GILROY
– Parental support for an expanded after-school program for
Gilroy’s brightest students gave way Tuesday night to dismay over
district plans to end the Gifted and Talented Education program at
middle schools next year.
GILROY – Parental support for an expanded after-school program for Gilroy’s brightest students gave way Tuesday night to dismay over district plans to end the Gifted and Talented Education program at middle schools next year.
The proposal, made Tuesday night at a packed GATE Parent Advisory meeting, would split middle school students into groups based on their ability levels. In response, parents are circulating a petition asking the school board to keep the middle school GATE program intact until at least 2005.
“That’s why some parents think private school would be in their child’s best interest now,” GATE parent Kevin Kang said.
When the district’s new middle school – Ascencion Solorsano – opens next year, sixth-graders districtwide will be placed in one of the district’s three middle schools. That policy especially worries parents at Rucker Elementary, the district’s only full-time GATE school, which currently goes from kindergarten through sixth-grade.
“Any other year, my child (a fifth-grader at Rucker) would be getting another year of GATE, but now she will go to a new school, she’ll have a new teacher, and she’ll be in a new program that’s open to everybody. The standard will never be set high enough when you do that,” Kang said.
The school board could approve the middle school proposal as early as Feb. 13.
Gilroy Unified School District has long been under fire to upgrade the GATE program. At the middle school level, the district believes it can improve instruction by placing its highest-performing students in accelerated courses, regardless of whether they have been identified as a GATE student.
Currently, middle schoolers who were identified as GATE students in elementary school take core academic classes specifically designed for them at Brownell and South Valley middle schools.
Under the new plan, the district would open accelerated courses to any student wanting a challenge, but would use, among other criteria, standardized tests, grades and teacher referrals when making enrollment recommendations to students. An open enrollment format was used by Gilroy High School when it re-established honors courses for underclassmen. Although some parents disagree, the district has said the open-enrollment policy works.
“No one is going to dumb these classes down,” Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs said. “These courses are going to be rigorous, and we think we can meet the needs of more students this way. The goal is easy entry for students wanting a challenge and easy exit for students who can’t meet that challenge.”
Even so, some GATE parents worry that the district’s middle school plan is an end to the unique style of instruction many gifted students need in order to excel. Parents and educators both acknowledge that a GATE student’s raw ability is not enough to be successful in school.
Recently released standardized test scores show that 10 percent of GATE students in Gilroy perform at grade level or lower in reading. Roughly 40 percent of GATE students rank in the top 10 percent of readers nationally.
Reasons for poor test scores vary with each student, but many parents and educators believe gifted students lose interest in “normal” classrooms.
“We need to keep focused on the idea that GATE is a program that should offer differentiated instruction for a particular type of student,” said Janneka Brown, the representative of the GATE parent group. “Some people have concerns, but it was heartwarming to see that many parents are open to the idea of open enrollment.”
Meanwhile, the district has nailed down the after-school GATE courses it will offer its eligible elementary and middle school students.
From Feb. 10 through April 4 and from April 7 through May 30, GATE enrichment courses will be offered in science, digital photography and Spanish. Each class can hold a total of 20 students, but with as many as 235 students eligible for the program, parents worry that their children will not get accepted.
“Based on historical participation, we think this will satisfy student demand,” said Joe Guzicki, the GUSD’s director of special education.
Guzicki said if demand is high enough, the district could add class sections. However, parents aren’t holding their breath, since the state’s impending budget cuts could dwindle monies allocated for GATE by 10 percent.
Next semester’s enrichment courses, formerly called the GATE pull-out program, triple what was offered at the beginning of the school year – a seven-week astronomy course that some parents said did not challenge students.
GUSD considers this semester’s offerings as enrichment. But to emphasize an increased academic rigor, the program is now called the GATE After-school Academy.
Due to the limited class spots, parents are being asked to rank their choices by Jan. 28. A lottery system will be used to place students if demand for one class exceeds capacity.
“When you look at the choices we’re offering, there will be no losers in this lottery,” Guzicki said.
Teaching the courses will be a combination of retired educators and industry professionals. Professional engineer and former school board member Kai Lai will teach the science course. Larry Mickartz, a Gilroy businessman and former school counselor, will instruct the digital photography class. And Brian Kjellesvig, a retired GHS teacher, will teach Spanish.
