3100 Staten Ave.

, Apt 2
Lansing, MI 48910

4 June 2016

Mr. Bryan Klochack

Principal
Michigan Connections Academy
3950 Heritage Drive
Okemos, MI 48864

Dear Bryan,

I have recently become aware of and concerned about our school's strategies for identifying gifted

and talented students. Learning coach and teacher referrals have allowed for many students to enroll in

gifted and talented courses; however, I am sure that our school has many students who are not quickly

or easily identified as gifted, and therefore miss out on the opportunity to participate in a more

challenging curriculum that would push them to grow as learners. In order to combat the weaknesses in

our school's current policy, I am suggesting that changes be made to increase learning coach and teacher

abilities to identify gifted students, as well as provide further testing for each student as to not rely too

heavily on potentially biased referrals.

At Michigan Connections Academy (MICA) the process for identifying gifted and talented (GT)

students is highly reliant on learning coach and teacher recommendations. At any time learning coaches

can request for their student to be placed in GT courses beginning in 3rd grade. The student's home room

teacher can examine past performance and any other additional evidence to help the teacher and learning

coach decide on the best courses for the student. Teachers can also suggest to learning coaches that their

student be placed in GT courses based on student performance and interactions during phone calls or

LiveLesson sessions. High school students have the opportunity to complete a survey to indicate their

interest in dual enrollment at a local college or university in order to work toward future goals. Students

can discuss dual enrollment with their teacher and counselor to decide if it is right for them. Each student
at MICA also completes Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing in math and reading three times

each school year, and teachers may use the results of this testing to help identify gifted students. These

current strategies give many students the opportunity to take challenging courses, but it can also lead to

missed opportunities for others.

According to Sanchez (2016), gifted students are usually first recognized by their parents, which

is why the learning coaches at MICA are so crucial to identifying gifted students; however, many learning

coaches may not know the signs of a gifted child and would never request that their student be enrolled

in GT courses. Other learning coaches may believe their student to be gifted but not know about course

offerings or the process for enrolling their student in GT courses. A learning coach is often a student's

biggest advocate, but a student can easily miss opportunities if their advocates lack information.

Teachers are another key resource used to identify and refer gifted students to GT programs, but

this can come with many problems. In a study conducted by David Card and Laura Giuliano in Broward

County Schools in Florida, it was discovered that high-ability Black and Hispanic students, as well as English

language learners, were less likely to be referred by parents and teachers for I.Q. testing in order to enter

GT programs (Dynarski, 2016). There are many potential causes of this. "Teachers may have lower

expectations for these children, and their parents may be unfamiliar with the process and the programs.

Whatever the reason, the evidence indicates that relying on teachers and parents increases racial and

ethnic disparities," (Dynarski, 2016). Many non-white and non-native English speakers may fall through

the cracks due to unintentional bias from their teachers; however, this could also be attributed to a lack

of training, as well. According to Sanchez (2016), most teachers lack the skills necessary to identify gifted

students, especially English language learners. If teachers are not trained to identify gifted students, many

students will go unnoticed and miss opportunities to take GT courses.

 No two gifted students are the same, and they have different personalities and behavior patterns

like every other person. Not every gifted student is a well-behaved perfectionist who earns straight A's,

though it is likely those students who are most quickly identified as gifted. According to Tyson (2006),

behavior and language cues are often used by teachers and counselors to identify gifted students, and

"disruptive" behaviors of low-income and minority students in a North Carolina elementary school were

seen as an indicator of low potential; this lead to low rates of gifted screenings and referrals of these

students. In another North Carolina elementary school, minorities were actually overrepresented in their

gifted program because they began looking at "disruptive" behaviors differently; students who were

overly social, showed signs of boredom, or were curious were seen as needing to be more challenged, so

they were given a more challenging curriculum. After these students were placed in the gifted program,

many performed better academically and displayed better classroom behavior. Here at MICA we are not

in physical classrooms with students each day to observe their behavior, but their behaviors and

performance can still impact referrals for GT classes. Many gifted students may lack LiveLesson

attendance or participation, display "disruptive" behaviors during LiveLessons, speak with us very little on

the phone, perform poorly on their assessments, or fall behind in their school work. These factors would

likely cause a large decrease in their likelihood of being recommended for GT courses, but are not clear

indicators of a non-gifted student. Behind the scenes these students might be bored or frustrated with

school, work in a distracting environment, lack support at home, or have other things to worry about that

are more important than school, such as where their next meal will come from. When teachers rely too

heavily on behavior and school performance for their recommendations, it can lead to gifted students

missing opportunities to reach their full potential.

Learning coaches should be each students' biggest advocate, so updates to MICA's gifted

identification policy should begin with helping them become more informed. Every learning coach should

be made well aware of GT course offerings and the procedure for enrolling their students into them, as
well as being trained to identify signs that their student may be gifted, especially training that focuses on

identifying typically unrepresented groups. This can be accomplished by communicating these messages

to learning coaches through phone calls with home room teachers, webmails, LiveLesson sessions, and

message board postings.

Teachers are highly involved in each student's learning and have the ability to recommend

students to GT programs; however, most teachers are not trained to pick out gifted students. In order to

most effectively identify gifted students, teachers should be trained to be like talent scouts (Sanchez,

2016). If teachers at MICA participated in professional development to help us identify gifted students we

would become better advocates for our students and provide them with more opportunities for growth.

This would also raise awareness about the importance of enrolling students in GT courses and we would

work harder to search for gifted students and recommend to learning coaches that they be enrolled in GT

courses. We would see larger numbers of students being challenged and increasing their learning, leading

to greater school success and a smaller achievement gap.

MAP testing in the fall, winter, and spring of each year in math and reading can be a helpful tool

for identifying gifted students, but I would further recommend we add more data to support or encourage

teacher and parent referrals. According to Dynarski (2016), Broward County Schools in Florida found

success when they required all second graders to undergo universal screening with a short nonverbal test;

students with high scores were referred for I.Q. testing to see if they qualified for the district's gifted

program. Due to this screening and further I.Q. testing, the percentage of Hispanic children who qualified

rose from 2 percent to 6 percent, the percentage of Black children rose from 1 percent to 3 percent, and

the percentage of White children rose from 6 percent to 8 percent. With the addition of testing instead

of relying simply on teacher and parent referrals, Broward County was able to double the number of Black

and Hispanic students identified as gifted. MAP testing provides MICA with data about our students, but
perhaps the school could take it a step further and choose (or add) a different test, such as an I.Q. test,

that would be even more helpful for identifying gifted students outside of just their math and reading

abilities that may or may not indicate giftedness. MAP tests also do not easily allow for the identification

of gifted English language learners since the test requires so much English reading. Providing a test for

these students that does not depend so heavily on their language abilities would help teachers to identify

more non-English speakers as gifted.

As educators we all want the best for our students, and this requires us to think deeply and

reevaluate what each student needs to reach their full potential. Our school offers gifted and talented

courses for our best and brightest students, but our strategies for identifying those students cause some

to lose out on these opportunities. Many gifted minority students and those who are not easily identified

as gifted end up staying on the lower tracks of achievement for their entire school careers simply because

a parent or teacher never saw the signs to recommend them for more challenging courses. Without

universal screening many gifted students go unnoticed. As a school we need to work together to bring

more students into our gifted program because each of them will benefit. According to Tyson (2006),

"children who are exposed to the challenging curricular materials offered in gifted programs do better

academically than children who are not exposed to them, independent of their prior achievement."

Identifying students as gifted is a benefit in and of itself, leading to higher academic confidence and higher

enrollment in AP and honors courses in high school (Tyson, 2006). Let's make these changes to better

identify gifted students, reduce lost opportunities, and increase the academic success of our students.

Sincerely,

Erin Barger
 References

Dynarski, S. (2016, April 8). Why talented black and Hispanic students can go undiscovered. The New

York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/upshot/why-talented-black-

and-hispanic-students-can-go-undiscovered.html?_r=0

Sanchez, C. (2016, April 11). Gifted, but still learning English, many bright students get overlooked.

National Public Radio. Retrieved from

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/04/11/467653193/gifted-but-still-learning-english-

overlooked-underserved

Tyson, K. (2006). Providing equal access to "gifted" education. In Everyday antiracism: Getting real about

race in school (pp. 126-131). The New Press: New York.