November 24, 2015 School board Testimony - Dr. Nancy Chamberlain

11/24/15

Good evening.  I am Nancy Chamberlain.  I would like to offer my congratulations to both Directors Cogan and Smith for their successful campaigns!  I look forward to working with them for the next four years toward making better outcomes for the students of Northshore.

I have two children in the district; a daughter who greatly benefitted from the Challenge Program and who is now a junior at Woodinville and taking 4 college-level classes; and a son getting HiCap services in the AAP at Leota.  Neither of my children will be affected by the decisions made about the future of the self-select Challenge Program.

That does not stop me from advocating for it, because I have seen first-hand the benefits of it for my daughter, her friends, and other students. Tonight, I wish to read a few excerpts from a Position Statement called Meeting the Needs of High Ability and High Potential Learners in theMiddle Grades, put out by the National Middle School Association before it merged into the AMLE.  I will email each of you a copy of the full position statement tomorrow. 

Please remember that 10-15% of the population is considered high-ability, and we only identify 2-3%, so our Challenge classes absolutely contain students that fall into the high-ability category.

(The Association has a) commitment to developing schools and classrooms in which both equity and excellence are persistent goals for each learner. Equity refers to the opportunity of every learner to have supported access to the highest possible quality education. Excellence refers to the need of every learner for opportunities and support necessary to maximize his or her learning potential.

High-ability adolescents may differ from fellow classmates in cognitive skills, interests, modes of learning, and motivation. Their educational needs may also differ in some important ways from those of other young adolescents. Attending to those needs requires informed attention to both equity and excellence in all facets of schooling…For advanced learners, this may require helping students affirm both their abilities and their need to belong to a peer group.

Equity in the middle grades requires that all learners have an opportunity to participate in curriculum that is rich in meaning and focused on thought and application. Excellence requires support necessary to show continual growth in knowledge, understanding, and skill. Advanced middle grade learners require consistent opportunities to work at degrees of challenge beyond their particular readiness levels, with support necessary to achieve at the new levels of proficiency. 

I hope you agree that we already meet these standards in our self-select Challenge Program!