In Rockville Centre, tracked classes also led to racial and economic segregation in a high school where a fifth of the nearly 1, students are Black or Latino and the rest of the student body is nearly entirely white.
Early on, administrators found that many Black and Latino students and students from low-income families avoided the most challenging classes even after being given the option to enroll in them. In in New York City, a group commissioned by Mayor Bill de Blasio, The School Diversity Advisory Group, recommended doing away with all gifted and talented programs , while that same year Seattle attempted unsuccessfully to eliminate its programs as a way to alleviate school segregation.
Screens used to select students for high performing schools and advanced classes based on grades and test scores also face mounting criticism for exacerbating segregation. Last winter, a district near Philadelphia agreed to reduce its number of tracked classes at the middle and high school levels and increase access to Advanced Placement courses in response to a discrimination lawsuit brought by parents. But some educators, parents and students worry about what might replace screened classes and accelerated programs.
Is it possible, they wonder, to teach all students at all levels together in one class? And, if it is, will teachers receive the support they need to succeed?
Related: Gifted classes may not help talented students move ahead faster. In Washington, D. Some have even asked for a return to more tracking. As school systems around the country work to address entrenched educational inequities, these experiments provide insights into the benefits and challenges of doing away with tracked classes and gifted programs.
Out of 29 students, 27 were boys. Most were Black and Latino kids living in poverty. Those classes proved popular. The district also planned how to help students with weaker skills manage accelerated classes. Before Rockville Centre detracked math in the ninth and 10th grades, for example, it added support math classes in middle school so that all students graduated eighth grade having completed algebra. Today, the school requires subject teachers in each grade to teach the same content at the same time.
Such coordination facilitates support classes that meet every other day during the school day, with one teacher for every six or seven students. Students in these classes are pre-taught material, making them better prepared to understand material in their mainstream classes.
Taking such a systematic approach to shrinking the achievement gap may sound obvious. But around the country, efforts to broaden access to accelerated classes and, in some districts, to mandate Advanced Placement classes for all students have been implemented without ensuring that students have the background material necessary to succeed. Related: Up to 3. South Side also turned to the International Baccalaureate IB diploma, a Swiss-based program that offers a demanding high school degree.
Forty-three percent of South Side students earn a full IB diploma, according to the principal. Compared to Advanced Placement classes, which require students to master a large and specific body of factual knowledge, the IB program focuses on depth of analysis. But each story is relatively short. Nothing was simple about the experiment undertaken at Rockville Centre, but having only one high school with a relatively low-needs population did make it easier.
Just 15 percent of the roughly 1, students at the school receive free or reduced lunch , a federal marker of poverty. By contrast, in Washington, D. Many students from higher-income families go to private schools or move to the suburbs to avoid attending schools where a large proportion of students perform below grade level.
Gifted and talented students and those with high abilities need gifted education programs that will challenge them in regular classroom settings and enrichment and accelerated programs to enable them to make continuous progress in school.
High-achieving students in the era of NCLB. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Callahan Eds. New York, NY: Routledge. Top 1 in 10, A 10 year follow-up of the profoundly gifted. Journal of Applied Psychology , 4 , — Who rises to the top? Early indicators. Psychological Science , 24 , — Highly selective program offers high school students grades the opportunity to earn high school credits and university course hours at no cost to parents or guardians Independent, curious, undaunted students learning through the study of Great Books.
Dual college enrollment available for grades Montgomery County Public Schools Rockville AEI Accelerated and Enriched Instruction A continuum of programs and services including rigorous instruction that encourage all students to realize their full potential as learners Louis program The Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics and Computing Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville Applicants must be currently enrolled in the tenth grade or equivalent, who will have completed Geometry and Algebra II by the end of the sophomore year; two-year program of college coursework, simultaneously earning college credits and a high school diploma St.
Louis Public Schools St. Louis 95th percentile and then lottery admission to elementary schools Mallinckrodt Academy of Gifted Instruction and Kennard Classical Junior Academy. Student centered learning: Exeter is well known for originating Harkness teaching whereby 12 students and a teacher join in seminar style classes around an oval table Polaris Charter School Concord opening September , grades K-8 St.
Paul's School Concord grades 9 - 12, boarding; admission test SSAT New Jersey FlexSchool Fanwood Grades , PG; micro-school with small group classes that supports gifted students with learning disabilities, slow processing and executive functioning challenges who thrive in a discussion-based, socially collaborative environment. Bay Ridge Preparatory School Brooklyn grades K, not gifted per se, but gifted friendly Bronx Science NYC High school The Clarkson School Potsdam Clarkson School Bridging Year is an early entrance 1-year residential program for 12th grade students FlexSchool Bronxville Grades , PG; micro-school with small group classes that supports gifted students with learning disabilities, slow processing and executive functioning challenges who thrive in a discussion-based, socially collaborative environment.
Twice Exceptional: preferred testing location offers observations and services from their psychologists. Services are offered during the school day, as recommended by psychologists. University of Pittsburgh Accelerated High School AHS Accelerated High School is for juniors or seniors under special circumstances younger students may be granted permission who wish to take college courses on campus University of Pittsburgh College in High School CHS Offers qualified high school students the opportunity to earn University of Pittsburgh college credits during their regular school day.
Students do not have to leave their school to travel to the University. Courses are taught by a high school teacher who has been certified by that university department as a part-time adjunct faculty member Worth E.
Young Academy North Richland Hills K - 12, Gifted, talented and high ability learners El Paso Country Day School El Paso K - 12, academically advanced students The Joule School Austin K4 - 8, flexible grade placement, with the ability to accelerate students as far as they need to go; accepts creatively as well as academically gifted students The Rainard School Houston Pre-k - 12th grade, small, mixed-age classrooms designed to challenge intellectually, match socially, and allow children to advance at their own pace Rubicon Academy The Woodlands PreK2 - 8th grade, multi-age classrooms, gifted, talented, high ability, and twice exceptional scholars.
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