Answer not 'No Child Left Ahead'

Cincinnati Enquirer

Advocates for gifted education say states need three things in order to serve high-ability students well: a mandate to identify them, a mandate to serve them and the money to carry out those mandates.

Very few states have all three.

Ohio is one of a handful to only have one, a mandate to identify gifted children. Indiana is one of very few to do all three, after mandating identification and service last January and putting state funds into executing those mandates. Kentucky mandates service, but under funds.

Now Ohio is stepping up its gifted education program with new standards that set minimums for minutes-per-week and students-per-classroom in gifted instruction. But some parents and gifted educators fear that, with little state money attached, schools may shrink away from serving gifted students.

It's part of a long and contentious debate on if, when and how to serve brilliant students. And it's only gotten more divisive since No Child Left Behind forced school districts to focus harder on low-achieving students or face sanctions.

Gifted advocates say the move to make everyone proficient shortchanges students who can achieve much more academically. They say there's little incentive for students to push the upper levels of achievement, and that boiling the focus down to reading and math - on which most standardized tests focus - means gifted kids often lose time in subjects they love, like science and the arts.

Posted by Jeff Henriques at September 19, 2008 8:34 AM
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