Hoping “to send a message” to the community that stellar students won’t get the cold shoulder while money pours into programs aimed at helping lift up troubled classmates, school leaders are considering ways to assist the district’s top performers.
“It’s time that we address that,” said Chris Wilson, a Board of Education member.
Jane Anastasio, another school board member, said that parents complain to her frequently that “the good kids” get shortchanged because so much of the spending is geared to the worst students.
School Superintendent Philip Streifer said that the district is mandated to provide services to students who are struggling, while it merely has to identify those who are gifted and talented.
The district has identified 6.5 percent of its students as gifted, said Susan Moreau, the assistant superintendent.
Streifer said that if the board wants to push it, there is a “creative, exciting” online program that could be used to offer students a wide range of extra challenges.
He said it could be done without a large cost and would provide regular classrooms with more options for students who could move more quickly in their education.
Tom O’Brien, who also serves on the school board, said that “getting a program that works” for gifted and talented students isn’t simple.He said the district tried a variety of approaches for a decade, but found all of them lacking.
“We had the illusion of a gifted program for 10 years,” O’Brien said.
Wilson said it is important the district try to do something.
It would show the community that it’s not ignoring the needs of its best students, he said.
Streifer said that administrators would work with the board to try to come up with something. It’s not clear if that could be done in time for inclusion in the schools’ spending request for next year.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
4 comments:
It's an interesting dilemma - you don't want to put more funding behind one, while short-changing the other, and you could end up with backlash from the parents either way.
I was a part of the EPIC program in elementary school in the late 80's/early 90's. While some of the offerings were interesting and worthwhile, I always thought there was a lot more they could have done with it.
I did find, though, that the high schools offered a good number of AP courses, with solid teachers, so that students could challenge themselves before going off to college. I think I ended up with almost 30 credits before stepping foot on campus, and I got an inkling of the analytical processes, as well as the time committment, necessary for success in college.
I graduated high school in 1999, so I don't know how the AP programs are working presently. However, if they are still successful, it would be great to find a way to lengthen that pipeline, so to speak, and have something available for younger students.
Considering that we keep electing the same BOE members through the same flawed political party process over and over again, where candidates get picked because of connections, it's no wonder that the same problems remain and are getting worse.
When I think of Bristol's school administrators, I think "gifted and talented" not to mention "creative and exciting."
Susan Moreau, you go, girl!
If you don't take care of the gifted kids, they won't take care of you. And then you'll have to rely on the rest of them. Lots of luck with that.
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