The argument, and the fact that gifted students are overwhelmingly white and wealthy, is often what leads to criticism of gifted programming as elitist. “All those kids can’t have the same special needs.” So it can’t be true,” Peters said of communities with high gifted populations and broad definitions. “Truly gifted kids and highly gifted kids truly do need differentiated instructions and accommodations. Having them share a class with “high achievers” who aren’t actually gifted can be problematic, he said. You’re just going to create more seats.”ĭaniel Peters, co-founder of the Summit Center, a West Coast organization offering therapy for gifted children, said those students have social and emotional needs that should be addressed by an accelerated curriculum and by being around their peers. “So you cast your net a little broader so you get more kids in. “What I’m concerned with in young people is kids who do have a higher potential than their peers and who could benefit in special services,” he said. The argument carries even more weight in a district where 238,000 students are on free or reduced lunch and about one in five children is considered an English language learner. Renzulli, a leading expert in the field whom Miami-Dade consulted in the mid-2000s, said a far better approach is to consider other factors, such as creativity and task commitment, and place more children under the gifted umbrella. Those kids don’t do well on those tests.” “One of the things that does is it discriminates against low-income, minority and bilingual students. “The big issue in Florida has always been the state’s 130 IQ cutoff score,” said Joseph Renzulli, a University of Connecticut professor and director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. “It’s the whole ‘build it and they will come.’ ” “By expanding our services and making them available districtwide, we saw an increase in our numbers,” said Lisette Rodriguez, head of Miami-Dade’s gifted programs. That was due in part to an expansion of services for older students, who otherwise would have dropped off the map because the state only identifies children receiving a gifted education. Charters still provide their own services.Īfter one year, the number of gifted students jumped by more than 6,000, or almost 25 percent. Services were also expanded so that every school could provide gifted education to its students rather than bus them twice a week to a gifted center, as they often did in the past. The district sought the advice of experts, spent millions to add services, and trained parents, teachers and principals to spot exceptionally bright students, including those unique to minorities. Administrators say the numbers reflect efforts to better identify and serve advanced students that began in 2006 when the Miami-Dade School Board voted to improve its programming.
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