Gilroy
– This week, 34 students who did not qualify for the school
district’s gifted program last year found out they will qualify
after all.
In the re-test for students who appeared eligible for Gifted
and
Talented Education (GATE), but failed to qualify, nearly half of
the 77 second- through fifth-graders passed.
Gilroy – This week, 34 students who did not qualify for the school district’s gifted program last year found out they will qualify after all.
In the re-test for students who appeared eligible for Gifted and
Talented Education (GATE), but failed to qualify, nearly half of the 77 second- through fifth-graders passed. Those students will immediately be able to enroll in GATE classes at Rucker Elementary School, or take advantage of the district’s other GATE-specific after school enrichment programs.
Now, Gilroy Unified School District officials say they will come up with an entirely new, parent-approved system for identifying GATE students. Parents had asked for the re-test, using a different test altogether, after telling school board trustees the district’s tool was missing capable students.
“I’m actually quite disappointed that it did such a poor job of identifying our students,” said Jacki Horejs, GUSD’s assistant superintendent of educational services, of the GATE test used last year.
When the district announced early last month it would re-test high-achieving students who were flagged for the program, 88 parents signed up their children. Of those, 77 showed up for testing that occurred three weeks ago. Thirteen of the group had just missed the mark on the first test, taken last school year, and were considered “conditionally” eligible.
“Conditional eligibility, as it was originally defined this year, meant there was a real close call,” Horejs said. “We’re treating conditional eligibility this year as if it was a regular eligibility.”
Twelve of the conditional students qualified under the new test, but the remaining student will not get his or her eligibility taken away, Horejs said. She said the district could do away with conditional eligibility next year.
Of the re-tested students, 44 remain ineligible.
The majority of newly eligible students – 21 – were in second grade last year, seven were in third grade, five in fourth grade and one in fifth grade. That student will be in middle school this fall. At the middle and high school levels, GATE identified students are enrolled in classes with other high-achieving students.
Most of the students – 13 – are from Luigi Aprea Elementary School, seven are from Rucker – the district’s only school with full-time GATE classes – four are from Antonio Del Buono, three from El Roble, two from Rod Kelley and one is from Glen View.
“The upshot of that, from my standpoint, is that the (grades) 3/4 combo class has basically been killed at Rucker,” GUSD parent Bill Hudson said.
Hudson and other parents had criticized a plan tentatively proposed by the district to combine the GATE classes for third and fourth grades at Rucker, based on low enrollment. With the newly eligible students, those classes should fill easily as parents choose to transfer their children.
The GATE parent advisory group meeting of the school year is scheduled for Sept. 14, where the district will announce its plans for revising the GATE identification process.
“We’re going to have a parent advisory group working with a consultant to help us re-design how we’re identifying kids in the future,” Horejs said. “I’ve been talking to consultants who are really familiar with the way other districts throughout the state are identifying students for GATE, so we’ve been talking about developing a process that will include some assessment pieces, but there’s other things we want to look at.”
Besides test scores, the process will likely include more intangible qualities, she said, like leadership, musical or artistic abilities.
“We want to make sure when we’re identifying kids for GATE services, that we’re looking at the whole child,” Horejs said.
Parents who want to participate in the revision process can attend the Sept. 14 meeting, although it has not yet been decided how many will be allowed on the committee.
Hudson said he is working with other parents on a separate issue for the September meeting: Establishing a not-for-profit GATE parent board that would fund-raise for the program.
The GATE parent advisory group will meet Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 7pm in the district office.
