Report says schools still
shortchanging gifted kids
University of Iowa
By: Sara Agnew,University of Iowa
Although access to programs and support for gifted students has grown since then, editors Susan Assouline and Nicholas Colangelo knew their work wasn't done. Far too many high-ability children are still languishing in classrooms, bored and unchallenged, their potential lost and futures jeopardized.
Now these researchers, professors, and top administrators with theUniversity
of Iowa 's College of Education
And just as important, A Nation Empowered aims to keep the conversation about acceleration going.
"The first report was an unmasking—an exposing of the reality about acceleration," says Assouline, director of the UI College of Education'sBelin-Blank International
Center
There will be a public launch event for A Nation Empowered from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, during the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) inChicago West
Tower
In their groundbreaking first report, Assouline and Colangelo exposed disparities between the research on acceleration and the educational beliefs and practices that often run contrary to research. They showed research supports acceleration as the most effective curriculum intervention for gifted children. For bright students, acceleration is not only cost-effective but has long-term beneficial effects, both academically and socially.
A Nation Empowered builds on those notions.
"It goes beyond affirmation," says Colangelo, dean of theCollege
of Education and director emeritus of
the Belin-Blank Center
Volume 1 includes personal stories from students, teachers, and families while Volume 2 presents the evidence-based research with eight new chapters and updates to chapters that appeared in the first report.
Ultimately, the hope of A Nation Empowered is to continue pushing the needle toward dispelling myths about acceleration for gifted students, says Joyce VanTassel-Baska, a contributing author in Volume 1 and professor emerita and founding director of The Center for Gifted Education at theCollege of William
"A powerful argument can be made, based on research, about the importance of acceleration for gifted students," says VanTassel-Baska in chapter one of A Nation Empowered. "Yet false ideas about the supposed dangers of moving students through school faster still get air time in teachers' lounges and at neighborhood kitchen tables."
Andrew and Kimberly Carter know all too well the challenges of advocating for a gifted child. When Andrew Carter accepted a coaching job at the UI, his son Mason moved from a streamlined program for gifted children inMiami
to a school district in Iowa
For months, the Carters’ son struggled, bored in the regular classroom. Eventually, the couple began research of their own, which included reading A Nation Deceived and understanding the Iowa Acceleration Scale. They pushed for whole-grade acceleration, and after additional testing and a number of meetings with district-level administrators and teachers, their son was allowed to skip the sixth grade.
"In our journey so far, we’ve learned that educators and educational administrators face parents with gifted claims all the time," Andrew Carter says. "As you might expect, they naturally enter into those discussions with a great deal of skepticism, not to mention assumptions that the claims are driven by adult ego more than anything.”
Carter says if you want to be taken seriously, know the research and the signs of a gifted child.
"Speak to experts in the field, like those at Belin-Blank and be prepared to have your son/daughter tested and to have honest discussions about him/her," he says. "You need to be able to hear the truth, even if it’s not what you want to hear."
Above all, the Carters encourage parents to stay involved with their child's day-to-day activities in school.
"Don't get distracted by trying to fix the entire system," Andrew Carter says. "That may sound like a selfish approach, but it's not. It's a manageable approach."
While A Nation Empowered continues to chip away at misconceptions about the dangers of acceleration—chapters in Volume 2 are authored by 30 different experts in the field—researchers like Assouline and Colangelo know work remains to be done on behalf ofAmerica
As for the future, Assouline and Colangelo hope educators continue to use technology to customize education for bright students and that researchers develop new methods for identifying gifted students from diverse backgrounds.
But perhaps what inspires Assouline and Colangelo most are the stories they hear from adults who were accelerated as children.
"From everything we're able to gather, acceleration was really a plus in their lives," Colangelo says in the report. "The part that stuck with me is that these students, later in life when they're adults, are saying if they could do it over again, they'd want more chances at acceleration.”
By: Sara Agnew,
The report A
Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students
changed the conversation about academic acceleration in this country's schools
when it was published 10 years ago.
Although access to programs and support for gifted students has grown since then, editors Susan Assouline and Nicholas Colangelo knew their work wasn't done. Far too many high-ability children are still languishing in classrooms, bored and unchallenged, their potential lost and futures jeopardized.
Now these researchers, professors, and top administrators with the
And just as important, A Nation Empowered aims to keep the conversation about acceleration going.
"The first report was an unmasking—an exposing of the reality about acceleration," says Assouline, director of the UI College of Education's
There will be a public launch event for A Nation Empowered from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, during the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in
In their groundbreaking first report, Assouline and Colangelo exposed disparities between the research on acceleration and the educational beliefs and practices that often run contrary to research. They showed research supports acceleration as the most effective curriculum intervention for gifted children. For bright students, acceleration is not only cost-effective but has long-term beneficial effects, both academically and socially.
A Nation Empowered builds on those notions.
"It goes beyond affirmation," says Colangelo, dean of the
Volume 1 includes personal stories from students, teachers, and families while Volume 2 presents the evidence-based research with eight new chapters and updates to chapters that appeared in the first report.
Ultimately, the hope of A Nation Empowered is to continue pushing the needle toward dispelling myths about acceleration for gifted students, says Joyce VanTassel-Baska, a contributing author in Volume 1 and professor emerita and founding director of The Center for Gifted Education at the
"A powerful argument can be made, based on research, about the importance of acceleration for gifted students," says VanTassel-Baska in chapter one of A Nation Empowered. "Yet false ideas about the supposed dangers of moving students through school faster still get air time in teachers' lounges and at neighborhood kitchen tables."
Andrew and Kimberly Carter know all too well the challenges of advocating for a gifted child. When Andrew Carter accepted a coaching job at the UI, his son Mason moved from a streamlined program for gifted children in
For months, the Carters’ son struggled, bored in the regular classroom. Eventually, the couple began research of their own, which included reading A Nation Deceived and understanding the Iowa Acceleration Scale. They pushed for whole-grade acceleration, and after additional testing and a number of meetings with district-level administrators and teachers, their son was allowed to skip the sixth grade.
"In our journey so far, we’ve learned that educators and educational administrators face parents with gifted claims all the time," Andrew Carter says. "As you might expect, they naturally enter into those discussions with a great deal of skepticism, not to mention assumptions that the claims are driven by adult ego more than anything.”
Carter says if you want to be taken seriously, know the research and the signs of a gifted child.
"Speak to experts in the field, like those at Belin-Blank and be prepared to have your son/daughter tested and to have honest discussions about him/her," he says. "You need to be able to hear the truth, even if it’s not what you want to hear."
Above all, the Carters encourage parents to stay involved with their child's day-to-day activities in school.
"Don't get distracted by trying to fix the entire system," Andrew Carter says. "That may sound like a selfish approach, but it's not. It's a manageable approach."
While A Nation Empowered continues to chip away at misconceptions about the dangers of acceleration—chapters in Volume 2 are authored by 30 different experts in the field—researchers like Assouline and Colangelo know work remains to be done on behalf of
As for the future, Assouline and Colangelo hope educators continue to use technology to customize education for bright students and that researchers develop new methods for identifying gifted students from diverse backgrounds.
But perhaps what inspires Assouline and Colangelo most are the stories they hear from adults who were accelerated as children.
"From everything we're able to gather, acceleration was really a plus in their lives," Colangelo says in the report. "The part that stuck with me is that these students, later in life when they're adults, are saying if they could do it over again, they'd want more chances at acceleration.”
Afterword by the Blog Author
The blog author skipped his senior year of high school,
graduating at age 16. He also attended
college for ten straight quarters, earning a bachelor’s degree at age 19. “It’s a mistake to slow down and bore a quick
mind.”
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