Parents angry they must wait until August to know if their child
is enrolled in program
Gilroy – Sherri Laveroni is frustrated.
After her daughter received a 93 percent on the Ravens, the district’s gifted and talented program’s assessment – a mere point below the required 94 to 97 percent range that merits an automatic appeal – the Gilroy mom hand-delivered paperwork to the district office requesting an appeal.
Laveroni said she made numerous phone calls and sent e-mails but never received a response. Now it’s June and she still has no idea where her daughter will attend school come August.
“So we don’t know if we’re in the pending group or if they haven’t even dealt with us,” she said. “It would be an ideal program for her but there’s a huge lack of communication.”
Laveroni, who eventually reached a district secretary who simply said “wait until August,” said she thinks fewer parents will choose to enroll their children in Rucker Elementary School’s GATE program if they’re forced to wait until days before school begins.
But Marcia Brown, Gilroy Unified School District director of student services, said there really isn’t another option. In March, all second-graders completed the Ravens, the assessment employed by the district to determine student’s aptitude.
The parents of students who fell into the 98 percent and above bracket received a letter in the mail indicating that their children had met one step of the process. Parents of children who scored between a 94 and 97 percent were given the right to automatically appeal the district’s decision, while those who scored below a 93 percent received a letter explaining that the student does not qualify for GATE.
Rucker houses the district’s sole self-contained GATE program. Other schools have various GATE services for students. Still, the Ravens test is not the only measure the district employs to identify gifted students.
Teacher and parent recommendation, district specific assessments in math and English and the California Standards Test are all a part of the package. And not all of the 23 students who fell into the “pending” zone are waiting to hear if they’re GATE-worthy – some qualify for GATE without meeting the percentile requirement on the Ravens.
But for the students hanging out on the sidelines, the CSTs serve as the final indicator and the results aren’t released until August.
The students must score advanced or proficient on the CSTs to be considered still in the game, but even with those scores, there’s no guarantee, Brown said. The district official said she’s not familiar with Laveroni’s specific case and she’s not sure if the daughter is included in the pending group.
The letter, indicating whether they will proceed with the parent’s request for an appeal may be in the mail or that the request has been rejected, Brown said.
Laveroni isn’t the only parent unhappy with the process.
After Brown completed her presentation on GATE at Thursday’s board meeting, James Walling stepped up to the podium and painted a starkly different scenario.
“Parents aren’t real happy right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of grumbling, we need to be aware of that. It’s not all sunshine and roses.”
Walling has had an issue with the district’s GATE assessment process since his son was tested two years ago. Citing scoring anomalies, Walling and other parents told the school board that the test wasn’t an accurate assessment.
Another test was administered and Walling’s son, now a fourth-grader, qualified for the program. The father has remained involved in altering the process.
In the past, only students nominated by parents or teachers were tested. Now, every second-grader, minus those who opt out, is tested. Still, Walling said flaws continue to exist.
“One of the biggest problems was it was taking way too long to get results,” he said.
And that emerged as an issue once again this year. Parents of children with high scores didn’t receive letters until mid-May, even though they were told they would know by early April.
“The idea was to have those in hand in advance of the Rucker GATE open house,” Walling said.
Instead, they had to delay the open house to accommodate the late notices. Trustee Rhoda Bress also expressed concern after hearing that parents wouldn’t learn of the final results until August.
“I find that very problematic on both ends,” she said. “As a parent I know that it can cause a great deal of anxiety not knowing where your child is going to be placed next year. For a teacher it’s a problem because the teacher needs to know his or her assignment for the following year so preparation can be done over the summer.”
Both Walling and Laveroni think there’s a simple solution to the problem. Since only 18 eligible children have signed up for Rucker GATE, the two think the students on the waiting list should be allowed to enroll on a temporary basis for a year.
If the students don’t do well by the end, then they’ll can be pulled out, they suggested.
But Brown said that system wouldn’t work.
“We’re not going to do conditionals,” she said. “Can you imagine telling a student that you’re GATE today and not tomorrow?”
Besides, Brown explained, the criteria is in place for a reason: to weed out the gifted.
“There is honestly a difference between a really good student and a GATE student,” she said.
