The Changing Face of Giftedness

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The Changing Face of Giftedness

• Alternative Methods for Identifying Gifted
  English Learners

California Department of Education Accountability
Leadership Institute for English Learner,
Immigrant and Migrant Students December 7, 2009
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Presentation Goals

• Provide participants with a framework for the
  identification of underrepresented populations in
  gifted education by
• Building inter-program relationships
• Using traditional and non-traditional approaches

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About Santa Ana Unified School District

• Seventh largest school district in the State
  ranks as the number 1 port of entry for English
  language learners new to the U.S. statewide by
  Educational Testing Service.
• Approximately 60 EL (mostly Spanish, Vietnamese
  and Khmer)
• 54,378 K-12 students at 54 school sites
• Approximately 80 on Free or Reduced Lunch
• Source Santa Ana Unified School District, Dept.
  of Research and Evaluation

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SAUSD Race/EthnicComposition
Source SAUSD Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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GATE Program Participants
of Boys 2,312 of Girls 2,284 of
Students in SAUSD 54,378 GATE students make up
8.5 of the Total of students in SAUSD.
Source SAUSD Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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Ethnic Breakdown of Identified GATE Students
Source SAUSD Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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What we have to share

• Partnership between GATE and English Learner
  Services Departments
• Redefining appropriate GATE identification
  criteria in order to provide equal access to the
  GATE program in alignment with the GATE State
  Standards
• Use of traditional and non-traditional methods to
  identify gifted students in under-represented
  populations by creating a student portfolio

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NCLB 2002 Definition of Giftedness

• Gifted learners are students, children, or youth
  who give evidence of high achievement capability
  in areas such as intellectual, creative,
  artistic, or leadership capacity or in specific
  academic fields, and who need services and
  activities not ordinarily provided by the school
  in order to fully develop those capabilities.

• Source National Assoc. for Gifted Children

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National GATE Standards

• Two Important Guiding Principles of Student
  Identification
• Instruments used for student assessment to
  determine eligibility for gifted ed services must
  measure diverse abilities, talents, strengths and
  needs in order to provide students an opportunity
  to demonstrate any strengths
• All student identification procedures and
  instruments must be based on current theory and
  research.

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CA GATE Recommended Standards

• Standard 2 Identification
• The districts identification procedures are
  equitable, comprehensive, and ongoing. They
  reflect the districts definition of giftedness
  and its relationship to current State criteria.

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• All children are eligible for the nomination
  process regardless of socioeconomic, linguistic
  or cultural background and/or disabilities
• District establishes and implements both
  traditional and non-traditional instruments and
  procedures in searching for gifted students
• District actively searches for referrals among
  underrepresented populations

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Research Clearly Says

• We have not developed strong identification
  systems that are flexible and dynamic enough to
  ensure the use of nontraditional measures
  routinely in the service of improving our "hit"
  rate for identifying these underrepresented
  students Decision-making is still done with an
  eye to expediency rather than reflection on the
  merits of individual children, with an eye to
  finding "well-rounded" students rather than those
  with "peaks."

Critical Issues in the Identification and
Nurturance of Promising Students from Low Income
Backgrounds Joyce VanTassel-BaskaThe College of
William MaryWilliamsburg, VA Source
www.gifted.uconn.edu
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Its A Journey

• Into
• Something has triggered a closer look at your
  districts GATE population

• Through
• You are fact-finding and making some decisions
  about changes to your criteria

• Beyond
• You continue to collaborate and evaluate using
  data to modify/ refine on a regular basis

Years 1-2
Years 2-3
Years 4
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The Journey Begins..

• Prior to 1999
• Stanford Binet IQ Test
• K-12 by referral only
• Individual testing administered by
  psychologist

• 1999 - 2002
• Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)
• Mass-test at 2nd Grade Grades 3-11 by referral
• Administered by site GATE coordinator

• Since 2002
• Dialogue with EL Services
• Include looking at alternative test scores (e.g.
  CELDT, Aprenda, Benchmarks, Reading Assessments)
• Include a Parent Inventory

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To Ensure Equal Access...

• The NNAT (and since then NNAT2) was chosen
  because it is a fair evaluation of students
  nonverbal reasoning and general problem solving
  ability while remaining

• language free
• culturally fair

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Sample Naglieri Questions
Source www.mypsychologist.com
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Other Criteria Changes to Ensure Equal Access
Include...

• Traditional
• Standardized (CST) test scores
• Report card grades
• SAUSD Proficiencies
• Teacher recommendation
• Benchmark tests

• Non-Traditional
• Rapid acquisition of English
• Rapid growth as seen in standardized test scores
  within a two-year period of time from first to
  second test administration (e.g. from Below Basic
  to Advanced)
• Parent Survey of Student Abilities

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Places to Look for EL Gifted Potential

• Multiple Measures (using data derived from the
  following sources)
• CSTs (using data to find EL students who score
  at mid-proficient or above, or show large growth
  in two years)
• CELDT scores (using data to find those EL
  students who made a jump of two proficiency
  levels or more)
• District Writing Proficiencies scores (using data
  to find EL students who demonstrate a rapid
  growth/improvement )
• Primary Language test scores such as Aprenda
  (using data to assess students academic ability
  in primary language)
• Benchmark Test scores (using data to find those
  EL students who are showing rapid acquisition of
  content knowledge)
• Teacher Observation Matrix
• Providing teachers with a easy check list to
  assist in identifying students with GATE
  potential

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How does being an English learner affect being
recognized as a gifted learner?

• Academic Inhibitors
• Teacher delays identification of the student as a
  gifted learner until the child can speak fluent
  English.
• Educators perceive limited English ability as
  synonymous with limited academic abilities.

• Academic Facilitators
• Gifted student becomes excited and curious about
  the topic of the lesson.
• Teachers recognize emerging bilingual ability
  and/or rapid acquisition of English as a
  potential indicator of giftedness.

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Who Are the Gifted ELs in My Classroom?
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ELD Proficiency Levels

• Beginning
• Early Intermediate
• Intermediate
• Early Advanced
• Advanced

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Early Advanced and Advanced

• Shared characteristics
• Comprehend concrete and abstract topics
• Recognize language subtleties
• Produce, initiate, and sustain extended
  interactions to specific purposes and audiences
• Participate fully both in academic and
  non-academic settings requiring English

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Early Intermediate

• Teacher would
• Use music, chants, poems, fables, fairy tales,
  etc. to model sounds, rhythm, and patterns of
  language to promote oral language production
• Use questioning techniques that prompt longer
  oral responses
• Have students re-tell stories

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Purposes of CELDT

• To identify pupils who are English Language
  Learners
• To determine the students proficiency levels
• To assess the progress in acquiring the skills of
  listening, speaking, reading, and writing in
  English
• To assist in reclassification

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Looking at an Example of CELDT Growth Over Time
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• GATE characteristics shown by the elementary
  pupil in the classroom
• Questioning beyond the level of classmates.
  Probes general statements. Asks how and why
  questions.

Why cant humans be born with the ability to use
camouflage for protection.

• Persistent or tenacious in responding to
  challenging tasks. Works beyond allotted class
  time to find an answer. Works on challenging
  tasks during time scheduled for other classroom
  activities.

When the class was working on cause and effect
senteces, he created his own sentences and asked
for additional time to write more sentences.

• Acknowledged to be a person who knows more.
  Sought by classmates for help. Always knows the
  right answers to teacher questions.

On our museum field trip, he was one of the few
students who could correctly answer the docents
questions.

• CREATIVE Invents and originates gives clever
  and witty responses is flexible in ideas and
  actions has unconventional ideas or opinions or
  solutions to problems is resourceful builds on
  and extends classroom activities has a divergent
  way of doing things.

When students were asked how they could come up
with 90 cents, all of them said to use 90 pennies
or 9 dimes. He also said he could use 3
quarters, 1 dime and 1 nickel.

• CRITICAL THINKER Is logical and analytical is
  usually insightful reasons out complicated
  things uses common sense evaluates situations
  expresses criticism is skeptical relates life
  experiences to classroom lessons.

Students shows use of logic in his thinking and
test-taking, but has a hard time verbally
engaging in discussion.
OPTIONAL STATEMENT Test scores and grades may
not reflect this student's potential because
(comment on cultural, linguistic, environmental,
economic, motivational, medical, or other
factors)
Student demonstrates rapid growth in everyday use
of written and oral English and is very creative
in non-verbal tasks.
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Enrollment by Ethnicity
1999-2000
2009-2010
Source SAUSD, Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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SAUSD Migrant Education and GATE
2008-2009
Source SAUSD, Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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SAUSD English Learners and GATE
2008-2009
Source SAUSD, Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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SAUSD English Learners and GATE
2008-2009
Source SAUSD, Dept. of Research and Evaluation
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And Our Journey Continues

• We continue to look at
• Data
• Other non-traditional indicators such as a Parent
  Inventory which allows us to know what
  characteristics parents might observe at home
  (where they are expressive in their primary
  language)
• Inter-program collaboration
• Staff development that focuses on appropriately
  differentiated instructional pedagogy for gifted
  EL students
• What the research says

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Final Thoughts

• It is often said that youth are the most
  important natural resource of a nation. Gifted
  programs can help youth of all cultures and
  languages to become productive citizens and
  critical thinkers, ensuring that the future of
  the country is in good hands.

Jaime Castellanos Identifying and Assessing
Gifted Bilingual Hispanic Students,
1988 Source www.gt-CyberSouce.org
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Contact Us

• Santa Ana Unified School District 714-558-5501
• Nuria Solis, Director, EL Services
• Kathy Apps, GATE Coordinator, 6-12