Education Week - November 27, 2019 - 1

To inspire and empower.

Vol. 39 * Issue 14 * November 27, 2019

edweek.org

| OPENING THE GATES

Schools Struggle to Widen Access to Gifted Classes
'Twice exceptional' students
often get overlooked
By Alex Harwin

Sarahbeth Maney for Education Week

Sacramento, Calif.

GIFTED: Fifth grader Zachary is among the growing number of students identified as "twice exceptional" in Sacramento, Calif. PAGE 14 >

50%
More than

of survey respondents think
that black, Hispanic, and
Native American children,
and those living in poverty,
are underrepresented
in gifted education.
SOURCE: Education Week Research Center

Gifted services don't
reach all, survey finds
By Corey Mitchell
Gifted and talented programs in school systems across the nation are failing to reach all of
the students who need them, especially black,
Latino, and Native American students, children who live in poverty, and English-language
learners, according to a survey by the Education Week Research Center.
More than 60 percent of educators sur-

veyed said they at least partially agree that
their school district's procedure for screening gifted and talented students identifies
all or most of the students who belong in the
program.
But more than 60 percent of survey respondents said black students and English-learners
are underrepresented in gifted education- and
more than 50 percent had the same concern for
students who live in poverty and Hispanic and
Native American children.
"We have a long way to go to improve our
ability to recognize the gifts and talents in
children from underserved populations and

Detecting Would-Be Shooters Vexes Schools
By Stephen Sawchuk
& Arianna Prothero
The most critical question about the
recent shooting at Saugus High School in
Santa Clarita, Calif., remains unanswered:
What provoked the violence?
Two students were killed and three others wounded in the early-morning shooting Nov. 14 at the 2,400-student high
school in the Los Angeles suburb. The
shooter, who police say turned a .45-caliber handgun on himself after shooting
five classmates within 16 seconds, died

the day after the shooting. (The gun, according to authorities, appears to have
been assembled from parts and did not
have a registration number.)
The initial portrait of the 16-year-old assailant suggests he showed few outward
signs of distress. He was involved in Boy
Scouts, had a girlfriend, worked attentively
on group projects with other students, and
was a member of the track club, according
to local news reports.
In other words, unlike the great majority of school shooters, he does not appear
to have given off many warning signs

Audrey Judd is a 5th grader with dyslexia. She has
also been identified as gifted and talented. Some call
that combination "twice exceptional." But Audrey,
who attends Sutterville Elementary School in Sacramento, did not feel particularly exceptional in her
gifted and talented class last year. She felt like just another kid in the class.
"There were two people that said they were autistic," she said of her classmates. "There was someone
who said they were missing a kidney. There was someone who shared that they had diabetes."
Datawise, though, Audrey is exceptional and so
is her school district, Sacramento Unified. Students
with disabilities account for 14 percent of the nation's
school population, but in gifted and talented classes,
they are a very small slice. Nationwide, less than 3 percent of students enrolled in gifted and talented education have been identified with disabilities.
In Sacramento, though, the proportion is higher:
6 percent of gifted and talented students in grades 2-12
have disabilities in a nearly 47,000-student district.
Their numbers have grown in tandem with an overall
rise over the past five years in newly identified gifted
special education students. The jump was spurred in
PAGE 14 >

on which school personnel could have
acted.
The implications of that are sobering. Although there is no foolproof way to prevent
violence on campuses, many elements of
the current school safety debate-in Parkland, Fla., for instance-center on districts'
botched responses to students who may
present clear signs of trouble.
But what can districts and schools do
when the signs aren't as obvious?
How can they know what the holes or
weak spots are in their mental-health
PAGE 12 >

to identify them," said Sally Krisel, a former
board president of the National Association for
Gifted Children who participated in the Education Week survey. "It is our obligation to meet
the needs of all our kids, and all includes gifted
and talented learners," added Krisel, who is
also the director of innovation and advanced
programs in the Hall County, Ga., schools.
Education Week's survey-which includes
responses from nearly 800 gifted and talented
teachers and hundreds more school- and district-level gifted and talented coordinators-
highlights divides over access and opportunity
PAGE 15 >

TikTok: Powerful Teaching
Tool or Classroom Problem?
By Alyson Klein
Earlier this school year, Andrew Kozlowksy noticed one of
his students out in the hallway, dancing. What was she up to?
Making a TikTok, the student told him.
After serving as an impromptu background dancer in her
video, Kozlowsky, a teacher at Quince Orchard High School
in Gaithersburg, Md., did some research on the platform.
Now, he's started using it in his social studies class. He gave his
students the option of making TikTok videos to demonstrate
their understanding of the Missouri compromise of 1820, a key
PAGE 13 >

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Education Week - November 27, 2019

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