SLIGHTLY MORE than one out of every 10 children who attend K-8 classes in the Savannah-Chatham County public schools are considered “gifted.”
That means they meet the system’s criteria for exceptional creativity and ability and they get good grades.
Unfortunately, it appears the school district may be falling down in helping students excel.
A recent audit of the gifted program showed some of the 2,816 students in the gifted program aren’t getting the educational enrichment they should be receiving in addition to their regular classroom work.
For example, teachers who are assigned to the gifted program were actually doing other duties. Or gifted classes were cut short. Or those classes were canceled because the students had to prepare to take standardized tests.
Also, the auditors found that some classroom teachers did not know how to modify their lessons to meet the needs of students who may be gifted in one subject area and not another. There’s also concern that some children were wrongly being screened out of the gifted program because they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Specifically, their communication skills are poor; they score low on vocabulary tests, while their aptitude in other areas is high.
No school district has ever improved by dumbing things down. Instead, you push everyone to achieve — including those already considered among the tops in their classes.
The local district’s gifted program should be one of its strong points. While the public is keenly aware of the district’s weaknesses and what it is doing to correct them, administrators must not lose focus on students who are already considered high-achievers. Teachers must make sure they are challenged and pushed.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
The auditors reported that gifted teachers were assigned to other duties. That’s an obvious problem. If principals can’t fix it, then Superintendent Thomas Lockamy should fix the principals.
The failure to properly teach children who are gifted in some areas but not others sounds like a training issue for some teachers. That also should be addressed.
As far as screening students for acceptance into the gifted program, it appears that the school district is trying to do a better job in casting a wide net. Indeed, providing extra help for students in some inner-city schools to help them qualify is a sound practice.
In fact, it could pay dividends beyond school campuses.
Unfortunately, too many people in the community don’t value education. Worse, some try to drag down the achievers through peer pressure and other means. That partially explains why children fall behind in school. It adds to the dropout rate, which in turn contributes to poverty and crime.
Getting children hooked on learning at an early age is critical. When they see themselves as “gifted,” it can be a powerful, motivational tool. This will help them stand up to negative peer pressure.
“My kids love coming to class and they are usually excited and engaged,” said Tara Wood, who teaches a gifted class of third graders at Hesse Elementary school.
Hesse isn’t an inner-city school. But every school should strive to be an incubator for learning. The excitement and energy that gifted classes generate can be transferred to all K-8 schools — if administrators, principals, teachers and others do their parts. This audit should keep them on task.