NRCG/T Digests with
Recommendations: (see below for full-text online editions):
"The Relationship of
Grouping Practices to the Education of the Gifted and Talented Learner,"
Dr. Karen B. Rogers:
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/rogers.html
"An Analysis of the
Research on Ability Grouping: Historical and Contemporary
Perspectives" Dr. James A. Kulik
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/kulik.html
"Promoting Student
Achievement and Exemplary Classroom Practices Through Cluster
Grouping: A Research-Based Alternative to Heterogeneous Elementary
Classrooms" Dr. Marcia Lynne Gentry
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/gentry.html
NEW!
Full-Text articles relevant to grouping from the NRC/GT
(For
the entire list of monographs, go to
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/nrconlin.html#9204)
"An Analysis of the
Research on Ability Grouping Historical and Contemporary Perspectives"
James A. Kulik, Ph.D. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
February 1992 Number 9204
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rbdm9204/rbdm9204.pdf
"Cooperative Learning
and the Academically Talented Student" Ann Robinson, Ph.D.
University of Arkansas at
Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas,
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rbdm9106/rbdm9106.pdf
"The Relationship of
Grouping Practices to the Education of the Gifted and Talented Learner"
Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul,
Minnesota, October 1991, Number 9102
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rbdm9102/rbdm9102.pdf
"The Effects of
Grouping and Curricular Practices on Intermediate Students' Math
Achievement" Carol L. Tieso, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
Alabama February 2002 Number RM02154
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm02154/rm02154.pdf
"An Observational
Study of Instructional and Curricular Practices Used With Gifted and
Talented Students in Regular Classrooms" Karen L. Westberg, Francis
X. Archambault, Jr., Sally M. Dobyns, Thomas J. Salvin, The University
of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, July 1993
Research Monograph 93104
(shows that differentiated instruction rarely happens in mixed
classrooms)
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm93104/rm93104.pdf
"Evaluation of the
Effects of Programming Arrangements on Student Learning Outcomes"
Marcia A. B. Delcourt,
Brenda H. Loyd, Dewey G. Cornell, Marc D. Goldberg, The University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, October 1994, Research Monograph
94108
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm94108/rm94108.pdf
"The Effects of Group
Composition on Gifted and Non-Gifted Elementary Students in Cooperative
Learning Groups" David A. Kenny, Francis X. Archambault, Jr., Bryan
W. Hallmark (found that mixed cooperative groups actually harmed lower
achieving students and resulted in more negative social relations; no
change was found in learning by high-achieving students)
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm95116/rm95116.pdf
"Qualitative Extension
of the Learning Outcomes Study" Marcia A. B. Delcourt, Karen Evans
The University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, November 1994, Research Monograph
94110
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm94110/rm94110.pdf
Marcia Gentry's study
isn't yet fully online
"Promoting Student
Achievement and Exemplary Classroom Practices Through Cluster Grouping A
Research-Based Alternative to Heterogeneous Elementary Classrooms"
"Qualitative and
quantitative research data indicate a relationship between professional
development in gifted education, cluster grouping, and increased
achievement scores. Teachers using cluster grouping held high, yet
realistic, expectations of students."
Abstract and Conclusions:
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/gentry.html
Other grouping articles and sites:
"Grouping the Gifted
and Talented: questions and answers" by Karen Rogers. Reprint of a
classic 1993 Roeper Review article on the Genius Denied
website. A comprehensive review of the research in this field. Highly
recommended
http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=11395
"Ability grouping is
not just tracking anymore" by Carol Tieso, rept. from the Davidson
Institute:
http://www.geniusdenied.com/Articles/Record.aspx?rid=13012&NavID=13_15
"In search of reality:
Unraveling the myths about tracking, ability grouping, and the gifted "
Ellen Fiedler,;Richard Lange, ; Susan Winebrenner,
http://www.geniusdenied.com/articles/Record.aspx?NavID=13_15&rid=14070
"Gifted
and Growing" How one school district used computer-adaptive
testing, acceleration, and levelled classes to ensure that all students
made progress
"Distinguishing Myths From Realities NRC/GT Research" by
Marcia Gentry and Karen
Kettlehttp//www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/newsletter/winter98/wintr983.html
"The Tracking and
Ability Grouping Debate"
http://www.edexcellence.net/library/track.html full-text of a study
by Tom Loveless for the Fordham foundation, July 1998. A review of the
most important recent studies on tracking and ability grouping, with
recommendations. Recommended.
Grouping vs.
Differentiation: An annotated list of articles and resources from a
Wisconsin parents' group.
http://www.madisonunited.org/grouping.html
"Ability Grouping,
Tracking and Alternatives" An annotated bibliography (including
websites) from the WISE program at Ithaca College
http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/topics/ability.htm
"One Size Fits All?
Age based tracking versus ability grouping in elementary school
mathematics." An article by Mike Robison
http://www.msu.edu/user/robiso12/Grouping.htm A very clear and
useful review of the most important studies on this topic. Recommended.
"How should we group
to achieve excellence with equity?" by Bonnie Grossen, 1996
http://www.uoregon.edu/~adiep/grp.htm
'The Other Crisis in
American Education" by Donald Singal, from Atlantic Monthly,
1991,
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/educatio/singalf.htm Discusses
the implications of the fact that falls in average SAT scores were
caused by falling scores for the top quartile of students. Recommends
curricular and administrative changes. Discusses the measures taken by
schools that continued to succeed when other schools were falling
behind.
Research Synthesis on Educational Provisions for Gifted Children
by Professor Karen Rogers. This is an update of her "A Best-Evidence
Synthesis of research on accelerative options for gifted students."
published in Colangelo and others, eds., Talent Development
(1991). It looks at studies of various educational programs such as
acceleration, multi-grade classrooms, curriculum compacting, and
cooperative learning and estimates the "effect size" of each as
fractions of a school year gained in comparison to other gifted students
who are not in these programs.
Rogers also found that:
-
the learning rate of
children above 130 IQ is approximately 8 times faster than for
children below 70 IQ
-
GT students are
significantly more likely to retain science and mathematics content
accurately when taught 2-3 times faster than "normal" class pace
-
GT students are
significantly more likely to forget or mislearn science and
mathematics content when they must drill and review it more than 2-3
times
-
GT students are
decontextualists in their processing, rather than constructivists;
therefore it is difficult to reconstruct "how" they came to an
answer
Another version of these
results can be found as "Research-Based "Essentials" of Gifted Education
Services" from the Minnesota Talented and Gifted Development Center.
This link worked better for me and has been updated through 1998:
http://www.nswagtc.org.au/info/articles/RogersResearchSynthesis.html
Montgomery School's New
Take On Ability Grouping Yields Results By Daniel deVise
Washington Post, Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01
"Roberson
and the Rock View faculty are having remarkable success lifting children
out of that gap, the achievement gap that separates poor and minority
children from other students and represents one of public education's
most intractable problems.
They have
done it with an unusual approach. The Kensington school's 497 students
are grouped into classrooms according to reading and math ability for
more than half of the instructional day.
The
technique, called performance-based grouping, is uncommon in the region.
Some educators believe it too closely resembles tracking, the outmoded
practice of assigning students to inflexible academic tracks by
ability."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301167_3.html?sid=ST2007110301386
Advocacy:
see also "government"
above
"The greatest economic risk to the nation
isn't borrowing or debt, but deficient elementary schools that will hurt
future productivity." Alan Greenspan testifying before the Senate
Banking committee, February 16, 2005 (reported in the Charlotte
Observer,
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/charlotte/business/personal_finance/10920015.htm
and many other news reports)
"Advocacy Toolkit" from the National
Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=36
ACHIEVE report
"Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College
and Work?"
http://www.achieve.org/node/548
"College instructors
are the harshest critics of public high schools. Only 18% of college
professors feel that most of their students come to college extremely or
very well prepared, with
just 3% saying extremely well. ... Even at colleges with competitive
admission policies that only let in high performing students, only 30%
of instructors say that most of their students come to college well
prepared....College instructors estimate that 42% of high school
graduates are not adequately prepared by their high school education for
the expectations of college classes and are struggling or having to take
remedial courses to catch up.... (50%) is not
adequately
prepared for college-level writing.......A surprisingly low 30% of those
in college preparatory programs think that they were significantly
challenged in high school"
Education and Economic
Growth by Hanushek and others, argues that quality of education is a
better measure than duration and that both widespread minimum attainment
and a highly-educated group are needed for high economic growth.
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/16110377.html
Know Your Legal Rights
in Gifted Education. ERIC Digest E541., Karnes, Frances A.;
Marquardt, Ronald
http://ericec.org/digests/e541.html
PSA Primer: Written for
people interested in promoting the Year of Languages by encouraging
media to run Public Service Announcements, this is a handbook on
publicity for nonprofits and advocates:
http://www.actfl.org/files/public/PSACampaignPrimer.pdf
A speech by Lou
Gerstner, then CEO of IBM: "It's time we swept out the "one size
fits all" mindset that we apply to the pace at which we expect children
to learn...."
http://www.ibm.com/lvg/educ99.phtml
Parents for Public
Schools, Advocacy links
http://www.parents4publicschools.com/resources.html
National
Network of Families with Gifted Children: Testimony submitted by the
National Network of Families with Gifted Children before the U.S.
Senate A very useful short explanation of why gifted children need
special programming. Recommended. Take this one to your principal or
P.T.A.http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/hearings/106th/ecyf/esea71599/christensen.htm
National Science Board
of the National Science Foundation, "Science and Engineering
Indicators, 2004."
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/start.htm
See in
particular Chapter 3, "Science and Engineering Labor force"
"The share
of foreign-born scientists and engineers in the U.S. S&E workforce rose
to a record in 2000, reflecting high levels of entry by both permanent
and temporary visa holders during the 1990s. Data from the 2000 U.S.
Census show that, in S&E occupations, approximately 17 percent of
bachelor's degree holders, 29 percent of master's degree holders, and 38
percent of doctorate holders are foreign born."
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/c3/c3h.htm
"The Other Crisis in
American Education" by Daniel Singal comments that the level of
preparation of college-bound students declined sufficiently to cause
overall SAT scores to drop 60 points despite a slow but steady
improvement in the scores of students in the lowest quartile.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/educatio/singalf.htm
Speeches by Craig
Barrett, CEO of Intel (pdf. file)
"Educational Complacency
will make U.S. Feel the Pain" an article in USA Today 2.23.05
http://nab1.wperfect.com/PDF/Intel%20Barrett%20Speech%20Nov%202001.pdf
"Neither the business nor the
education community has done enough to convey the important message that
U.S. education is an extremely serious problem, really a ticking time
bomb. If not resolved, this inadequate education could eventually lead
to enormous repercussions for our citizens, our economy and our nation
as a whole. Our educational system needs drastic repair, yet our
national leaders are sitting around debating a few details – whether we
should have tests, whether we should have assessments, etc. – and really
ignoring the task of forging an overall solution to our problems."
http://nab1.wperfect.com/PDF/Intel%20Barrett%20Speech%20Nov%202001.pdf
"The kids
at the top of the heap are smarter than ever, but they're a decreasing
slice of the pie. You can argue whether we rank 17th, 18th or 20th out
of 20 countries in math and science comprehension among our 12th-grade
kids. The longer they stay in the system, the worse they get. Who could
[and should] tolerate such a system? [It's almost as if we said,] "Let's
take a generation of our young people and legislate them into a system
where the longer they stay in [school], the worse off they are to
compete in the world's economy." This is bloody crazy."
from the
Davidson Institute.
The
next time someone in your district says, "we'd like to serve gifted
children but our budget is too tight," give them this and suggest they
offer the inexpensive options on this list.
http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=14057
White Papers from the Oregon Education
Roundtable A set of disturbing data about the problems with Oregon's
education, what we need to do to fix it, and why it's important
http://www.oregonedroundtable.org/studies%26reports_whitepapers.html
Why our Nation Needs to Educate our
Gifted and Talented Youth: a collection of facts from the Davidson
Institute
http://presskit.ditd.org/Davidson_Academy/pr2006_Academy_National_Statistics.html
Articles on
Miscellaneous Topics
"The Blame Game"
ever wondered why the conference you thought would be about providing
services to your child ends up being about what's wrong with your
child? This article explains why. Written for Special Education parents
but equally persuasive for TAG parents .http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/ALESSI1.html
"The Dos and Don'ts of
instruction: What it Means to teach Gifted Learners Well" by Carol
Ann Tomlinson
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=659
"From "the saddest sound" to the D Major chord: The gift of accelerated
progression." Miraca U.M. Gross,
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/gifttal/EAGER/MiracaGross.html
"Gifted Children, the
myth." An Australian article by Helen Dowland ("Reception" is
Kindergarten). Everyone should read this one.
http://www.helendowland.fasthit.net/Gifted%20children%20the%20Myth.htm
Gifted Education Press Quarterly
free! To receive your complimentary copy of this and previous
issues of the GEPQ send an e-mail to Maurice Fisher:
giftededpress@comcast.net
"Highly Gifted
Children in Full Inclusion Classrooms" by Kathi Kearney. Highly
Gifted Children, 1996. "Gifted students, especially the highly
gifted, are probably the one group in our schools for whom the
inclusionary principle of "Age-appropriate placement in local public
schools" (Conn, 1992, p. 28) is not developmentally appropriate."
http://www.hollingworth.org/fullincl.html
For a very clear and
entertaining explanation of why student gain data is important and
should be used to correct the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) evaluation
required by the No Child Left Behind Act see the Northwest Education
Associates report, "Individual Growth and School Success." Both
the executive summary and the full report are available at the link
below, but the full report requires registration.
http://www.nwea.org/research/getreport.asp?ReportID=28
The Koret Report:
"Our Schools and our Future--Are We Still at Risk?" a reassessment of
A Nation at Risk by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Reviews information concerning American student achievement and finds
the answer is "yes."
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/books/osof.html
"Competing with
Myths concerning the Social and Emotional Development of Gifted
Students'' by Tracy Cross
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Cross_CompetingWithMythsAboutTheSocialAndEmotionalDevelopment.shtml
"To Be or Not To
be.... Gifted? Identification and Education of the Young Gifted Child,"
by Susan Grammer, From Gifted Education Press Quarterly
http://home.netcom.com/~grammers/ToBeOrNotToBe081501/
"Urban
educational challenges Is reform the answer?" Susan Fuhrman, Ph.D::
"My
topic for this address is Urban Education Reform. Clearly, there are
challenges in urban schools, but what's important and what I want to
focus on is that there is no shortage of reforms intended
to address them. The question I want to address is - why is reform so
prevalent and so disappointing?"
http://www.urbanedjournal.org/articles/article0004.html
College advice/advanced classes/admissions/scholarships/minority college
advice
Advanced Placement:
Administered by the College Board but now on its own website:
http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/
AP Ledger: find
out which approved AP classes are offered in a given High School
https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/
ACT testing,
student pages ACT also administers the Explore test, widely used by
talent searches. The former ACT site has been divided up and is now
noisy and difficult to navigate
http://www.actstudent.org/index.html
Blackexcel
http://www.blackexcel.org/
Created to encourage young black and minority students to attend college
and to provide information about the historically black colleges and
universities. Provides all sorts of college advice and help including
scholarship links, advice on attending medical and law school, articles
on being an african american in college, financial aid, and a
newsletter. Highly recommended for black/minority students; useful for
any student.
ASPIRE:
a project of Americorps to provide mentoring and college application
assistance to Oregon students
http://www.aspireoregon.org/about.html Check out the "web links"
for a wide range of information
EduRegistry:
provides a state-by-state directory of universities, colleges, and
vocational/technical schools with some advice on things to consider when
selecting a college.
http://www.eduregistry.org/
International
Baccalaureate Organization best known for its program for advanced
classes for High School also has middle school and elementary school
programs. All three can be found at
http://www.ibo.org/
Oregon College Assistance
Commission (OSAC) website for financial aid:
http://www.getcollegefunds.org/
WiredScholar. A
portal for help with all aspects of college preparation. Provided by
Sallie Mae, the leading college loan corporation. Especially helpful on
financial advice
http://www.wiredscholar.com/ Test information is provided by Kaplan
and is limited in scope
SATs, AP tests and
more: http://www.collegeboard.org
Provides articles and research as well as just testing information
StudentJobs This site is intended to help students in college,
graduate, and postgraduate programs and "career professionals" to locate
grants, internships, apprenticeships and fellowships. It includes a wide
range of opportunities for teachers, students and scholars including
Javits and Fulbright grants, public policy, health and medicine,
curriculum development, agriculture, science and overseas experiences.
http://www.studentjobs.gov/
U.S. News college pages
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
Distance learning resources:
See
the Distance Learning Links on the Hoagies site at
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/distance_learning.htm
and
the Free Online High School Courses on the Hoagies site at:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/online_hs.htm
Carnegie Mellon Online complete introductory college level classes
offered by Carnegie Mellon University. Recommended.
http://www.cmu.edu/oli/
Center
for Distance Education from the Center for Talented Youth, Johns
Hopkins. Includes the EPGY program jointly offered by CTY and
Stanford University.
http://www.jhu.edu/~gifted/cde/
See
also
http://www-epgy.stanford.edu/epgy/ for Stanford's version
e-IMACS online classes from the Institute for Mathematics and
Computer Science.
http://www.eimacs.com/LM/LMPlain.asp?F=eimacs&S=5
EPGY High School online. A new program from Stanford
http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/OHSPressRelease.pdf
"High
School and Beyond"--a list of free online courses fulfilling Maine
High School Course requirements. Compiled by Kathi Kearney, this site
offers a comprehensive list of online classes including many from the
CyberSchool in Eugene.
http://www.homeschool-maine.org/high_school_&_beyond.htm#Free%20Online%20Courses
Learn online! http://www.migrant.org
is a website developed by the State of Kentucky to assist migrant
families who move frequently from school to school by enabling them to
take courses online. It is completely free, but to obtain credit for
the work you must have a school district representative to supervise and
assess the work. The "lessons" are assemblages of websites created by
other organizations--migrant.org just puts them together sequentially
and offers some organizing help. When I toured I found the math
sections seemed to be comprehensive, if uninspiring, but the social
studies and humanities/arts sections were inadequate and better used as
a supplement to more conventional instruction.
Distance Education links from the Oregon Department of Education.
http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/results/?id=332
North Dakota
Division of Independent Study. High School Distance Education for a fee
which includes tuition, textbooks and study guides. Some placement
tests are offered.
http://www.ndisonline.org/
Open Course Ware
Central registry of open college course ware
Resources for Students
by I. Lee. http://geocities.com/researchguide/
Includes a section of
"webquests" or digital lesson plans
http://geocities.com/researchguide/webquests.html
and links to all sorts of resources useful in writing research papers
including citation guides
See also the essay on
"How to Survive the Internet Unscathed,"
http://geocities.com/researchguide/14surviv.html
which should be required reading for anyone with a new Internet account
(and the rest of us)
Village Home Education
Resource Center in Beaverton. Classes for home-schooled students,
requires tuition,
http://www.villagehome.org/
Virtual School for the
Gifted, located in Australia
http://www.vsg.edu.au/
Homeschooling in Oregon
A to Zs of
Homeschooling: National:
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/
A to Zs of
Homeschooling: Oregon. Includes listing of many Oregon
homeschooling resources and associations
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/Oregon.htm
Homeschooling Gifted Students:
Homeschooling Questions and Answers
from the Oregon Department of Education
http://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/specialty/home/faqguidelines.pdf
Homeschooling in Oregon by the
Eugene-Springfield Homeschool Association
http://www.eshaoregon.com/or.html
Reports and proceedings
NEW! The
Achievement Trap: from The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. A study
of the extent to which high achieving low-income students are losing
ground year by year.
press release: .
http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=3636348&mode=stage
full report:
http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/Documents/Achievement%20Trap.pdf
The
Australian Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and
Education Committee held a series of hearings across the country on
the education of Talented and Gifted Children. in 1999. Both the
submissions and the actual testimony are available online.
The
submissions consist of about 280 documents. Some of them are simply
questionnaires that were returned to the
committee, but some of them are very substantial documents including
very recent research (one person submitted findings from her just
completed PhD. thesis). In particular, there is a
moving submission by Shaun Hately about growing up gifted (number 95)
an extremely substantial document from Miraca Gross and
the GERRIC that is almost a manual of gifted
education, (number 215) and a very extensive and carefully researched
submission by Tracy Chaloner on the needs of
exceptionally gifted children (number 230).
The
submissions are available at
http//www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/eet_ctte/gifted/sublist.htm
Interpreting
12th-Graders’ NAEP-Scaled Mathematics Performance Using High School
Predictors and Postsecondary Outcomes From the National Education
Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) From the National Center for
Education Statistics. Wins a prize for the longest and densest
title, and perhaps for most predictable conclusion. Finds that
students who performed well on a math test as High School Seniors are
more likely to attend and graduate from College.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007328
NEW!
"Left Behind By Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-Based Accountability"
By Derek Neal and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach University of Chicago
and NBER July 2007. How uniform state standards under NCLB hurt
students at both ends of the spectrum.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~n9na/web_ver_final.pdf
A Nation Deceived:
How Schools
Hold Back America’s Brightest Students by
Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline, Miraca U. M. Gross The
Templeton National Report on Acceleration from the Belin-Blank
International Center for
Gifted Education and Talent Development, University of Iowa
available free online or by mail from
http://www.nationdeceived.org/
National
Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent. Classic
report issued by the U.S. Department of Education in 1993
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/DevTalent/toc.html
Northwest Evaluation
Association reports::
NEW!
The Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act
on Student Achievement and Growth. This report found that after
the implementation of NCLB, student achievement test scores rose
slightly, but student growth decreased, and shows that
high-achieving students made lower gains.
Press Release
Executive Summary
Full report (requires free registration)
"Reaching the Top: A
Report of the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement"
(1999). This report is now only available for purchase. The electronic
version was taken offline.
NEW! "RIgor
at Risk" A report from the ACT testing association argues that just
taking the recommended "core curriculum" is insufficient to prepare High
School students for college because of a lack of rigor in many "core"
classes.
http://www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/rigor_report.pdf
The TIMSS, administered in 1995, was repeated for eighth-grade
students in 1999 (TIMSS-R). This time, the figures for the U.S. were
better--U.S. eighth-graders slightly exceeded the international average
of 38nations in mathematics and science. They outperformed students
in 17 countries, were level with students in 6 countries, and did worse
than students in 14 countries. In science, they outperformed students
in 18 countries, were level with students in 5 countries and did worse
than students in 14 countries.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001027.pdf
Highlights from TIMSS
(1999) States that U.S. students in 8th. and 12
grade lag behind those of many other countries and that the slower pace
of the U.S. mathematics curriculum may be one factor.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999081.pdf.
Short Web-Based Version of
Answers in the Tool Box:
Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree
Attainment by Clifford Adelman Senior Research Analyst, U.S. Department
of Education. finds that the intensity and quality of the secondary
curriculum is the single most significant factor in students' attainment
of bachelor's degrees.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Toolbox/toolbox.html
The Toolbox Revisited.
Answers in the Tool Box has now been updated by Dr. Adelman. It
still concludes that the intensity and quality of the High School
curriculum available to students predicts college success.
http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/toolboxrevisit/toolbox.pdf
Research
resources and tools
Center for the Study of Evaluation and
National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student
Testing (CRREST). This website offers several hundred
technical reports on assessment standards and methodology as well as
more readable articles for parents, policymakers and teachers. The
technical reports are a bit daunting but often worth the effort.
See in particular: "Issues in the Design of Accountability
Systems, CSE Technical Report 650 Robert L. Linn (April, 2005) and
"Corrective Action in Low-Performing Schools: Lessons for NCLB
Implementation from State and District Strategies in First-Generation
Accountability Systems",
Heinrich Mintrop and Tina Trujillo
CSE Technical
Report 641 (2004).
Now available as a full-test article through ERIC
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/9e/1f.pdf
A comprehensive
bibliography of articles on gifted education and gifted students,
classified by subject, and including a summary of each article, from the
Center for Talented Youth/Johns Hopkins
http://www.jhu.edu/gifted/research/biblio.html
Center on Reinventing
Public Education at the University of Washington provides
research-based reports on teacher standards, school finances and school
choice among other topics
http://www.crpe.org/
H-Education is a
listserv on the history of education intended for academic researchers.
It is part of the H-Net consortium of academic listservs
http://www.h-net.org/~educ/
National Research
Center for the Gifted and Talented NRCG/T in Storrs, Connecticut.
Funded by the US Department of Education, provides TAG-related research
studies by nationally respected scholars. Site offers publication list
and abstracts. For links to full text articles, see "Ability Grouping"
below--
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt.html
"A Reader's Guide to
Scientifically Based Research" by Robert Slavin. Some things to
look for in deciding whether a particular study cuts the mustard.. From
Educational Leadership.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200302/slavin.html
"Statistics Help"
Intended for journalists, here's a quick, easy-to-read refresher course
on some fundamentals of statistics, to prepare you for reading all these
research reports. Find out what a "standard deviation" is and why
knowing the margin of error might be important.
http://www.robertniles.com/stats/
"Statistics at Square
One" a more challenging text on statistics from the British
Medical Journal
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/collections/statsbk/index.shtml
UNESCO Institute for
Statistics: A large collection of international education
statistics and reports on education, science, technology, culture and
communication
http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev_en.php?ID=2867_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
NEW!
"Unfinished Business: More Measured Approaches
in Standards-Based Reform" by Paul E. Barton of the Policy
Information Center, Educational Testing Service (2004). Another very
informative summary of the issues raised by the use of achievement test
scores to evaluate school performance. Longer, more detailed and a bit
denser than the NWEA report above. Recommends a mixed approach to
evaluation including ensuring that testing reflects actual curriculum
goals, repeated testing during the school year, and the use of both
gains-based and status-based reporting. Recommended.
http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/unfinbusiness.pdf
NEW! "Why Most
Published Research Findings are False" by John P. A. Ioannidis an
essay for the Public Library of Science. Written about medicine, but
equally applicable to other studies. Buyer beware!
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124&ct=1
See also: "Government
information" and "Reports and proceedings" above
Parenting
Tips for Parents: A whole set of
articles on parenting and parent advocacy from the Davidson Institute
http://www.ditd.org/Cybersource/library/category.aspx?cat=Tips+For+Parents&mid=246
Supporting
Emotional Needs of Gifted (SENG)
http://www.sengifted.org/
Special
needs:
Access by Students with
Disabilities to Accelerated Programs, a letter from the U.S.
Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights
http//www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20071226.html
AEGUS: the
Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students
http://www.aegus1.org/
Auditory Processing
Disorder, often known as CAPD. UK site.
http://www.geocities.com/dolfrog/APD_in_UK
American Association
of the Deaf-Blind
http://www.aadb.org/
Asperger Syndrome: OASIS - Online Asperger
Syndrome Information and Support
http//www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/
"Gifted children with
AD/HD" by Dierdre Lovecky. This is the most sophisticated article I
have seen on this subject.
http://ericec.org/fact/lovecky.html
"Before referring a
gifted child for ADD/ADHD evaluation" by Sharon Lind. A very
informative checklist.
http://www.ditd.org/Cybersource/record.aspx?sid=11510&scat=902&stype=110
The Hoagies website
offers an extensive set of links on ADD/ADHD at
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/adhd.htm
See also "symptoms of
Attention Deficit Disorder" on a site sponsored by
the National Center on Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and the
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/symptom.htm
Council for
Exceptional Children, recommended for parents of "double identified"
children, and others seeking advocacy advice--
http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=13872
Dual Exceptionalities
Concise ERIC Digest guide to recognizing signs of giftedness in students
who also have disabilities. Recommended. Copied on the LD Online site
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/gt_ld/ericE574.html
Dysgraphia or
trouble with handwriting seems to be a particular problem for gifted
boys. See
http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=468 and
http://www.dyscalculia.org/Edu563.html
Dyscalculia and
Dyslexia resources from the Dyscalculia website
http://www.dyscalculia.org/
"Guide to the
Individualized Education Plan", from the U.S. Department of
Education
http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html
"Section 504, the ADA
and IDEA" From the Wrightslaw website. A concise account of the
distinction between Individualized Education Plans (created under the
Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT or IDEA) and a Section 504
Plan (created under the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA).
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/sec504.summ.rights.htm
An even more concise
version, in the form of an ERIC digest,
http://ericec.org/digests/e606.html
Learning Disabilities
Association of America --
http://www.ldonline.org/
and their gifted page: http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/gifted
See especially their
"advocacy memos" including "advocacy memo no. 1, denial of eligibility
because of gifted intellectual ability/lack of failure" --
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/gt_ld/lda_advocacymemo.html
Learning Disabilities
Self-Advocacy manual: something different: a manual written just for
students. Well-written, clear and helpful for both kids and adults.
Recommended.
http://www.ldinfo.com/self_advocacy_manual.htm#top
"Meeting the needs of
twice-exceptional children" by Merideth Warshaw. A good
place to begin. A general article with links to other important sites.
The author maintains the "uniquely gifted" website (see below)
http://www.ditd.org/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=11330&sterm=%22Tips+For+Parents%22
"The Mislabeled Child"
An Article by Fernette and Brock Eide argues for better diagnosis and
non-pharmacological therapy for many children. Recommended.
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/12/eide.htm
Neurolearning Blog:
links to lots of new and interesting articles. Maintained by Fernette
and Brock Eide in Edmonds Washington
http://www.neurolearning.com/index.htm
Nonverbal Learning
Disorder: NLD on the Web:
http://www.nldontheweb.org/
2-E, The Twice
Exceptional Newsletter. Copies are offered by subscription; back
issues for a fee, but there's also solid information on the website.
Recommended.
http://2enewsletter.com/index.html
"Uniquely gifted"
a website for gifted/special needs children
http://www.uniquelygifted.org/
edited by Meredeth Warshaw, a co-founder and listowner of GT-Special
(see listservs above) Recommended
Wrightslaw
http://www.wrightslaw.com/
Aptitude Testing
and IQ
"An Aptitude
Perspective on Talent Identification" by David Lohman. Encourages
the thoughtful use of identification practices to match student
aptitudes with the nature of the gifted programs they are being chosen
to join.
http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/dlohman/pdf/An_Aptitude_Perspective_on_Talent.pdf
The Hoagies site
(see above) offers an extensive collection of resources at
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/testing.htm
Human intelligence:
Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources. This
site is aimed at people teaching college or graduate level classes on
human intelligence.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell
Intelligence:
Knowns and Unknowns: Report of a Task Force established by the
Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological
Association
"IQ Subtest Analysis: Clinical Acumen or Clinical
Illusion?" Marley W.Watkins,
Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, Fall/Winter 2003
http://www.srmhp.org/0202/iq.html
Abstract:
Subtest analysis is pervasive in psychological training and
practice. That is, the speculation that the variability or profile
of an individual’s scaled scores across the subtests of an
intelligence test have meaning beyond that provided by global IQ
measures. A review of subtest analysis research revealed that
neither subtest scatter nor subtest profiles demonstrate acceptable
accuracy in discriminating among diagnostic groups. The evidence
that exists regarding relations between subtest profiles and
socially important academic and psychosocial outcomes is, at best,
weak: subtest profile information contributes 2% to 8% variance
beyond general ability to the prediction of achievement and 2% to 3%
to the prediction of learning behaviors and test-session behaviors.
Hypothesized relationships between subtest profiles and other
psychosocial behaviors persistently fail to achieve statistical or
clinical significance. Methodological problems in research and
practice that cause subtest analysis results to be more illusory
than real and to represent more of a shared professional myth than
clinically astute detective work are explicated.
Lessons from the History
of Intelligence Testing" by David Lohman. An interesting and
sophisticated rumination on the intersection of intelligence testing
with other trends and factors.
http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/dlohman/pdf/history_of_intelligence_testing.pdf
NAGC Position Statement on
the use of the WISC-IV for identifying gifted students
Suggests that it is often
appropriate to substitute General Ability Index (GAI) for overal. "IQ"
score.
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=2455
"The role of Nonverbal
Ability Tests in Identifying Academically Gifted Students" by
David Lohman. Argues that undue reliance on non-verbal tests
such as the Naglieri (NNAT) and the Raven's Matrices may actually
exclude gifted minority/ESL students.
http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/dlohman/pdf/Role_of_Nonverbal_Ability.pdf
"
John D. Wasserman,
Davidson Institute for Talent
Development/Young Scholar Seminar 2006. Advice on getting the most
out of the various idiosyncrasies of different IQ tests.
http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=14107
Understanding and Predicting Regression Effects in the Identification of
Academically Gifted Children David Lohman. Another of Lohman's
provocative and interesting papers. How do we establish
identification methods that maximize the probability that students who
test as "gifted" today will also test as "gifted" next year?
http://faculty.education.uiowa.edu/dlohman/pdf/Understanding_and_predicting_regression.pdf
"Understanding Tests
and Measurements for the Parent and Advocate" by Peter D. Wright and
Pamela Darr Wright. Written for parents of learning disabled children,
but a very thorough explanation of different sorts of testing and how to
interpret test scores. Long and somewhat dense, but worth the time.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html
for reports on
state achievement testing and NCLB, see "reports and proceedings" above.
Unusually,
Highly, Exceptionally, or Profoundly Gifted
The
Davidson Institute for Talent Development A good collection
of information and links about meeting the needs of extremely gifted TAG
children and a large library of relevant articles, graded by staff for
their quality/relevance. See especially their pamphlet for educators
which can be downloaded in .pdf format or ordered on the site. The
Institute also offers some limited scholarship assistance.
http://www.ditd.org/public/
Hollingworth Center
for Highly Gifted Children
http://www.hollingworth.org/
Resources for Students who are Highly or Profoundly Gifted....from
ERIC
http://ericec.org/fact/gt-profound.html
see also "Tips for
Parents" above under "Aptitude Testing"
