School District to broaden programs for gifted students

MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools will make improvements to its programs to identify and educate gifted students over the next three years to ensure greater equity and access under a plan approved by the School Board Wednesday.

By 2009, a new gifted education program – a better quality one that ensures greater equity and access among underrepresented students – will be implemented in public schools across the County.

The District will aggressively seek to identify more gifted students by screening all 1st graders in the coming school year using a tool that does not rely on verbal ability. That tool — the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test — will be given to all 1st and 3rd graders and all newly arrived students in 2007-2008, and to all 1st, 3rd and 5th graders in the years thereafter.

The Revamping Education for Gifted and All Learners (REGAL) Plan sets forth recommendations, timelines and a budget for the successful implementation of a better gifted education program. The goals of the plan are to create more opportunities so that potentially gifted students from traditionally underrepresented groups may be identified, and to restructure the program to one that provides a unique, high-quality curriculum that correlates to international and global standards.

The Plan addresses three areas: gifted education, advanced academic programs, and talent potential among all learners. Among the recommendations set forth by the plan:

Changing the manner in which students are screened for gifted programs, to a method that is culturally neutral and language-free while at the same time appropriate to their grade level and development.
Adding school psychologists and placement specialists to ensure timely evaluations and placements of potentially gifted students.
Increasing support for all gifted and advanced programs by providing constant professional development for teachers, principals and staff, adding curriculum support specialists, and adding additional funds where needed.
Supporting talent development at all levels, for example, by engaging the community as educational partners who can provide rapidly advancing students with extended learning opportunities.
Broadening parental participation and support. One way to do so would be to increase the number of sessions for parents through the Parent Academy.
Providing equitable services that will deliver home-based gifted programs in all schools, so that even schools with small gifted populations will be able to provide adequate services.

The REGAL Plan calls for a three-year phase-in implementation timeline, so that by 2009, the revamped program will be completely in place. The first-year cost of this plan is $3.1 million, which will be included in the 2006-2007 tentative budget.