Gifted program may expand

After a drought of several years, local children in sixth through eighth grade soon could see the return of programs for highly gifted students.

The current program for gifted students — Tier I — is in place for fourth- and fifth-graders.

But the Tier I task force, a group mandated by Superintendent Neil Pedersen, will suggest at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education’s Thursday meeting that the program be extended to middle schools.

“In the past, there were concerns that kids were self-contained all day, and that was the problem that led to the old program being phased out,” said Denise Bowling, the city schools’ executive director of curriculum and instruction. “It’s much more difficult to isolate kids from their peers in middle school than in elementary school.”

The task force also recommends changing the name from Tier I to LEAP, or Learning Environment for Advanced Program.

“We thought that the name Tier I was not forward-looking enough, since we’re including middle schools as part of the plan,” said Carol Horne, a Smith Middle School gifted-education specialist.

It’s still undecided whether LEAP would be available in all four district middle schools or if students would have to travel to participate.

“If there’s only seven kids from a middle school who qualify for LEAP, it’s not efficient to have a class for them,” Bowling said.

The task force, which met six times last fall, solicited opinions from the public and studied other gifted programs before drafting its recommendations.

“We did study other models, but we didn’t try to replicate,” said Horne. “The LEAP program is specific to our district.”

Bowling said that parents of current Tier I students were surveyed and that she personally asked many parents for input. “Parents in the past have been divided between sending their kids to different schools for Tier I or keeping them at their home schools,” she said.

The task force also recommended using the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test — a national standardized exam — to determine placement into the program.

“When we studied the NNAT, we found that since it’s a nonverbal test, it doesn’t discriminate against non-English-speaking students and that it isn’t unfair to minorities,” said Ann Collins, a gifted-education specialist at Culbreth Middle School.

Bowling said students will need to score in the 99th percentile for automatic placement into the program, but students whose scores are close still will be considered.

“If there is a 9-year-old who is writing a book on their own and intending for it to be published, they would certainly be considered,” said Collins. “No one test would rule a student out.”

The task force plans to administer the NNAT to all third-grade students this spring and hopes that LEAP can be implemented for the 2005-06 school year. The final decision is up to the school board.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.