Catherine Oliverio: A Solution to the GATE/Honors Controversy
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/031510_catherine_oliverio_a_solution_to_the_gate_honors_controversy/
By Catherine Oliverio
A four-tiered approach would serve the needs of all students
I am an experienced special-education teacher who has been concerned with the issue of ability testing for more than 25 years. I also have spent a great amount of time pondering the use of the word “gifted.” I believe that all students — from the severely mentally challenged to the top academic achievers — are gifted in some area. All students deserve a learning environment in which they can reach their true potential. I am confident that the Santa Barbara School District has this desire for each and every one of its students.
How might this best be accomplished?
I believe that the vast majority of the letters regarding the GATE vs. Honors controversy have had an element of truth. I support most of the opinions expressed. How can this be? Because I can see all sides.
I see the school district’s desire to end an “exclusive” gifted program that overidentifies overrepresented students, providing them with a program that seems to be beyond the reach of underrepresented populations. I see the desire of the district to align its programs with those of the rest of the state.
I also see that parents want the best possible education for their children so that they may thrive. I see the sadness on the part of the non-GATE parents that their children feel they are “less than” the students who are identified as GATE. I feel their concerns about their children’s self-esteem plummeting because they are denied access to the world of elite public education. I see the fear that the children of the GATE parents have about their children being educated with less-motivated students. I see the concerns they have that curriculum will be “watered down” to reach the students in the middle levels of achievement if GATE classes are renamed Honors.
What can be done to satisfy all of these points of view? I support a four-tiered system. In addition to the critical programs now available to students identified with special needs, a four-tiered program would provide a stimulating education for all students, enabling them to achieve the fruition of their gifts.
The most logical tiers are as follows:
A remedial tier in place in the district, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), is an excellent system designed to prepare students for four-year college eligibility. It has proven to bring out the best in students and close the achievement gap.
The next tier is College Preparatory. Already present in the district, these rigorous courses are designed to prepare students to achieve the goal of college attendance.
The third tier would be Honors, as is proposed by the Santa Barbara school board.
As written in the most recent proposal, access guidelines would include seventh- through 12th-grade students meeting and maintaining academic requirements. This is an excellent idea and would create an Honors population of high achievers who are not denied access because of ability test results. Honors courses are typically enriched and offer the same material as college prep courses, but in greater depth and at a faster pace.
The fourth and final tier should be for truly gifted students, perhaps renamed High Ability.
These classes would include students who are actually identified as the highest 5 percent on ability tests such as the Cognitive Abilities Test, which is already used, or a language-free test, when appropriate. The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test is useful for the fair assessment of ability in students who come from culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds. The NNAT was chosen in the Beaverton, Ore., School District because it was looking for a means to identify gifted students who were not performing well on academic achievement tests or ability tests. This test is used to identify students for their “Summa” program for highly gifted students.
Thus, the fourth tier would be made up of students who actually test in the highly gifted range.
Students would not be placed in High Ability classes because parents fearing the alternative find a way to put them into the program. Imagine students from all ethnic backgrounds being served by a program designed to help the future physicians who may finally find a cure for cancer, a program that appropriately serves the needs of the gifted students who are shown by research to be at risk for depression, social isolation and underachievement when their academic needs are left unsatisfied.
This four-tiered approach could be implemented with little cost and with great satisfaction to all parents and their children.
Let us serve the needs of all students.
— Catherine Oliverio of Goleta has a master’s degree in special education and taught in the field for 12 years. Her son is a junior high school student in the Santa Barbara district.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/031510_catherine_oliverio_a_solution_to_the_gate_honors_controversy/