Keyboard Shortcuts
ctrl + shift + ? :
Show all keyboard shortcuts
ctrl + g :
Navigate to a group
ctrl + shift + f :
Find
ctrl + / :
Quick actions
esc to dismiss
Likes
- Xl-Pdx
- Messages
Search
|
Bright, Quirky & Coping: Living & learning at home during the pandemic - Live webinar TOMORROW!
Join us for a LIVE panel discussion tomorrow, March 26 at 10am Pacific. (Find your local time .) |
|
Re: Insider's View: College Students Talk About Their Schools
At 12:03 PM 3/25/2020, you wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
I know many students are disappointed that they won't be able to visit colleges this month -- and many students have extra time on their hands to start learning about colleges. |
|
Insider's View: College Students Talk About Their Schools
I know many students are disappointed that they won't be able to visit colleges this month -- and many students have extra time on their hands to start learning about colleges. To help, I've put together free webinars in which college students and recent graduates will talk about their schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Vanderbilt, Pomona, Notre Dame, Northwestern and many more. Includes Q and A so you and your students can get your questions about the colleges answered!听听 |
|
Free Webinar April 29th. MaryGrace Stewart on Gifted Learners
This event a fully online webinar. The session will also be recorded
for later viewing.
Date and TimeWed, April 29, 202010:30 AM 鈥� 11:30 AM EDT LocationONLINE through Framingham State UniversityAbout this Event Supporting Twice-Exceptional Learners at School and at HomeStudents who have special needs and have high levels of ability are called Twice-exceptional or 2e. They are very often misunderstood because either they are seen only as special needs students, or their high level of ability masks their special needs. This webinar will help educators and parents understand this phenomenon better and find out what to do about it with their students in school and children at home.Dr. MaryGrace Stewart, President of Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education (MAGE) Dr. Stewart has been active in talent development for over 30 years primarily in NY, CT, and MA, and has been instrumental in various regional, national, and international initiatives. She has taught PreK - grade 12 and has done numerous presentations to educators and parents on topics related to general and gifted education. She holds a B.S. and three graduate degrees in education and being twice-exceptional herself, she has a special interest in this population and how to best educate and support them in school and at home. Registration at: |
|
Oregon Department of Education on online schooling
Friends:
Below is an excerpt of a story that appeared on OBP. Margaret ODE has said it will offer a 揷ompilation of possible resources for school districts� in the coming days. 听. . . .But ODE does not have the capacity to transfer all school online. And if individual school districts want to replace a physical school with a digital one, it must be done equitably, ODE said. That means students learning English, students identified as Talented and Gifted, and students with disabilities must be supported adequately. . . . |
|
SENG Webinar on Fictional Peers and Mentors
开云体育Friends, Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is offering a
webinar on Tuesday March 24.听 Dr. Schroeder-Davis will present on:
Fictional Peers and Mentors: Affirming Giftedness Through
Literature and Film.听 Dr. Schroeder-Davis will demonstrate
the use of literature and film to provide opportunities for
parents and educators to address what "gifted" is all about with
children.听 For more information about this webinar and to register see the SENG webpage:听 Judy Smith |
|
Save the Javits program, fwd.
Friends:
This is forwarded from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Margaret The Administration recently proposed cutting $5.6 billion from the United States Department of Education for Federal Fiscal Year 2021, which begins October 1, 2020. To protect funding for the , we must act now! We have two requests:听 听 Please call your Representative by Tuesday, March 10 (tomorrow) to ask them to:
Please call your Senators by Tuesday, March 17 to ask them to:
We need your help in rallying support from other members of the House and Senate. It抯 imperative that your Representative and two Senators publicly support the Javits program and prioritize the program抯 funding in their requests to the Appropriations Committee. The deadline for House action is Tuesday, March 10 and for Senate action Tuesday, March 17.听 Call 202-224-3121 to be directed to an operator at the United States Capitol switchboard who will connect you with the appropriate offices in your state.听 Please click to find your Representative and click to find your two Senators.听 Thank you for advocating on behalf of all gifted and talented children! ! |
|
TAG webinars for parents
Friends:
Our sister organization in Texas, TAGT is hosting a free parent webinar and have opened it up to everyone.听 You can sign up at Past parent webinars are still online and they include a facilitator's guide and further reading suggestions Beyond "Full Potential": Reconsidering What Success Means for Gifted Children April 7, 6:30 p.m. Colin Seale Every parent wants their child to be successful. But parents of gifted children often feel an added pressure to unleash their child's "full potential." This webinar will give parents of gifted children powerful, but practical tools to understand the harms of the "full potential" myth and practical tools to move towards a more healthy, hopeful, and happy path to set children up to excel. 听Margaret |
|
SENG webinar for emerging adults
开云体育Friends, Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is offering a webinar on Tuesday March 10th.听 The topic is:听 It鈥檚 Your Life! Live It Like You Mean It!听 Presenter Thomas Shaff asks, "How many years and careers will slip by for today鈥檚 gifted emerging adults (18-31) due to crushing expectations, scant self-agency and worse, little useful self-knowledge?"听 Learn about compiling a comprehensive personal database to help answer life questions. More information about the presenter and the webinar are available at the SENG website:听 SENG members are eligible for discounted registration.听 Judy Smith
|
|
Advocating for TAG with School Boards
开云体育Friends,
Services for TAG students are mandated through the Oregon Revised Statutes (commonly referred to as ORS) adopted by the legislature.听 鈥淭he purpose of ORS 343.391 to 343.413 is to facilitate the identification and education of talented and gifted children.鈥�听 This is the foundation for school districts to identify and serve TAG students. School districts do not receive funding specifically for this mandate and have discretion in how to fulfill the requirement.听 How well a district serves TAG students depends to a large degree on how well-informed policy makers are and whether they understand the unique needs of these students.听 School board members have responsibility for setting policy and adopting budgets that carry out those policies.听 This is one area where local advocates for TAG can make a difference.听 Parents and educators can shape policies by effectively advocating for TAG students at the school site and at the school board level.听 Recently the School Library Journal published an article on how school boards work and how school librarians could better advocate for maintaining school libraries staffed by professional librarians.听 Advocates for TAG could learn from this article on school boards and techniques for influencing them.听听 Find the article here:听
Judy Smith |
|
PPS to consider Student Investment Account spending
Despite the fact that the Student Investment Accounts specifically mention TAG as a permitted investment area AND the fact that PPS severely underfunds TAG compared to other large urban districts, the SIA application makes no mention of TAG students and does not list the TAG Advisory Committee as a "thought partner," or TAG as part of its community outreach. It appears that PPS has no interestat all in educating its bright students.
|
|
Fordham Institute Study finds grading policies affect student outcomes
Friends:
A new study from the Fordham Institute entitled "Great Expectations: the Impact of Rigorous Grading Practices on Student Achievement" discusses the relationship between student grades and student success. Focusing on students taking Algebra 1, the study found that all students learn more when teachers have high standards for grades and this effect lasted long after the class had ended.听 Below is are excerpts from the summary of the study that appeared on the Fordham blog and excerpts from the blog. ". . . According to the study, students learned more from teachers with higher grading standards, and those gains persisted up to two years later. 听. . . high grading standards were not distributed randomly, but are a product of the same pernicious inequities that dictate how critical resources like talent, funding, and access to excellent instruction are provided. Suburban schools and schools serving more affluent students were far more likely to have high grading standards. 听. . . . In , we found that out of students who earned B鈥檚颅widely considered to be a good grade颅only 35 percent were at grade level on state reading and math tests, and just half met the benchmark for college readiness on the ACT or SAT.. These discrepancies stemmed not just from low grading standards on challenging work, but from a lack of opportunities to even attempt grade-appropriate assignments in the first place. Earning a 鈥渓egitimate鈥� A or a B based on fifth-grade work says little about a student鈥檚 readiness for high school, college, or beyond if they鈥檙e in eighth grade颅yet most of the students we studied spent most of their time . This helps explain the unconscionable dynamic where national high school graduation rate has climbed past 80 percent, but 40 percent of those who enroll in college are still shunted into remedial classes颅racking up a combined $1.5 billion in extra debt to learn skills their report card grades told them they鈥檇 already mastered." |
|
The excellence gap in Massachusetts schools
Friends:Report finds advanced low-income, black, and Latino students may pay steepest price," byMichael Jonas for Commonwealth Magazine, Jan 30, 2020 followed by a link to the story.The study used a different method to assess student learning than I did here, but the results are the same--the achivement gap is at the top. Margaret . . . "Because there is no way to track systematically the progress of academically gifted students in Massachusetts, the looked at the trajectory of students who scored in the top 12 percent of students on the third grade MCAS math test, the youngest cohort that takes the standardized state exam. Both white and Asian students are overrepresented in this group compared with the overall racial and ethnic distribution of third-graders in the state. But the most striking finding came when the study looked at where these advanced students landed three years later when they took the sixth grade MCAS. Nearly 72 percent of Asian students and 43 percent of white students who had top scores in third grade remained in the top 10 percent of scores in sixth grade, but just 23 percent of Hispanic students and 21 percent of black students stayed among the top scorers. Meanwhile, just 25 percent of low-income students who were top scorers in third grade remained at the top by sixth grade.听 . . . SERVING ALL KIDS WELL State education commissioner Jeff Riley said the fall-off in achievement among high-scoring black and Hispanic third-graders in the report his department had done was alarming. 鈥淚 thought it was the most consequential finding in the report,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat is something I think we have to work on and remediate ASAP.鈥� . . . Brockton is one of a handful of Massachusetts districts with a comprehensive program for gifted students. The district program accepts roughly 75 fourth-graders each year, based on scores on several national achievement tests as well as teacher and principal recommendations. Students admitted to the program all attend the same district elementary school through sixth grade and then move to the same middle school before starting at Brockton High School, which offers AP classes and other advanced coursework The accelerated learning initiative is a big reason why Magalie Pinney and her husband have stayed in Brockton, where all three of their children have been in the program. 鈥淚鈥檓 vigilant for my own kids, but other families should have those opportunities as well,鈥� said Pinney, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who is on the board of the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education, a parent-led advocacy organization. . . . Ethan Cancell, who oversees Brockton鈥檚 gifted program as director of research and accountability for the district, said it would be ideal if standard classroom teachers could set up lessons in ways tailored to students at all levels. But 鈥渄ifferentiated instruction,鈥� as it鈥檚 known in the education field, is often hard to do, especially with large class sizes. 鈥淢aking individualization and personalization a reality is extremely challenging,鈥� Cancell said. The gifted program in Brockton 鈥渂egins to recognize that there are certain children who are exceeding the state鈥檚 expectations. They should have the opportunity in a school system to get those enrichment academic opportunities or accelerated academic instruction. There鈥檚 a real equity concern,鈥� Cancell said of ensuring access to such programs in a district like Brockton, where 77 percent of students are black or Hispanic and 57 percent come from low-income households. . . . . Boston 颅 the state鈥檚 largest school district 颅 where more than 70 percent of students are black or Hispanic and nearly 60 percent of students come from low-income households, has long offered separate 鈥渁dvanced work鈥� classrooms for students in fourth through sixth grade. The district also has three 7-12 grade 鈥渆xam鈥� schools that offer seats based on test scores and grades, including nationally renowned Boston Latin School. Brenda Cassellius, who took the reins last year as the new superintendent in Boston, said she generally favors 鈥渉eterogeneous grouping鈥� that has kids of all abilities in the same classroom. 鈥淢y belief is that you meet the needs of the students within the classroom and that there鈥檚 not a lot of segregating of students by ability and ability-grouping and tracking,鈥� she said. A recent analysis of the system鈥檚 鈥渁dvanced work鈥� classrooms for elementary school fourth to sixth grade students, however, suggests that such ability-grouped programs make a huge difference, especially for black and Latino students. Sarah Cohodes, an assistant professor of education policy and economics at Columbia University, tracked students who were third-graders in Boston schools from 2001 to 2005 all the way through high school and into the first two years following their scheduled graduation. During those years, 7 to 10 percent of Boston Public Schools students were in advanced work classrooms. Cohodes compared the long-term outcomes of students who just cleared the test-score threshold for admission to an advanced work class with those students who just missed the cutoff for admission to the advanced program. Students attending advanced in elementary grades work were 28 percent more likely to enroll in college than their academic near-peers who just missed the advanced work cutoff. The results were even stronger for black and Latino students, who had a 65 percent higher rate of college enrollment if they took part in the advanced work program in elementary school. The results indicate 鈥渢hat underrepresented students in particular may benefit from interventions like [advanced work class],鈥� writes Cohodes, and that such programs 鈥渃an change the life courses of these students . . ..鈥� |
|
Join TAG event at the CEC on Thursday
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) convention will be in Portland
next week and the convention will include sessions related to serving
gifted and talented children.听 The Association for the Gifted is a
division of CEC. We are small, but persistent in ensuring that CEC
continues to include gifted and talented children (particularly those who
are underrepresented and twice exceptional) in their advocacy work.听
We strive to partner with other educators of exceptional children to
ensure all students� needs are met.
TAG is hosting a social event on Thursday, February 6th at 7 pm in Portland at Dig a Pony ( ). We hope that supporters of talented and gifted students in the Portland area will join us. It抯 just a chance to meet others with a similar passion and be re-energized for our service to students. Would you be able to help us spread the word and make some connections? 听 Thanks, Lynette Breedlove, Ph.D. Director The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science Western Kentucky University President, (TAG) Chair, Special Schools and Programs Network of Treasurer, (KAGE) |
|
Webinar on the 2e Family
开云体育Friends, Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is offering a
webinar on Tuesday, Jan 28th.听 The topic is The Modern 2e
Family.听 The presenters are Dr. Michael Postma and Julie
Postma.听 More information about this webinar and registration is available at the SENG website SENG members are eligible for discounted registration. Judy Smith听 |
to navigate to use esc to dismiss