Minutes of 4

Minutes of 4/28/2005 Meeting MTSD & MAX-ED

John and Karen Kumpf met with MTSD Representatives Dr Barbara Sargent (sitting in for Mr Chris Manno), Language Arts Curriculum Supervisor Russ Walsh and Math Curriculum Supervisor Christine Burton on April 28, 2005.

MAX-ED feels that the meeting was very positive. It is clear that MTSD understands the needs of gifted education, and is undergoing a transformation to bring this new paradigm to MTSD.

End-of-Year Survey
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The district is preparing a survey to be sent to parents of children in the Enrichment Program. The survey will attempt to measure parents perspective on the success of the program and areas for improvement.

This is a major opportunity for us to convey our message to the district. Note that the seem most receptive to feedback that acknowledges the successes and what's working, mixed with construction feedback on what can be better.

New Assessment: SAGES
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SAGES stands for Screening Assessment for Gifted Elementary Students, and is a new assessment which is being given for the first time this spring. It is the first assessment which will attempt to measure "ability," not only achievement or on-grade-level items.

"Gain Scores" Data
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SAGES provides new opportunities to measure the Enrichment Program, a topic we discussed at length. There was agreement on all sides about the following:

There should be a relationship between "gain scores" -- the amount that a child learns between the beginning and end of a particular year of school -- and their learning ability as measured by SAGES.

Math Improvements
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Ms Christine Burton continues to improve the Enrichment Program in Math, and is expanding the resources an teaching approaches for the 2005-2006 school year. This expansion will include assessments that measure beyond grade-level. Next year, then, we should be able to measure gain scores in
Math vs. SAGES scores of thinking abilities.

A major enhancement is that Math Enrichment will be offered for the first time to students in grades 1-2 for the 2005-2006 year.

For next year (2005-2006) a select group of 4th grade students moving into 5th grade will be able to take a test to take pre-algebra, which is normally a 6th grade course.

NJAGC Conference
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At the annual NJAGC conference March 4-5, 2005, approx 6 teachers from OHES attended. An additional group attended from VES.

Opportunity for Parents
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There is a huge opportunity for you to improve the situation with your child and to help MAX-ED move the district in the direction of more challenge for Enrichment Students.

Please set up a meeting with your teacher to discuss the appropriate level of challenge for your child.

See <http://max-ed.org/teachermeetings.htm > for our "5 Steps To Successful Teacher Meetings"

More Detail
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"Gain Scores" data
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This year, MTDS is administering the SAGES test of thinking skills. All tests have some margin of error, but if our program of Enrichment is succeeding, we should see the students with the highest ability learning the most during the school year. If not, then there is room for improvement. Are we providing them the opportunity to use their thinking skills?

Getting a little more detailed: the SAGES test provides measure of students' thinking ability, or ability to learn -- the X-axis if you will. The district's current assessments of Language Arts are mostly a sliding scale and can show out-of-grade-level learning over the course of a school year -- the Y-axis, if you will. Mr Walsh will be gathering and plotting this data over the summer 2005 as part of the evaluation of the program. He will share the
data with us.

In the area of Math, the District's current assessment only assess grade-level proficiency. Thus, a student who learns, for example, 2 years worth of math in 1 year, will look identical to a student who learns 1 year of math.

So it is not possible, given current Math assessments, to gather the data for the Y-axis of this particular graph -- to measure the type of gain scores that our most academically talented students can easily achieve.

But, as reported above, Ms Christine Burton is improving the Enrichment Program and so we hope to have those scores next year.

NJAGC Conference
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We discussed the NJAGC conference only briefly. Dr Sargent emphasized that in this District teachers are very willing to share with other teaches the professional development they have received thru various means, including "In an Hour" workshops, summer staff development courses (pdf file:
<http://montgomerytsd.schoolwires.com/645997228861/lib/645997228861/_files/Summer_Workshop_2005.pdf>) grade level meetings, Instruction Services feedback forms, "Bulletin Board" on district website.

Mr Walsh mentioned that all professional training that teachers receive is listed on the MTSD website. I couldn't find specific teachers names, but i did find the staff development that's happening over the summer -- link in previous paragraph.

Parent Opportunity
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There is a huge opportunity for us parents to affect thisprocess:

Our District has a curriculum goal and philosophy of differentiated instruction. There is great economy in the fact that the same philosophy works equally well for children in Basic Skills and In Class Support and children in the Enrichment Program.

But, university undergraduate programs in education do not teach this method, and especially don't have courses in teaching above grade level learners. So, there is a great need for professional development of teachers to teach these concepts and instructional techniques.

We humble parents can help this process! We can ask our teachers about differentiation. Ask them to explain it to us. Ask them how our particular child is getting instruction tuned to his unique skill set. These questions will help our children get the education they need, and will foster the educational process that teachers themselves are undergoing.

So, please commit to having that conversation with your teacher. Here's MAX-ED's 5 steps to successful teacher meetings:

See <http://max-ed.org/teachermeetings.htm>

URL (summer workshops):
<http://montgomerytsd.schoolwires.com/645997228 861/lib/645997228861/_files/Summer_Workshop_2005.pdf>)