hasn't gotten enough attention. Both the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act and Florida's accountability system force schools to focus more on the students at the bottom, who are disproportionately poor and minority. But is there a tradeoff?

The wonks boil it down to this: Can schools be excellent and equitable at the same time?

Gifted group disappointed by Florida

The National Association for Gifted Children had high hopes that Florida might have taken the lead in making sure all gifted students receive instruction from teachers specifically trained to meet their needs.

"To give an idea of how large this would have been, today only four states require annual staff development hours in gifted education for regular classroom teachers," association spokesman Nick Manetto wrote to the Gradebook.

But HB 297, sponsored by state Rep. John Legg, failed to make it through the Senate.

The problem is most dire for economically challenged communities, which often struggle to provide services beyond basic education, Manetto wrote. "Legg's bill would have helped ensure a more even distribution of gifted education and that all teachers have at least some training in the field, a big boost for students living in economically challenged locales."

The group plans to keep watching and advocating for such legislation in coming years. Interested in learning more about gifted ed? The NAGC will have its annual conference in Tampa this fall.

A weekend interview with ...

... Cindy Gustafson, president of Partners Allied for Gifted Education and Support in Hernando County. Gustafson talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about Hernando's move to centralize gifted education into a single K-8 school.

When the idea came up to create this plan, where were you on that?

Well, I can tell you how it came about. ... Because we are a support group, basically the people who call us are having problems, issues or concerns. So we were hearing all the negatives, none of the positives. Our district had gone to a decentralized type of situation. They had originally had gifted housed under the district offices, the teachers all reported to one person. Then they parceled it out to the various schools. So you had principals hiring different teachers. ... You had 19 different programs at 19 different schools. In the middle schools, the only thing they offered was one period of language arts. That's it. High school, they only offered gifted English. Nothing else. It had just kind of deteriorated over time.

By the time we came into the picture, there weren't too many people happy with what was going on. Which was instrumental in our efforts. Basically, it spurred us on to do some research, determine the history of how things had been going with gifted. And that's when we noticed in going through the St. Pete Times archives, thank you very much, that Mr. (Jim) Malcolm had over the years been dropping, well, actually kind of asking for a gifted center.

So you contacted Mr. Malcolm then?

We called him. We were like, In '02, in '99, in '03, in '06, you keep bringing up this gifted center. ... Has there been any other movement on it other than what's been in the paper? You know, stuff behind the scenes? And he said, well, sadly, there hasn't been. And we asked if we could meet with him. And he said, sure. And then in the interim ... we got with all the gifted teachers in the county and did a little anonymous survey.

We promised them anonymity, told them we would be meeting with a School Board member, and said, you know, what do you think the strengths are in the current program. What are the concerns you have presently? And any recommendations. Pretty much everyone agreed on two or three main things, and then of course we had additional concerns that weren't uniform. ... The fact that it was decentralized rather than centralized, and the fact that there wasn't any sort of comprehensive, cohesive curriculum - you had a lot of overlap, you had a lot of duplication.

We presented that information to Mr. Malcolm. And his response was, Okay, we have 19 different schools doing 19 different things and all the problems inherent with that. Hmmmm. What can we do about this? He's like, said, I don't think that's surmountable. The only way we're going to be able to improve things and make a difference is if we have all the gifted children in one center. ...

Do you feel like the answer of that gifted center is the right one ... to all the questions you have been raising about the gifted program? Because I think one of the things I would think about is, let's say the gifted center is too far away and now my school doesn't have any gifted program.

Gifted in Florida "all over the board"

If you want to know how much school districts spend on gifted education, many district officials can't tell you. That's one of the many findings in a recently released OPPAGA report.

The report, conducted at the Legislature's request, indicates that many Florida district's don't track their gifted funding costs or expenditures. It's just mixed in with special education funding. Many parents don't even know that their gifted students fall under exceptional student education and can get protections as a result of it.

State Rep. John Legg, R-New Port Richey, has bill on the issue (HB 297). He suggests that the report and its recommendation - to study the issue more - doesn't go nearly far enough.

"It was very helpful, but it just confirmed what we already knew, that gifted programs are all over the board in the state of Florida," Legg said. "I agree with the recommendations but I think we need to go further."

His bill aims to overhaul the state's gifted program, adding such provisions as universal screening of all students and changing the accounting structure for easier tracking of whether the money follows the students. He presented the bill to two committees last week in hopes of easing the path to adoption.

"I'm definitely willing to compromise," Legg told the Gradebook."I'm hoping to have a revision with the committees' input in a week to two weeks."

More focus on gifted education

With the mandates of No Child Left Behind in place, some observers note it's become too easy to pay all the attention to the students who are lagging behind. Schools get more credit for bringing their performance up, while the high achievers usually do well without any extra assistance.

But that's not the same thing as actually helping top students to reach higher. And Florida state Rep. John Legg, vice chairman of the House K-12 Education Committee, wants to try to put a brighter light on the needs of those children.

So he's filed a bill (HB 297) that aims to provide better services to gifted and academically talented students. Among the highlights, the bill would:

• Make screening for gifted programs available to all students upon written request by a parent or teacher.
• Evaluate all students in the program at least every three years to determine whether the program is benefiting the students.
• Include gifted and academically talented instruction in the state-mandated teacher preparation program.
• Require school districts to identify its budget for gifted instruction. (The amount currently gets lumped in with special education.)

Legg, a teacher who runs a charter school in Port Richey, has been working with gifted advocates since early fall to get the kinks out of his bill. He still doesn't have a senator offering the measure on the other side of the Legislature.

Gifted education in sights

Last time Florida lawmakers tried to change funding for gifted education, the advocates came out of the woodwork to beat the proposed bill into submission. This time around, the folks who want to alter the system are reaching out to the parent groups early.

Rep. John Legg (left), vice chairman of the House K-12 Education Committee, is working with Senate Education Appropriations chairman Steve Wise to craft a bill that would hold school districts to a higher standard when it comes to gifted programs. Their proposal, still in drafting, would force districts to keep track of how they are spending money for gifted education. Right now, it's just a chunk of special education funding, and most districts can't (won't?) say how the cash gets divided, or which academic programs get the money.

Too often, Legg said, parents will say their children are classified as "gifted," but the district gives them maybe an hour a week of pull-out attention, yet the districts get full funding for gifted education.

"I'm saying, they better get the programs you're saying they get, because we're paying for them," Legg told the Gradebook.

The bill also would require screening of all students to determine whether they are gifted, rather than wait for a parent or teacher to ask for the testing.

Already, parent groups have seen a version and made recommendations about training for teachers of gifted kids, sending the bill writers back to their computers. Legg said he hopes to file a working draft in November, and then hold lots of public hearings, to ensure what ultimately emerges is something most people who care can live with. But one thing is clear, he said: "The national trend is that we've dropped the ball when it comes to our gifted kids."

And the time, it seems, has come to change that.

Today's news

SON BENCHED, PRINCIPAL HOWLS: Coaches say they're harassed, now they cry foul. The decision to sit the son of Countryside High's principal was based on his inability to hit the ball, say the coaches, who have resigned and filed a complaint with the Pinellas school district against the man. The principal denies any wrongdoing.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? With a little guidance, Florida eighth graders are trying to figure out what major to choose for high school. A visit to one Tampa middle school reveals that they're treating the task like, well, middle school kids. To read the story, click here.

GIVE IT BACK: Nearly 350 Palm Beach teachers have to write their school district a check after the district payroll department makes a $900,000 error, paying them too much. The average amount: $2,600. The new payroll system has made other mistakes, too, since going into effect in July, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Here's the Palm Beach Post version.

GIFTED FUNDING FROZEN: Lawmakers appear settled on capping, rather than eliminating, funding for high school gifted programs. Parents and students are relieved, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

MORE EDUCATION BUDGET NEWS: There's not any more money for teacher performance pay, the Miami Herald reports, but there is some extra for raises. University and college tuition will rise 5 percent, despite the governor's wish to keep the amount the same.

NO MORE VALS AND SALS: The Palm Beach school district would give college-style honors, like magna cum laude,  rather than focus on No. 1 and No. 2 under a proposal from superintendent Art Johnson. The battle for the top spot has gotten too intense for Johnson's taste, the Palm Beach Post reports.

SENIORITIS SETS IN: They were supposed to be in class. Instead, they decided to party at a friend's house. The 22 D.C.-area seniors, and a couple of underclassmen, got suspended, the Washington Post reports.

Today's news

SHE STILL WANTS TO TEACH: The state is poised to take away Jennifer Porter's teaching certificate. The former Tampa dance teacher, who fled a hit and run that killed two children and injured two others, says she will fight the effort.

CALL HER EEYORE: Pasco County School Board member Cathi Martin has missed half of the board meetings held since September. But don't think she's ignoring her duties. She's had a string of bad luck that you wouldn't wish on an enemy. To read our story, click here. To read a transcript of her eight-minute explanation, delivered at a board meeting Tuesday, click here.

DOING THE RIGHT THING: The 7-year-old knew he had something "very dangerous" in his pocket. So he gave the $8,900 worth of crack to the principal of his Tampa elementary school. Believe it or not, he's not being subjected to a zero tolerance policy. He's getting praise for his decision, and gets to stay in school.

GIFTED ADVOCATES: Fearing their children weren't getting what they need in school, a group of Hernando County parents of gifted children form a support and advocacy group.

QUIET RESIGNATION: He chance for reappointment almost none, embattled FAMU board chair Challis Lowe withdraws her application.

CONTINUED REACTION TO SHOOTING: State universities and lawmakers are still looking for ways to be prepared in case they have to deal with a massacre like the one at Virginia Tech this week. The biggest improvements are expected in communications.

LOSING FEDERAL AID: Florida school districts will get about $58-million less in Title I funding, which supports the education of low-income children, the Herald-Tribune reports. Officials begin seeking ways to ensure the money that remains gets to the classroom.

It's not over

Advocates for gifted education aren't sitting by passively waiting for lawmakers to iron out an agreement on how to fund high school gifted students. They've taken a closer look at what the Senate has done, and they're none too pleased. While they thought they were getting a cap on the money, what they're reading in the Senate bill is no guarantee money that high school gifted kids would get any funding at all. So they're still pushing, but for the House version of events that retains "gifted" under the exceptional education umbrella, freezes (not eliminates) funding at this year's level, and calls for OPPAGA to review the state of the gifted education budget. To read the Florida Gifted Network's full analysis and alert, click here.

Today's news

DEALING WITH REALITY: The rules say that students must keep their cell phones off and out of sight during classes. Like that happens. Really, kids - especially teens - text whenever they can. Pinellas school officials know that, and they're considering an "acceptable use" policy instead. Interesting that on the east coast, Palm Beach County is looking at an all-out ban because of cyber-bullying concerns. Wonder who's right.

ELECTED COMMISSIONER DEBATE: The Senate vote to put the education commissioner back in the Cabinet and on the ballot crossed party lines, with "accountability" the key phrase being tossed about. But some refused to join in, saying the voters decided in 1998 they didn't want to vote anymore.

UF FEE STALLS: Senate Higher Ed chair Evelyn Lynn says the effort to charge students $500 per semester doesn't have enough support. Even supporters acknowledge it's "time to move on."

MEETING PEN PALS: For months, the Pasco Middle students had used e-mail to share thoughts on culture, school and family with students in Nanjing, China. They finally met face-to-face, thanks to Internet teleconferencing, on Friday. "It brought passion to the classroom," effused assistant principal Laurie Johnson.

GIFTED FUNDING: Florida lawmakers made the right call by asking for a review of how money for gifted education gets spent, the Herald-Tribune editorializes. Here's the Charlotte Sun-Herald's take on how the shift took place.

NOT DEAD YET: A Jacksonville-area House member plans one last maneuver to give schools the flexibility to start classes earlier than two weeks before Labor Day, the Florida Times-Union reports. A colleague on the Senate side supports the move, saying "the academic achievement of our students is our highest priority, not tourism."

SUPERINTENDENT FIRED: The Department of Juvenile Justice has dismissed the acting superintendent of the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna amid an investigation into the abuse of a youth, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

ABSTINENCE CLASSES DON'T MATTER: A national report finds that kids who took abstinence-only sex education classes still had sex at the same age, on average, as kids who didn't the Associated Press reports.

Today's news

CONSEQUENCE STANDS: The Pinellas County kid who mooned his teacher, got transferred to a new high school and then sued will have to live with the results, a judge rules. In fact, the judge says, he's lucky the punishment wasn't worse.

THEY SING, TOO: By day, they teach. But some of the Pine View Middle School teachers in Land O'Lakes are karaoke addicts by night. (Some are actually good, too.) They merge their loves to raise money for cancer research with a school version of American Idol. Some of the kids are tougher judges than Simon.

ON THE OP-ED PAGES: Sure, Wal-Mart can build a supercenter just steps from a school complex. But Hernando County officials ought to think hard about whether it's best for the youth before approving the project, guest columnist Arnold Silver writes.

PASCO CHARTER NEWS: The school district recommends closure of one charter school, citing irreparable financial problems, and denial of the proposed expansion of another.

BAD TEACHER: Charles F. Taylor was a popular teacher at Tyrone Middle in St. Petersburg. But he also appears to have enjoyed child pornography while at home.

PARENTS SWAY GIFTED DEBATE: The Gradebook has detailed the Legislature's changing winds on how to fund gifted education for next year. Active Sarasota parents played a big role in the debate, the Herald-Tribune reports.

VOUCHER RALLY: Thousands show up in Tallahassee to support school choice, the Florida Times-Union reports.

WARFORD FOR COMMISSIONER: Ousted by and highly critical of the Bush administration, former K-12 chancellor Jim Warford is a leading candidate to take over the Department of Education, the Palm Beach Post reports.

CALI CLASS SIZE SCANDAL GROWS: Santa Ana (Cal.) school officials said the phantom classes and other misstatements designed to get class-size reduction funds were limited to the elementary level. Now it turns out there were problems in the ninth grade, too, the LA Times reports.

The latest on gifted

The House today unanimously passed the Senate's version of the bill that gifted education advocates have been watching closely. SB 1046, which the Senate unanimously adopted earlier in the day, freezes funding levels for high school gifted students at this year's levels, instead of killing it outright, as had been the original plan. Maybe all the pressure from parents who have high achieving kids made a difference, after all. The bill still needs Gov. Charlie Crist's approval.

CLARIFICATION: For the record, the Florida Gifted Network makes clear that the House and Senate have the same goals in mind - capping high school gifted funding and charging OPPAGA to look into the way gifted money gets spent - but they still need to conference over the exact bill language. Sorry for any confusion.

Shifting on gifted

The bill that has advocates for gifted education in an uproar got amended in the Florida Senate today. The amendment would cap funding for gifted high school students at this year's level, rather than eliminating the money for gifted education in high school altogether, as originally proposed. Bill sponsor Sen. Stephen Wise said he also would be asking the Legislature's auditing wing, OPPAGA, to look into how the gifted funding is being spent and whether high school students are "double dipping" by getting money for gifted and other special programs. The Senate still must have a final reading on the bill.

The House has yet to vote on its version of the bill. Several amendments have been filed, including one that would similarly cap high school gifted funding.

And handwringing among the advocates continues.

Last-ditch effort

The Florida House and Senate are moving fast to remove gifted education funding from high schools. Votes are slated for this week. So the Florida Gifted Network is making one last stab at preserving the funding. They've sent out another alert asking supporters to educate lawmakers on talking points, like how there will not be double dipping on the system. To read their report, click here. The Senate vote on SB 1046 is schedule for Wednesday. The House is taking amendments on HB 7081 until 5 p.m. today.

7:15 p.m. UPDATE: The Florida Gifted Network is reporting that amendments to these bills are floating that might divide the once identical approaches of the Senate and House. The group's leaders are supporting anything that would postpone action. They plan to send out more alerts as they gather more information.

Going, going, gone?

The Senate plan (SB 1046) to limit gifted education funding to kindergarten through eighth grade is picking up steam, as key House leaders plan to follow that lead.

"We are going to pick up that language from the Senate and do the same thing, and focus the weighted funding on K-8," House Schools and Learning Council chairman Joe Pickens told the Gradebook. "High schools in Florida just use AP (Advanced Placement) and IB (International Baccalaureate) and dual enrollment and ACE (Access to College Education) programs for their rigorous curriculum, and they already get weighted funding for those."

To give them even more money for each student labeled gifted is unnecessary, he said.

Rep. John Legg, vice chairman of the Education Innovation and Career Preparation Committee, said the notion of gifted courses at the high schools has become almost a "non-issue" because students can take all the other high-level programs. The money could be better used in elementary and middle schools that have fewer alternatives, he added.

"We definitely need to look at this," Legg said. "They have a very valid point."

Still not gifted

Well, if people are protesting the the idea of limiting gifted education funding to kindergarten through middle school, Florida senators aren't getting the message. The Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Committee unanimously approved SB 1046 this morning without deleting the five words that would stop the money from supporting high school gifted programs. The Florida Association for the Gifted is known for its tenacity, though, and the bill still has a few more stops before becoming law. Some members of the House, in fact, have expressed a desire to improve rather than restrict gifted education. Stay tuned.

Aren't they gifted, too?

The proposed addition of five words to the Florida Education Code is raising hackles among gifted students and educators around the state. The words are "in grades K through 8," and they would amend the legal definition of who's considered gifted in Florida schools. Translation: high school students no longer would qualify for gifted education funding.

Needless to say, the Florida Association for the Gifted vehemently opposes this part of Senate Bill 1046. So the group is calling out its forces to urge lawmakers to kill the language as the bill goes to the Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning. "While secondary programs do currently face challenges in funding as well as other areas, eliminating these students from the rule is not a viable solution," the group states in an alert that went to supporters today.

Today's news

GOVERNOR P.E.: Charlie Crist visited Tampa to tout his plans for all elementary school kids to have 30 minutes of physical activity daily. Excuses about money don't bug him. "How much is it costing us, and more importantly our young people, not to be encouraging them?" he said.

PART OF THE EXPERIMENT: Children at Lake Myrtle Elementary in Pasco County love the days they get to discover new things in the school science lab. Little do they know they're part of a study, too, into the best way to teach science in the youngest grades.

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE: If you have any question that kids learning science matters, look no farther than St. Johns County. That's where two high school students determined that the pesticides from cabbage farms are contaminating the air, prompting the local government to investigate.

PETS IN SCHOOL: Not during classes, though. Pinellas County schools will let family pets into three schools when they're being used as storm shelters.

CHARTER SCHOOL REPORT: The Orlando Sentinel is in its third day of reporting on the status of charter schools in Florida. The reporters find a lack of state accountability, and several schools that take advantage. Check out the entire project here.

CLASS SIZE, AGAIN: The Florida House plans to take one more shot at scaling back the class-size amendment, which moves to a classroom count next year, the Gainesville Sun reports.

EXPANDING GIFTED COURSES: Miami-Dade schools seek to reach a more diverse set of students with its gifted programs, noting that minority and low-income students are underrepresented in the classes, the Miami Herald reports. It's a problem across the state and nation.

IS THAT TEST VALID? That's not an easy question to answer, the Washington Post reports. But it's an important one, as NCLB requires tests that provide reliable and valid data to measure annual student progress.