We’re glad to see that Gilroy Unified School District officials
are listening to parents and have quickly worked to find the right
methods for assessing which students belong in gifted and talented
programs.
We’re glad to see that Gilroy Unified School District officials are listening to parents and have quickly worked to find the right methods for assessing which students belong in gifted and talented programs. Children who are GATE-identified qualify for either GATE pullout classes or can attend Rucker Elementary, which has a full-time GATE program.
Identifying GATE students is a labor-intensive process. It’s easy to qualify kids who score well on standardized tests, but those scores shouldn’t be the only way to qualify for the program. Many highly intelligent kids don’t test well. That’s why assessment and training are key to identifying GATE students.
But identifying GATE students is just the beginning. It’s also important to challenge these kids appropriately. For a variety of reasons – ranging from transportation issues to a desire to keep siblings together – many parents choose to send their GATE students to neighborhood schools instead of Rucker.
The lowered enrollment of GATE students at Rucker and increased presence of GATE students at neighborhood schools has brought attention to the pullout GATE programs at the neighborhood schools. Of course, those pullout GATE programs ought to challenge GATE students appropriately. Unfortunately, many GATE parents say that’s not the case right now.
GUSD needs to improve the pullout GATE programs at its neighborhood schools until they equal the GATE program offered at Rucker.
Clearly, it’s as important to engage GATE students as it is to meet the needs of English-language learners or any other special population within the school district. Properly identifying GATE students is an important first step. However, adequately challenging and engaging GATE students must follow identification or those GATE tags on students’ files are only a red flag for lost potential.
