District minutes can be found here when they are published.
Meeting convened at 5:00 pm.
Presentation on HiCap Kids by Northwest Gifted Child President, Austina DeBonte.
Our District classifies HiCap kids as scoring in the top 2% of
ability on a nationally
normed scale. Right now 5-6% of NSD's student population qualifies.
However, the national definition of
gifted used by the research presented refers to kids in the top 10% or so
of ability--proportionally, given
our HiCap identification rate, in our District that number of gifted students
could be as high as 30%.. In NSD, there are many gifted kids not being served
in AAP/EAP that are dealing with the challenges described in this presentation.
HiCap kids are often 2e or Twice exceptional. 2e kids have learning disabilities as well as being Highly Capable.
HiCap kids often have executive function issues since their cortex thickness is still growing into adolescence and not yet fixed. This allows them to acquire knowledge quickly much like a younger child but leaves them with problems with organization and planning.
Q from a TF member: You say these kids have ADHD-like issues. The district's testing for HiCap services requires kids to sit for long periods of time taking these tests. Is this a problem?
A: Yes, it is. If kids have IEPs then they can often get modified testing environments to give them more time or other accomodations.
H: Austina is just a parent and can talk to her presentation, Gretchen can talk about testing in our district.
G: We've had situations with a child with an IEP testing alone in the room with the test administrator. So we accommodate.
Q from TF member: Kids have to be nominated by a parent or a teacher to take these tests. Have our teachers been trained in identifying these kids?
H: Specific questions about testing or nomination can wait
A: 2nd and 6th grade across the board testing used to happen in our district, but it stopped. I'd personally like to see it brought back. Saturday testing is a problem for kids with transportation issues as well.
A: Helping kids find their tribe of like-minded peers helps them cope.
Discussions ensued
- Is it the pairing of kids and developmental levels that's important?
- Why don't kids at the top of the spectrum have IEPs?
- So a HiCap classroom with asynchrony would look like my Gen Ed Classroom. All over the board.
End of Presentation
H:
- Approval of minutes from last time
- Subcommittee updates
- Electives subcommittee: discussing if 6th graders will have full year or 1/2 year PE requirement
- Transitions subcommittee:
- getting questions about academic load and parents are concerned about 6th graders being with 8th graders.
- Registration visits, meetings with 5th graders and 6th graders to reassure them. HS coming to JH to talk to 8th and 9th graders.
- Full year social emotional plan. Use advisory and flex time during the day for this
- We have the results from the Community Survey, but we don't have time to talk about that this time. So we will push that till May
- Academic Subcommittee
- Gave update to the School board on progress to date on Jan 12
- processed that then had a study session with board on March 8 to get more info
- originally we said our job was to send one recommendation, but that's not correct anymore.
- board wants considerations about more than one model along with our ranking
- we crafted 4 options and met with Save Our Challenge and the NSEA
- we looked at opportunities and impacts of each model
G:
- We have pros, cons and considerations for each option
- We will need Professional development for each option so we narrowed down to values to vote on.
- This document is a draft
- the Subcommittee was instructed to note any changes or things we left out.
- Then turned it in to Heather
- We were directed by the School board to indicate our level of support for each option
- So we did value voting for each option
H: We will look at the sticky notes and make changes then get this back to the Task force
L: We voted on a draft document not the sticky note version
H: We will just have to look at those stick notes
G: Really this group (TF) will make the real recommendation to the board. This TF will get all of the sticky note changes
L: Will the subcommittee get to see the final?
H: Only the TF will see the final
TF members asked for clarification on what these 4 options were. Options were read to TF
O: But there are 7 more pages that talk about how these models will be implemented, differentiation and the academics that support them.
L: The document doesn't go any deeper, it's just the pros, cons and considerations of each option.
H: The board is expecting to see more about each model, the financial implications, academics, etc. So we will fill those in. The first reading will be on April 26th.
L: We aren't going to vote on these options? we are sending all 4?
TF member: Is option 4 what we have now?
O: yes, it's the closest to what we have now
G: Ranked the considerations as requested by the board on a 1-5 scale. then found the mean of the results.
H: the most important consideration is growth mindset?
G: Yes, but they're all very close
O: we keep talking about voting, but that isn't accurate to what we did. we just ranked considerations.
TF member: We need to be really confident we can provide challenge curriculum and solid differentiation. Every teacher needs to be able to teach challenge and differentiate. A vote for Option 1-3 shows that we are confident we can do this.
P: curriculum is getting more rigorous and we already do differentiation. PD would give us more strategies for teaching gifted students. It's no harder to teach than any other classroom.
G: we sent teachers to conferences with great resources on this. We taught a class based on Tomlinson's work. We have been moving toward this. Curriculum adoption looks at ones that align with this. The guidance for teachers is build in. Assessments are frequent.
P: It's easier to collaborate when we're all teaching the same thing.
G: We're not implying it won't take work.
TF member: Will there still be opportunities to double jump math?
G: at the top of the page we have our earlier recommendations on AAP, Special Ed, and Math.
TF member: Why are the HiCap tests on a saturday?
G: For conflicts we have wednesday testing.
TF member: I'm concerned about kids with disengaged parents
G: Teachers are good about recommending testing.
TF member: Kids still get left behind
H:
- Subcommittees are doing work on this and other things - academics, intramurals, etc. They've put in months of hard work.
- They are bringing this to you for your review not voting or deciding on one recommendation.
- We will do your level of support for each option
- This TF doesn't have the background to do a weighted vote
- You will give a Yes or no to each one. you can vote yes on all or no on all or a combination.
- Then we will send to the board on April 26th
- It's not a consensus vote
- The board will get an Executive Summary that H & G will write
G: Not 100 pages
H: No, more like 6 or 7
TF member: Will we get to read the UW study?
G: The most beneficial part of that was the list of literature they reviewed
H: Subcommittee didn't use that study
TF member: They were looking at our Challenge program for that study and I would be curious to see what they said since they were unbiased.
G: We looked at our own district data in the subcommittee
TF member: My experience is not as a researcher, it would be helpful to see the subcommittee's research to make a more informed vote.
G: The UW study was a grad school assignment that had requirements from their professor. The most beneficial part was the literature review.
P: It was just a list of what to read for each section.
H: so you would like to see literature, class composition data, anything else?
S: Talk to the people on the committee and look at the data we talked about
H: Anything else you can think of? No?
H: We don't have enough time so we will postpone the Community survey results till our May meeting
O: For the advisory conversation: there's nothing about social emotional counseling in Pride time, it's used only for academics
TF member: We talked about advisory being across grade levels
TF member: Advisory is used to have an adult advocate. Do you need the social emotional counseling or will they get that in teh classroom
O: connection to an adult, what needs of the MS student aren't being met? Social emotional, academic needs, we will look through and see how best to meet those needs.
H: Look at page 14 of This We Believe. We will come back to advisory, academics, etc. at the May meeting. Look at these core values when thinking about all of this
May will have Transitions and Advisory on the agenda.
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