|
Portland
Public Schools uses a consultative model to address the needs of Gifted
and Talented students. These services comply with "Chapter 104," the legal
basis for Gifted and Talented identification and instruction.
For our
school, this means that one or more consultants from our Central Office works
with all teachers, as needed, to be sure that high performing, gifted students
are offered a challenging, rigorous curriculum matching their abilities in the
subject areas of Math, Language Arts (reading and writing), Social Studies and
Science.
What
we DO and do NOT do at Lyman Moore:
-
We do not have a "pull
out" Gifted and Talented program per se. However the Chapter 104 (Gifted and
Talented) consulting teacher experts often design a time-limited unit of study
or activity for identified students to explore English, Social Studies,
Science or Math with an in-depth approach around a particular speaker, topic,
reading or event.
-
We do have a teacher
expert consultant who works with classroom teachers to develop supports to the
curriculum that address the educational needs of the gifted student usually in
the regular class. This might involve discussions with the Chapter 104
consultant and the classroom teacher about ideas or methods to provide
in-depth exploration related to the current unit of study.
-
We do not
automatically take the highest level students and place them in one class
together, with the exception of Math (where we do cluster top level students).
Instead, we have an approach that includes all levels of abilities in each
classroom. If students, teachers or parents feel a "Chapter 104" student is
not challenged, the teacher and consultant work together to develop meaningful
change to the class, content or curriculum. The partnership between teacher,
parent and consultant is crucial and is always a fluid work in process.
-
Parents whose child
was referred to as "gifted" in elementary school and yet is in all regular
classses in middle school are sometimes confused by this. The reality is that
a high performing student who elementary teachers referred to as gifted does
not necessarily fall into the now narrow guidelines for Chapter 104
consultative services.
-
The determination for
how to apply the guidelines is made by each school district and is based on
research as well as practice. At this time, our district generally has placed
two pre-qualifying conditions on Chapter 104 services: first, that a student
needs to score in the top two percent on standardized testing for that subject
area and secondly, the student must have a teacher recommendation for
services.
-
Other factors are also
considered however, and parents may find it helpful to keep in mind that our
district's philosophy is that differentiation within the classroom is meant to
meet most students' needs. Here, too, it's helpful to keep in mind that Lyman
Moore has many sending schools and a wide range of highly skilled students --
the highest in the class in fifth grade may perhaps be one of many highly
skilled in the sixth grade.
-
Lyman Moore works with
one or more Chapter 104 consultants depending upon the school's needs. Parents
may call, e-mail or arrange to meet with Chapter 104 consultants throughout
the year. And of course at any time, parents can ask questions of teachers,
the school counselor, our administration, or our central office noted on the
next line below.
-
Lyman Moore enlists
many individuals for Chapter 104 extended consultation who also serve at-large
in Portland Schools: Patti Perkins, Louise Moses, Carol Hagar and Marty .
For further questions or explanations about the identification process and our
district's protocol, you are invited to contact Portland School's central
office Chapter 104 Coordinator, Patti Perkins at: perkip@portlandschools.org
I will try to post here as an attachment an overview provided by our
Central Office Chapter 104 Coordinator that explains the process in Portland.
(If you don't find it here, it means I haven't figured out how to do that
(yet!) but I will so check back.)
| |
