• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Norfolk Schools Reallocate Teachers Time With Gifted Students

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 09:01 CDT

BY AMY JETER

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

NORFOLK Starting next month, gifted resource teachers will spend more time at about half of the citys elementary schools and less time at the others.

School officials changed how the teachers will divide their days after receiving complaints last year from several dozen W.H. Taylor Elementary School parents, who said their gifted childrens education suffered because the teacher was responsible for too many students.

In the past, teachers spent equal time among nearly all of the schools, whether a school had two gifted students or 48.

Now the schedule is based on the number of gifted students in a school and whether the school receives Title I funding extra money from the federal government based on the number of the schools low- income students.

We wanted to make sure that every school is covered, that every school gets a basic level of service, said Daniel Baise, interim senior coordinator of gifted education services.

Norfolks gifted elementary students are placed in regular classrooms, but teachers are supposed to teach them advanced versions of daily lessons with the help of gifted resource teachers. Most South Hampton Roads school divisions use this cluster model in some form.

Recently, Taylor Elementary School parents complained that the gifted resource teacher seemed too busy to help all 48 of the gifted students there last year. Administrators responded last spring by promising to increase the time the teacher will work there starting in the fall. They also changed how the other teachers are distributed.

Last year, 18 full-time and two part-time gifted resource teachers served the 35 schools. They spent the equivalent of 2.5 days a week at all schools but one.

This year, there will be an additional part-time gifted resource teacher, and that person will spend two to five days a week at each school.

An extra day was allotted for Title I schools, Baise said. Nationally, blacks and students from low-income families tend to be underrepresented in gifted programs.

Chesterfield Academy of Math, Science and Technology, a Title I school with 13 gifted students as of June, is one place where the teacher will be spending more time.

Every little bit helps, said Chesterfield Principal Sterling A. White Jr. My hope is that person will help us identify more gifted students.

Larchmont Elementary, the only school with two full-time gifted research teachers last year, had the most gifted students in the spring, with 81. It will get less time from the teachers next year the equivalent of seven days a week.

Candace Mason, a Larchmont parent, said the uneven gifted program got a boost when the second teacher was added last winter to help another gifted resource teacher who seemed overwhelmed with duties. Mason worried that the students would receive less attention with the new system.

There is the bottom line of, how much can one person do? she said.

In interviews with The Virginian-Pilot earlier this year, other parents called Norfolks three -year-old gifted elementary program inconsistent, saying their children have had effective lessons sometimes but have gone unchallenged at other times.

The divisions Gifted Education Advisory Council has requested that teachers with gifted students in their classrooms receive additional training on how to instruct them.

Baise said the district is in the final stages of negotiating with a college to provide courses in gifted education for Norfolk teachers.

Last year, of 212 classroom teachers, two had completed the graduate courses required for certification to teach gifted students, Baise said. The other teachers training generally consisted of programs offered by the school system and help from gifted resource teachers, he said.

A systemwide evaluation of the program has not been done, Baise said, but one is planned for next year.

We have enough experience now to see problems that developed and any kind of improvement or enhancements that need to be put in place, he said.

School officials refused to provide The Virginian-Pilot with evaluations completed this year by the gifted resource teachers, saying the information wasnt ready to be made public.

* Reach Amy Jeter at (757) 222-5104 or amy.jeter@pilotonline.com.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

More News in this Category