Leadership for Transforming Gifted Education for the 21st Century'

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• Leadership for Transforming Gifted Education for
  the 21st Century.

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Leadership Transforming Curriculum and
Instruction for 21st Century Students

• Valorie Hargett, Section Chief
• Secondary English/Language Arts Social Studies
• Secondary Division
• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
• Margaret Gayle, Executive Director
• American Association for Gifted Children
• Duke University
• www.aagc.org

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Academically or Intellectually Gifted Programs
Response to Underrepresented Populations

• National Challenge
• State Challenge
• Darity Report

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Race and Gender Child Count, NCDPI - 2005-2006
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Ethnic Representation in Academically or
Intellectually Gifted Programs in North
Carolina1997-2005 (Official Collection of Dual
Exceptionalities by State)
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Update From Dr. Darity

• One out five, if a White kid
• One out of twenty, if Black or Hispanic kid
• State of Things - WUNC Radio - June 2006

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All Kids Can Learn IF They

• Have high ability
• Take advantage of opportunity
• Create a warm, fuzzy environment
• OR
• If we do whatever it takes to ensure they achieve
  the agreed-upon standards and to maximize their
  full potential by building upon and extending the
  standards in order to have productive, successful
  lives in the new flat world of Thomas Friedman.
  

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All Students Can Learn

• Very strong evidence supports
• What happens to students does not depend on the
  school they attend - it depends on the principal
  and teacher they get.

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Wanted Visionary Leaders as Principals

• What traits, behaviors and attitudes do highly
  successful principals model as visionary
  curricular and instructional leaders?

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A Successful Visionary Principal Will Model

• Establishing high expectations for all
  students/faculty.
• Setting no predetermined limits for
  students/faculty learning.
• Embracing teachers and students as risk-takers in
  experimental, investigative and open-ended
  learning processes.
• Creating life-long learners and thinkers capable
  of independent reflection, self-evaluation and
  reasoning.
• Creating and supporting collaborative learning
  communities.

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According to Experts

• Highly successful principals develop
• Leadership capacity of classroom teachers through
  high quality professional development, with
  sustained support over time.
• A Focus on curriculum and instruction.

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Another Perspective

• Marzano, Effective teachers are effective with
  all students. The most important thing that a
  teacher can do is to design and implement
  classroom curriculum to facilitate student
  learning. The classroom teacher has the greatest
  impact on student achievement.

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21st Century Curriculum and Instructional
Visionary Leaders

• It can truly be said that nothing happens until
  there is vision
• Vision paints the picture of what we want to
  create. _____Peter Senge

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Transformational Response

• Universalize the equivalent of the Gifted
  Program
• Sandy Darity - State of Things - WUNC Radio -
  June 2006

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Bright IDEA 2 - A Javits Program funded by the US
Department of Education NCDPI and AAGC - 2004-2009
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Research Questions

• What are the dispositions of teachers toward
  gifted children from diverse groups?
• Can Bright IDEA impact the of children
  identified for AIG programs?
• What impact will Bright IDEA have on the
  meta-cognitive levels of children?
• Can the impact be linked to changing the
  dispositions of teachers?

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Transforming Education for the 21st Century
Learner in K-2 Classrooms

• In the research program, Bright IDEA,
  participants have 20 days of Intensive
  Professional Development(IPD) that includes
  central office personnel, school-based
  instructional specialists, principals and
  teachers.

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Professional Development for ALL

• Tailors gifted methodologies for regular
  classroom teachers to use with all children.
• Builds on the most advanced research and
  practices.
• Focuses on empowering regular classroom teachers,
  principals and curriculum specialists, though
  training and mentoring, to become curriculum
  architects for the future.
• Trains teachers to design interdisciplinary,
  concept-based curricular units based on state
  standards.
• Infuses thinking skills and Intelligent Behaviors
• Redesigns classroom environments to meet the
  learning styles of all children

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Project Bright IDEA II Curriculum and Instruction

• All educators are taught
• To unpack the standards for the Big Ideas
  that leads to un-coverage rather than coverage of
  factual knowledge.
• To unpack the level of cognitive thinking in
  the standards in order to create defensible
  differentiated curricula for all students.
• To design units of studies with the end in
  mind.
• To align curriculum, instruction and assessment
  using the Revised Blooms Taxonomy.
• To deliver instruction through the conceptual
  lens.

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Findings Include

• Overall satisfaction with the Bright IDEA program
  the Summer Institute experience
• Writing the curriculum units achieved the highest
  level of satisfaction
• Training from the researchers was positive
• Presentation and involvement of mentors were a
  highlight of the overall program
• Stress levels of participants were evident when
  complex training was presented
• Most said that they would never go back to the
  way they had taught

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Two Major Bright IDEA Lessons Learned in Research
Study

• Present research and evidence support the
  classroom teacher has the greatest impact on
  student achievement and growth over time.
• Research and evidence support there is a direct
  relationship between the visionary leadership of
  principals and the success of teachers with
  students

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Critical Perspective

• Ultimately there are two kinds of schools
  learning enriched schools and learning
  impoverished schools. I have yet to see a school
  where the learning curvesof the adults were
  steep upward and those of the students were not.
  Teachers and students go hand and hand as
  learnersor they dont do at all. _______Roland
  Barth

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Final Thought for 21st Century Visionary
Leadership

• Model
• It all begins with the principal modeling
  leadership behaviors (traits, attributes and
  behaviors). If the principal wants others to be
  leaders in the school, he/she must demonstrate
  what leadership and life-long learning looks like
  - in action.
• _______Edward McFarland
• Project Bright IDEA Principal
• Wake County Public Schools

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Bright IDEA Principals..

• Develop and articulate a shared vision for rigor,
  relevance, and relationships to the faculty and
  stakeholders in the community.
• Is the instructional leader in the eyes of the
  faculty and the parents.
• Articulates high expectations for all children.
• Demonstrates, on a daily basis, the importance of
  concept-based curriculum and instruction.
• Disseminates the ideas across the state to other
  administrators.

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Essential Questions for Educators

• How do we educate the child born in 2000 to live,
  work and compete in the flat world described by
  Thomas Friedman?
• How will this generation of children grow up with
  the necessary knowledge and wisdom as defined by
  the new 21st century taxonomies, to address
  issues, problems and challenges when solutions
  are complex and not easily definable and
  accessible?
• Most importantly, how will children have
  meta-cognitive prowess to explore deeper
  questions to ponder and seek solutions to
  problems not yet known?

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Research Instruments

• Educators
• Disposition Questionnaire (pre, middle and post)
• Satisfaction Survey (end of each year)
• Reflections based on Specific Training (on-going
  through all the training)

• Students
• K-2 Assessments
• Pre and Post Assessments on Intelligent Behaviors
• Math Problem-Based Questionnaire - 3rd grade

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Highlights from Teacher Evaluation of Training
Sessions

• ? High satisfaction levels with most instructors
  workshops
• ? These levels increased from first to second
  year due to targeted effort of the team
• ? Powerful utilization of mentor teachers
• ? Summer Institute promoted teachers confidence,
  competence, and understanding of the desired
  pedagogy
• ? Significant differences among counties
  reflected differences in leadership