Monday, April 30, 2012

Superintendent Banda and APP

It appears Jose Banda will be the new Seattle Public Schools superintendent. Here's a new thread to discuss how that might impact APP.

7 comments:

Steve said...

I don't recall hearing anything about Banda's knowledge of or support for programs like APP in his professional life. Perhaps I missed it. Did anyone else read anything about this?

suep. said...

Mr. Banda's current district (Anaheim) has a gifted program (GATE = CA state Gifted and Talented Education).

Here's the specific info.

This is interesting: In Anaheim, they administer the advanced learning test to ALL 3rd graders.

Sounds like a good way to go, to me. That way, no child is missed and all AL kids are identified. That would address the issue of equal access.

If we did that here, we could do away with the costly and excessive (and inaccurate) MAP test, and give every child the AL test. I'd do it earlier, though, in 1st or 2nd grade.

Even though at first blush that might sound expensive, I'd bet that would still be cheaper than MAP testing.

I'd also like to see an AL test that's accurate enough that appeals aren't necessary. Or else, free appeals testing for kids whose scores are close. Or at the very least, for FRL kids.

I also like the fact that Anaheim's gifted advisory committee includes psychologists. Sounds like they take AL seriously there.

Food for thought.

hschinske said...

We do already have free appeals for kids on FRL. False negatives aren't solely a matter of test accuracy -- there are bazillions of ways to score lower than your true ability, sometimes much lower, especially if you're a little kid. If you're arguing that a particular test score is inaccurate, ipso facto that test score is not a good way to select who should get to appeal, either. The most accurate test in the world can't correct for the effect of a kid not being able to concentrate because s/he needs to go to the bathroom, for instance.

Steve said...

(Without digging into it too much) I notice that in Anaheim, they provide the GATE program to students in each of the 24 schools there. And kids in grades 3-6 are served in self-contained classrooms (K-2 kids are provided what looks like differentiated learning opportunities within existing classrooms). Apparently, they've figured out a way to meet the needs of Advanced Learning kids at each school.

Anonymous said...

Years ago, for one year, they did test all 1st graders. Parents did not like it. So they stopped.
That cohort is now in 10th grade.

Maureen said...

Anonymous at 11:11 said: Years ago, for one year, they did test all 1st graders. Parents did not like it. So they stopped.

What are you basing this statement on? My memory (and I have kids on either side of this cohort) is that the results didn't identify a significantly different cohort than opt in testing (actually it identified slightly more middle class white boys) and since it was costly, the district didn't repeat the experiment.

I expect some blog readers have the data on that (Dorothy? Helen?).

Anonymous said...

My memory of the all district testing was that parents were not informed prior and were not given a chance to opt out and that made some unhappy. I am sure that the reasons you state also contributed to this only happening one year.