INTEGRATING Gifted Education into the Total School Curriculum

Traditionally, teachers of the gifted have been considered creative individuals but not always good teachers. Gifted education specialists can share their expertise with other teachers by teaching creativity or process skill lessons to their classes--but only if they are credible as fellow teachers. The entire school can benefit from the right kind of expertise.

Most teachers have bright and talented students in their classes who need qualitatively different curricular materials from those used by other students. The gifted education specialist can share specialized materials not generally found in regular classrooms. Ideally, the gifted education specialist plays the roles of catalyst, arranger, facilitator, manager, and instructor for bright and talented students, so use this resource as a mentor to other staff.

Especially critical is that gifted education specialists be integrated into the overall school staff and held accountable for their roles as staff members. The first step I took in Parkway was to restore service to the schools five full days a week; for years the specialists had met at the program office on Fridays to work on curriculum. Meeting for professional work is needed, but never on Friday! The political backlash isn't worth it.

Also, I encouraged principals to assign specialists the same duties as other staff were responsible for. Thus Parkway's gifted education specialists (we called them "enrichment specialists" for political reasons) now take their place among other staff members on bus duty, lunch duty, and playground duty. They also serve on school improvement teams, strategic planning task forces, and other sitebased school committees.

Integrating gifted education into the entire school operation in this way has improved client attitudes toward the field, its specialists, and bright students themselves.

Program Oversight

As schools include talent development in the building's overall staff development plan, principals could be encouraged to create a line item in their budgets for talent d development This, too, builds ownership; funds for program administration are a part of, not apart from, their school operation.

Other aspects of program organization and operation include providing adequate facilities in which several types of program activity can be conducted simultaneously. Too frequently services for bright youngsters are carried out in closets. This makes a powerful statement about curricular priorities. I've supervised teachers in cafeteria storage closet and boiler rooms, places in which I yet to see math or reading instruction take place. Isn't the development of individual youngsters' talent is important in the grand scheme of education?

Program evaluation is another aspect of program organization and operation. Do you as a district administrator have sufficient information to make informed decisions about your services for bright and talented students? Through which channels do you communicate with the special staff providing these services? What is the quality of data you receive?