Success Strategies for Parenting Gifted Kids by Kathleen Nilles

Author:Kathleen Nilles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks

CHAPTER 30

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN CHOOSING A MIDDLE SCHOOL: IS ACADEMIC GROWTH ONE OF THEM?

by Linda E. Pfeiffer

Few things strike fear in the hearts of parents like sending their child off to middle school. Parents of gifted learners fear for their child’s safety—both emotional and physical—and academic well-being. Sleepless nights of worry can be the norm for parents during the entire first year of their child’s middle level experience.

So, what exactly can parents do to relieve the anxiety that this transition creates for us and our children? Although safety is important, we also want our children to leave middle school ready for high school, having made the growth that will allow them to be most successful in high school and beyond. We can educate ourselves and make the best possible choice in middle level education, trust our schools, our teachers, and our children, and then stay involved! Hopefully what is presented here will help you in making the best possible choice.

As parents we feel pretty confident in identifying the factors that will determine if our children are physically safe in school, but do we know what to look for in schools that produce high academic growth results? Like many things that are worth the effort, there is a process. Four research-based, relevant factors are involved (Pfeiffer, 2013):

»programming,

»leadership,

»school culture, and

»school size.

Before we can look at these elements, however, we must first determine which schools have the highest growth-performance metrics. Examples of scores to look for include Smarter Balanced Assessment, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), or even criterion-referenced tests, such as Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)—tests used by many states or districts to show academic change for cohort groups annually.

Be sure you are tracking down growth scores—not achievement scores—for the schools you are considering. Although achievement levels can be influenced by things such as socioeconomic factors, which are mostly static, growth is more dynamic and is more accountable to the performance of the school and its staff (McCoach, Rambo, & Welsh, 2013). Growth information is generally available through several outlets. Places to investigate include:

»the school(s) you are considering,

»the gifted and talented department within the school district, and

»the state’s department of education.

Typically, student data are aggregated or reported as a whole—either by state, district, school, grade, or class. Look for disaggregated data, which means that subpopulations are reported separately to provide a more accurate view of growth—in gifted or English language learners (ELLs), for example (Technical Education Research Centers, 2014; Tomlinson, 2014). Investigating scores for the identification of high growth for the general population as well as for gifted learners may provide insight to a more systemic belief in the ability for all children to experience high academic growth.

Identify those schools with the highest academic growth scores in your desired neighborhood or community, or, if those growth scores are not available to you, you can look for the characteristics mentioned previously: programming, leadership, culture, and school size.

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