GILROY
– Parents concerned about what will happen to their gifted
middle schoolers next year are breathing a little easier, now that
a preliminary plan for meeting the academic needs of high-achieving
students has surfaced.
GILROY – Parents concerned about what will happen to their gifted middle schoolers next year are breathing a little easier, now that a preliminary plan for meeting the academic needs of high-achieving students has surfaced.
The plan, unveiled Thursday at a Middle School Task Force meeting, would split all middle school students into three groups – accelerated, benchmark and intervention – based on several academic performance criteria. The accelerated group would consist of Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) students as well as non-GATE high achievers, closing out the use of self-contained GATE courses at the junior high level.
“I’m happy with the plan so long as the district pulls through and offers all GATE students accelerated courses,” said Robyn Houts, a Luigi Aprea parent. “As far as I’m concerned, accelerated courses can be offered to non-GATE students, but they must be offered to GATE kids.”
Some parents, especially those of fifth-graders, have been worried that an adequate program would not be available when their GATE children enter sixth-grade this coming fall. Next school year marks the first time all elementary schools will house only kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
Across all middle school grades, students will have open access to classes taught at any of the three levels. However, standardized test scores, parent/student requests, teacher recommendations, grades and attendance records will be used when counseling families about which level course their child should attend.
“We believe we have the need in this district. There are a lot of students scoring above the 90th percentile (on standardized tests) that are not GATE identified but could benefit from GATE,” Assistant Superintendent Jacqueline Horejs said.
Gilroy Unified School District released data Thursday that shows 230 non-GATE students in reading and 498 in math score above the 90th percentile on the year-end Stanford Achievement Test.
The district also released data that shows some GATE students’ scores fall far short of the 90th percentile, some as low as the 50th percentile and below. Scoring below the 50th percentile means that half of the students taking the same standardized test fared better.
The new academic alignment would make it easier to move GATE kids who are struggling in high achieving classes into courses using standard instruction.
Joe Guzicki, the district’s director of special education, noted that some GATE students, especially those dealing with the peer pressure of junior high, dislike being GATE identified. Others, he said, may be gifted, but not in all areas.
“We might be doing a disservice to assume that students are gifted in all areas,” Guzicki said.
The plan as it stands now applies to language arts, math and social studies. A similar plan for science courses is still under discussion.
The task force recommendation takes on added importance for next school year as the district moves to align the curricula of all its middle schools, including Ascencion Solorsano set to open next fall. District officials say the three-level plan will fit in with a district-wide move to align programs at all instructional levels.
The task force is working toward making a formal recommendation to Superintendent Edwin Diaz by Jan. 30. The matter is slated to go in front of the board in February.
