TBT | A ‘Gritty’ Discussion: Are Schools Leaving Gifted Students Behind?

This Throwback Thursday post originally appeared on our website in March 2014. Angela Duckworth’s recent best-seller, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,  has direct tie-in to the socio-emotional resources Dr. Diane Heacox shared at our May 2016 chapter meeting.

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St Croix Valley Gifted brings you a news round up of Minnesota and national conversation about the overall environment today’s gifted youth and their educators are facing at school.

A crop of early 2014 articles began drawing attention to the distinct needs and lagging condition of education supports for gifted learners in the United States. Arriving on the heels of NAGC’s newest ‘State of the States of Gifted Education‘ report, these articles coincided with:

• Release of a 30-year longitudinal research study on gifted learners out of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and
• News that the proposed FY2014 Omnibus Spending bill before Congress included $5M to restore partial funding of the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act, which Congress previously defunded in 2011.

In our own back yard, the Star Tribune ran two articles in March that show how these issues are playing out on a local scale. Although the articles cover Minneapolis Public Schools, they are reflective of questions and concerns St Croix Valley Gifted and MCGT field regularly about schools across the metro, and of key reasonsthis organization exists to provide connection, support and advocacy.

Excerpts of both Star Tribune pieces appear below, followed by links to national coverage on giftedness, education trends, and how to meet needs of our country’s high-ability learners.

Nitty Gritty in the Twin Cities: Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 2014

Gifted kids and their needs are still largely misunderstood  

As a mom of three well-educated Minneapolis Public Schools children, I hate to see these families go, but I don’t blame them. For all the progress we’ve made to meet the needs of this special group, gifted children remain largely misunderstood, underfunded and unappreciated.

 

We should care more about them.

 

On a practical level, our economy is already seeing the negative impact of business leaders going overseas to hire brainy talent in engineering, math and science. Results of one recent national test placed 8 percent of American 15-year-olds at the “advanced” level in math proficiency. Chinese kids? Fifty-five percent.

 

In addition, our teachers are stretched thin and we need to support them with sufficient funding for programs and training to help them do their increasingly challenging jobs.

 

Most important to me is that it’s our grown-up duty to nurture every child to his or her greatest potential, ­wherever he or she falls on the academic spectrum. The biggest myth about gifted children is that they tend to be white and living in affluence. Those kids are simply the lucky ones, with parents who have time and resources to advocate for them and drive them across district borders if need be.

 

But children who could benefit from a challenging and rigorous academic curriculum — our future inventors, teachers, political leaders — are sitting in every classroom in Minnesota, waiting for someone to recognize their high ability and transform it into high achievement. – by Gail Rosenblum, full article 3/17/14

These discussions are taking place at the same time ‘grit’ and ‘growth mindset’ are receiving attention as an education concepts and driving predictors of achievement.