TAG issues in Eugene

This is from today's Eugene Weekly article about TAG corrective action orders. 

"Ten years ago, when Wischnowski enrolled her son in kindergarten, she says, her efforts to get him more challenge were met with insults and derision. When he was TAG identified in third grade, she says, “I wanted him to at least read books at his level.” She was told that her son couldn’t bring books from home or the school library because they were distracting.

Wischnowski’s son tested out of third grade math and got an A in his new fourth grade class. When her son changed schools the following year, he scored 98 percent on a year-end math exam but was told his new school didn’t allow acceleration and wouldn’t recognize his completed work from the other school (both were in 4J). Her son repeated a year of math with double homework."

Click here to read the full article.

ACCESS growth story

Here's a brief opb article on ACCESS' growth plans for next year.

Writing Celebration May 29 for 4th and 5th graders

Third Annual Writing Celebration

05/29/2013, 6:30pm to 8:00pm

The third annual Writing Celebration will be held on May 29th from 6:30 - 8:00 PM at Barista (1725 NE Alberta). This is a time to share extracurricular writing or a piece from school that students are particularly proud of and want to share with a larger audience. Finished pieces may include:

• Poetry
• Short Stories
• Graphic Novels
• Excerpt from a longer work
• Essays
• Short Plays
• Family Stories
• Comics
• Tall Tales

Registration and a rough draft should be turned into teachers by May 17th (an incorrect date was put on some of the forms - please make a note of this date.) Permission slips will be sent home along with a guideline for entries. Contact Amy Compton (amycompton@me.com)

TAG helpers needed & a thank you!

With only one TAGAC meeting left in the year, I wanted to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent Alameda and advocate for your families. While the year has been incredibly busy, and the wheels within the district can move very slowly, the group did achieve many of its goals. The TAG survey went out and we pressed for transparency around the results. We have an action plan, there are new guidelines for the TAG budget, and Dr. Matier has created a new menu of TAG enrichment services which she will unveil next fall. A series of 'TAG 201' meetings next year will, I hope, help demystify TAG lingo and teaching approaches. We had a ton of press coverage which has put the spotlight on the needs of TAG students.

At the school level, the site council reviewed our Alameda TAG survey and agreed to spell out clear plans for the budget and to incorporate the feedback into our building TAG plans. At the state level, the TAG bill is still alive thanks to personal testimony and your many letters of support.

Our amazing auction chair Virginia LaForte and I plan to share TAGAC duties next year, but our work is barely beginning and we could use help! We want to make sure that all of these plans have tangible results in the classroom. If you are interested in attending TAGAC meetings and working on the committee, we would love to have your help. Please email me if you can help advocate for TAG students at the school, district and state level and if you can help work on late-start or other TAG enrichment activities. (amasondoan@gmail.com).

TAG 101 meeting Wed., May 8

Families of newly-identified students - 

TAG 101 at Marshall High School is on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 from 7-8:30 PM. 

Director of Instruction Dr. Kimberly Matier will introduce parents to district staff, discuss what services to expect in the classroom, and discuss rights and responsibilities. TAG 101 will be more hands-on than in past years, with opportunities to try out examples of TAG lesson strategies.

ALSO - 

Dr. Matier and the TAG parent advisory council are planning something new - meetings for ALL families that will, we hope, help increase understanding of how TAG instruction should work within PPS. Dr. Matier is working on a new 'menu' of TAG services - both school-day and enrichment - and a plan to address rigor & lesson relevance. (Think of the new meetings as "TAG 201"...) More details early next fall.

New York Gifted & Talented Exam Scoring Errors

Here's an update on Pearson test scoring errors in NY, which has many public gifted & talented programs and several schools that require 97% scores.

"According to Pearson, three mistakes were made. Students’ ages, which are used to calculate their percentile ranking against students of similar age, were recorded in years and months, but should also have counted days to be precise. Incorrect scoring tables were used. And the formula used to combine the two test parts into one percentile ranking contained an error."

Calculation errors affected 4,735 students - Click here for the complete NY Times piece.