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Project CLUE, Clustering Learners Unlocks Equity, a partnership between the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development at Ball State University and the Indianapolis Public Schools, will implement all seven areas of the Ford-Harris Model to provide comprehensive services to gifted and talented students in grades three through eight
(1) by defining a set of instruments that will identify gifted minority students, English as a Second Language students, and other under-represented students bringing their representation in gifted programs to levels that reflect the diversity of the population in the school corporation;
(2) by providing professional development to teachers in the content areas of mathematics, science, and language arts, as well as differentiated instruction;
(3) by restructuring the current gifted services plan to include cluster grouping in each of 52 elementary schools, continuing through 15 middle schools; and
(4) by bringing parents, school, and community together to help these students reach their full potential. In addition, counseling opportunities and summer academies will support the social, emotional, and academic growth of these students. Other outcomes of this project will be to provide teachers with new techniques to use with diverse populations so that all students are nurtured; to develop a set of curriculum units that extend existing materials on differentiating curriculum, tailored to meet these diverse needs both academically as well as socially/emotionally; and to disseminate the information through various technologies as well as print materials. In addition, the project will be presented at local, state, national, and international conferences, a website will be developed to provide nation-wide access to the materials, articles will be submitted to both scholarly and teacher-focused journals (e.g. Science Scope, Mathematics in the Middle School) and newsletters will be published for both local and nation-wide audiences.
PROJECT NARRATIVE
The Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development (Center) at Ball State University (BSU) is composed of a group of 20 committed educators who are focused on helping students realize their own talents academically, technologically, and artistically. A second, equally important task is the education of teachers and parents concerning how to identify, teach and relate to talented young people.
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) is a 41,087 student urban school district that has been challenged historically by factors that negatively influence urban education: negative perceptions of student potential, a poor sense of efficacy among many involved in the delivery of education services to children, the challenges of poverty, cultural bias, and lack of significant numbers of parents who are active partners in the educational process. Recently, a growing Hispanic population has added another layer of diversity to the corporation.
Over the last three years IPS has initiated significant changes in its philosophy, belief structure, and implementation of gifted and talented education by embracing the belief that many children have gifts and talents and that all schools must meet the needs of their students with special gifts and talents. Currently, each school serves its gifted students in whatever manner it deems appropriate. Although there is an identification plan, the students identified by it do not reflect the diversity of the corporation. With inclusion as a focus, teachers are faced with meeting the needs of all students in the regular classroom. There is clearly a need for significant professional development for teachers and administrators to have more information, options, and skill in structuring a process for best meeting the needs of all students in general and the gifted and talented in particular.
Since 1994, BSU’s Center has organized summer workshops for IPS, provided leadership at the monthly coordinators’ meetings, and offered endorsement classes on-site at IPS. As partners, we have completed our first Javits Grant, Project GATE, which provided professional development in differentiating instruction in mathematics and science to five elementary schools, five middle schools, and five high schools. In addition, two IPS elementary schools are Professional Development Schools through BSU.
Our desire is to continue this educational collaboration, using 52 elementary sites, beginning with teachers in grade three, continuing through 15 middle schools in Year Five and focusing on the areas of mathematics, science, and language arts enhanced by technology. Through Project CLUE (Clustering Learners Unlocks Equity), we plan to develop, conduct, scale-up and evaluate the identification of and services to gifted and talented students who are economically disadvantaged and limited English proficient, who may not be identified and served by traditional assessment methods. This in-depth collaboration between an urban school district and university center, using 67 sites, will also include three other vital aspects: a parent dimension, a counseling portion, and additional professional development for teachers in the areas of identification and needs, curriculum differentiation, multicultural education, and program development. Project outcomes will incorporate new information that improves the capability of IPS in particular and other schools in general to plan, conduct, and improve programs to identify and serve gifted and talented students from underrepresented groups, including a research-based, multi-faceted identification plan that provides a talent pool reflecting the diversity of the school corporation, a model program grounded in theory and research that provides a means of closing the achievement gap of underserved populations, curriculum guides addressing strategies that are most successful for these students, containing lessons developed to differentiate curriculum for gifted students in particular and all students in general, a research-based professional development plan that clearly articulates the pieces that must be in place for teachers to effectively and efficiently deliver curriculum to diverse learners, and project sites for observation by other interested people. We will place the project on the World Wide Web for accessibility to other school corporations across the nation, as well as present outcomes of the project at local, state, national and international conferences that focus on gifted education (NAGC, World Council on Gifted Education), content areas (NCTM, NSTA, NCTE), and general education (ASCD, AERA).
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE MODEL PROJECT
The first goal is to ensure the number of participants in gifted education from underserved populations adequately reflects the percentage of such students in the total school population by increasing the participation of students from underserved populations in the gifted program through: (a) using research-based, non-traditional assessment instruments that have been shown to identify gifted students from underserved populations; (b) identifying students through work samples and observation; (c) identifying students who were overlooked through other means of identification by using the Naglieri Non-Verbal Intelligence Test, SAGES, and/or TOMAGS; (d) designing assessment that is embedded in the curriculum;(e) translating peer and parent checklists/rating scales into Spanish and other languages when necessary; and (f) the use of the Northwest Evaluation Association Level Tests (NWEA), which provides assessment of the continuous progress of all learners.
The second goal is to provide a model program for gifted students from underserved populations in schools where a clearly articulated program does not exist by: (a) designing and implementing a gifted program with components based on the Ford-Harris model; (b) using cluster grouping to establish cohorts of gifted students in grades three through middle school; (c) supporting the social and emotional growth of these students through counseling and summer academies; and (d) incorporating key components of other state and local initiatives (e.g. NUA, PL 221) into the differentiated lessons to sustain a blend in the strategies teachers are learning.
The third goal is to provide teachers with a knowledge base and best instructional practices that enable them to provide challenging content to all students in general and gifted/talented students in particular by (a) providing training in curriculum differentiation strategies at 67 project sites; (b) providing training that addresses the development of challenging curriculum for all students in the content areas of mathematics, science, and language arts enhanced by technology; (c)developing and implementing an articulated differentiated curriculum in mathematics, science, and language arts enhanced by technology.
The fourth goal is to provide opportunities for increased parent involvement through programs conducted by professionals with experience in the field of gifted education, general education, and special education by (a) providing five two-hour parent workshops per year that deal with parenting issues in general, parenting gifted students, social/emotional needs of gifted students, nurturing gifts and talents, special issues of underserved students, gifted students with disabilities, and other pertinent topics, (b) providing resource packets for parents based on classroom content to help them nurture their child’s potential, and (c) two family math and science nights per year.
The fifth goal is to disseminate information among teachers in IPS and to other school corporations regarding effective programming to meet the needs of underserved students through challenging curriculum and differentiated instruction by (a) developing a program guide so the model can be replicated; (b) establishing model classrooms at project sites in grades three through eight; (c) developing a curriculum guide for each content area with lessons based on those developed and refined through the grant; (d) presenting the outcomes at state and national conferences with both gifted education and general education focuses; (e) placing the project on the World Wide Web and developing CD Rom components; (f) writing articles for scholarly and teacher-focused journals, and (g) developing a newsletter.