High-End Learner Project Planned ; Official: Alden School to Set Up Pilot Program

By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ

DUXBURY

The Alden School is implementing a pilot program this year that will help teachers better instruct high-end learners in their classrooms.

One class in each of the school’s three grades – third, fourth and fifth – will have about eight students who have been identified as high-end learners, also known as talented and gifted students.

The students will be taught the same curriculum as their classmates, but will be encouraged to take it to a higher level, assistant superintendent Ed Walsh told the school meeting at its meeting Wednesday night. They may be encouraged to do more evaluation, synthesis, analysis or comparison, he said.

But the other students will also benefit from the program, Walsh said, because the strategies will be used throughout the classroom. Teachers will be able to reach more students effectively.

“It’s looking at your curriculum and how you can essentially extend it,” Walsh said. “Really what it means is really bringing that curriculum to a higher level, requiring kids to look at things differently.”

Walsh said good teachers have always recognized high-end learners and worked with students on different levels. The difference now is that teachers will be better prepared to identify high-end learners and teach to them.

Some students may receive more challenging assignments in some subjects, but not in others, or may move in and out of the program in future years. They will not be tracked.

“The big thing is giving the teachers the tools to be able to do that and to recognize when to do it,” Walsh said. “This type of teaching helps everyone at some point and it keeps the kids in the classroom.”

Walsh said the superintendent rolled out the idea for the pilot program at a school committee meeting last May. School officials surveyed teachers to help identify kids for the pilot program.

Nine teachers and three administrators attended training in the teaching methods this summer, paid for by the Duxbury Education Foundation. They will teach the methods to other teachers during the school year.

Walsh said school officials will contact parents to explain the pilot program to them next week. The principal will also send out a letter to parents.

Many of the parents who attended the were upset that they hadn’t heard about the program earlier. They wanted to about how students were chosen for the program.

“My particular concerns are stacking a class with 33 percent high- end learners,” said parent Emily Kyriakides.

Parent Michael McLaughlin said the program was “shrouded in mystery and that parents heard about it through rumors.

Walsh said the schools are doing research, development and piloting at the same time, presenting some challenges.

“The identification process in any type of initiative or project like this is always the hot-button issue. We needed to do a better job in explaining that to the community, and we will be doing that,” he said.

“This is going to be challenging, there’s no question about it,” Chairwoman Anne Ward said. “We hope to keep those lines of communication open.”

Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com.

Originally published by By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ, The Patriot Ledger.

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