ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 1996 TAG: 9612100004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Guest Column
At a Montgomery County School Board meeting, members of the Gifted Advisory Committee presented an annual report that raised concerns over what they saw as unmet needs of gifted middle school pupils.
Blacksburg Middle School staff members who heard the remarks shared concerns with their colleagues and drafted a response. After conferring with a committee of parents and faculty, they decided to share the response with the School Board and the public to encourage a healthy dialogue and set the record straight.
In their presentation, John Ogburn and Joe Merola of the Gifted Advisory Committee questioned whether middle schools were appropriately differentiating for gifted pupils. Any pupil gifted in reading or math receives an education plan that is communicated to the parents. Merola suggested that in the past these plans were inadequate and poorly written, though he said teachers now are receiving guidance from the division's gifted office. "When parents compared notes about their children's' [plans]," he said, they found there was no differentiation. He also stated that, according to pupils, what was in their plans was "what everybody does in the class."
Blacksburg Middle School this fall sent plans home to parents of gifted students. These plans, as has been the practice, were forwarded to the gifted office for review. There has been a shift in personnel in that office, and perhaps that shift has not allowed time for the new training that Merola suggested. The faculty welcomes more information on Merola's comments about inadequate and poorly written plans because they have received no such feedback.
Moreover, parents are encouraged to call a child's teachers or the administration if they have concerns about the appropriateness of their child's plan. The plan should keep parents informed of their child's instructional plan, not to inform them of how that plan differs from the plan of every other child. The question should be "is my child receiving a challenging program and is that challenging program indicated in his/her [plan]?"
Ogburn and Merola reported finding teachers' training lacking in gifted education. They suggested gifted students be clustered with certain teachers so the Gifted Office would have fewer teachers to support.
Traditionally, middle school teachers and administrators have participated in training for teaching gifted students. BMS teachers would welcome further staff development in interdisciplinary instruction, learning styles, and instructional differentiation. Teachers themselves are continual learners.
Many parents have voiced concern over segregation of their gifted children into a math sequence that leads pupils toward a high school credit course in seventh grade or to a repeat of the pre-algebra class. The end result is that we have pre-algebra sections with students who are both gifted and those who are not. We even have sixth-grade pupils taking high school algebra through individualized schedules meant to offer academic rigor.
A faculty concern not addressed by the Gifted Advisory Committee is the challenge posed by the disproportionate number of Blacksburg Middle School pupils identified as gifted.
Nationally, one can expect 2 percent to 5 percent of the population to be gifted. At Blacksburg Middle, approximately 33 percent of each grade are identified gifted. Once identified as gifted, one remains in a challenging academic program.
Ogburn and Merola called for honors courses at middle school, similar to courses offered at the high school. The implication is that the Gifted Advisory Committee is advocating a junior high school model rather than a middle school program.
In 1990, an accreditation committee recommended to BMS that the school take "immediate steps" to comply with the middle school philosophy and avoid tracking, in which students are inflexibly assigned to courses, based on some measure of their ability or achievement.
Just this past June, a visiting committee commended BMS for its outstanding middle school program, based on current national research. This program included team teaching, grouping pupils of varied abilities, interdisciplinary teaching, and strong academic skills programs. The staff is committed to this program.
The faculty of Blacksburg Middle School and its faculty-parent committee encourage dialogue on these issues. The faculty has sponsored community dialogues to further communication. Interested community members may call the school at 951-5716 for information about upcoming topics.
Blacksburg Middle School Faculty and the BMS Site-Based Committee
Blacksburg
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