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ADVANCED AND ACCELERATED LEARNING IN WISCONSINMOVING WISCONSIN STUDENTSFORWARD
ADVANCED AND ACCELERATED LEARNING IN WISCONSINMOVING WISCONSIN STUDENTSFORWARDPresented By Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied Acceleraon CommieeSco J. Peters, Ph.D.Sarah KasprowiczSue LeeJackie DrummerLalitha MuraliCathy SchmitThe Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied (WATG) is a 503(c) non-prot organizaon of parents, students, educators, business and industry representaves, and other interested persons dedicated to fostering a climate in the home, school, and community that allows each individual to reach his or her unique potenal. Since 1972 WATG’s mission has been to raise public awareness about the unique needs that gied individuals have. Acceleraon is proven to be a highly eecve strategy yet is underulized or not oered at all in many districts. The WATG Acceleraon Commiee set out to research, analyze, and develop acon steps to improve acceleraon pracces and strengthen gied educaon in Wisconsin.© 2020 Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied Acceleraon CommieeWisconsin Associaon for Talented & Gied5420 Westshire Circle, Waunakee WI 53597 watg.org@WisconsinGied
3Introducon 4Execuve Summary of Survey Findings 5What is Acceleraon? 11Why Care About Acceleraon? 12Acceleraon is Shockingly Rare in American Schools 15Policies Related to Acceleraon 16Wisconsin State Statutes and Administrave Rules Regarding Gied and Talented Educaon 18Methodology 19The State of Acceleraon in Wisconsin Detailed Findings 21Compliance with State Gied and Talented Educaon Mandates 24Expanding Access to Accelerated Learning 28Strengthening Gied and Talented Educaon in Wisconsin 34Appendix 43
4INTRODUCTIONIn most schools, if you are six years old, you get taught rst-grade math. It’s a “one-size-ts-few” model that school districts try to bend as best they can to provide an appropriately challenging learning experience for students. This is not an easy task, as emerging research shows students within a single “grade level” are incredibly diverse in terms of the skills they have already mastered on the rst day of school. In fact, it’scommon for h-grade classrooms in Wisconsin to have more than seven grade-levels of academic readinesspresent. Following are a few stories that illustrate how school districts leveraged acceleraon for students who had already mastered the curriculum at their grade level.EXAMPLES OF LEVERAGING ACCELERATIONLuxemburg-Casco School DistrictEvery year, sta in the 2000-student Luxemburg-Casco School District, located just east of Green Bay, seek out students who might have already mastered the math content for the upcoming school year. Sta systemacally use standardized test data they have for all students to determine who might have already met end of year benchmarks. Students who are the highest performers in their grade are oered further math-specic screening, including the end-of-year math test for their current grade as well as the next year’s grade. For example, a rst-grade student could take the end-of-year test for both rst- and second-grade math. Students who perform well remain in rst grade, but also receive individualized instrucon to allow them to learn rst- and second-grade math standards in a single academic year. By second grade, Abbey had scored in the 99th percenle in math three mes in a row. Following the district protocol, Abbey was subject accelerated in math. This was especially important for her because of other ... it’s common for fifth-grade classrooms in Wisconsin to have more than seven grade-levels of academic readiness present.
5challenges she had in the classroom; being accelerated in math was something she was very proud of. Although at mes the pacing of the accelerated placement was a challenge, Abbey eventually went on to take seventh-grade math as a sixth-grade student and then Algebra I as an eighth grader. In a case that followed a dierent path, at rst Juan was not idened for acceleraon. Instead, his third-grade teacher agged him as potenally ready for more challenge. He was tested just a few weeks into third grade and demonstrated mastery of 75% of the third-grade math standards. He was subject-accelerated into fourth grade for math and provided help from support teachers with concepts he sll needed to learn. Perhaps most important is how happy and successful Juan and his parents feel. Juan now goes home feeling successful about what he is learning in math. Before he was accelerated, it was his least favorite subject. Port Washington School DistrictAiden entered the Port Washington School District and, at the urging of his parents, was tested for gied and talented services. Following the district process for idencaon, the talented and gied coordinator suggested the family consider a full-grade acceleraon as a way to ensure Aiden was appropriately challenged. Although Aiden was small for his age, by the end of rst grade his parents made the decision to have him accelerated through second grade and go move straight to third grade. The acceleraon came with some challenges for Aiden, and by the me he reached h grade he needed even more challenge. When he was 11 he took the ACT as an out-of-level test and scored in the top 5% of the state in his age group. Soon aer he was full-grade accelerated again from the end of seventh grade to ninth grade. In addion to the academic courses he was able to access due to his acceleraon, Aiden was able to parcipate in and benet from high-school-level extracurricular acvies. At age 16, Aiden graduated from Port Washington High School and went on to aend a specialized engineering school for college. Throughout Aiden’s public school journey the school district remained supporve in nding the best t for Aiden. Wauwatosa School DistrictAt age eight Kevin moved to Wisconsin. By that me he was already doing long division, reading novels, and wring in cursive. Second grade was his rst exposure to being forced to “re-learn” concepts he had mastered years ago. His love of learning was thwarted. In third grade he struggled to manage his frustraon and his teacher put him in the corner of the
6classroom to do his own work. It was at this point that his parents contacted district administrators. Tesng was completed and through the guidance of the Iowa Acceleraon Scale process the district determined that Kevin would be a good candidate for grade acceleraon. In early November Kevin was moved to the fourth-grade classroom. Although the curriculum in fourth grade was sll below what Kevin had already learned, it was a vast improvement. He had no problems socially or academically and felt much more at home with his older peers. Kevin graduated early from high school and went on to study at an Ivy League university. Clear themes emerge in these stories. In each case, a student was ready for more learning than what was typically oered. Luckily each of them was in a district that provided opportunies for more-challenging instrucon through the use of acceleraon. In some cases, the school districts were open to the idea of grade acceleraon, while in others there was some resistance. Hundreds if not thousands of students just like Abbey, Juan, Aiden, and Kevin exist in Wisconsin— students who would be beer suited academically in a classroom (part-me or full-me) tradionally designed for older children. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS REPORTIn this report we highlight the access and lack of access that students in Wisconsin schools have to accelerated learning. First we describe what acceleraon is and what forms it can take; then we present a detailed report from data gathered from nearly every school district in the state.
7EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF SURVEY RESPONSESThe following report includes data related to the state of acceleraon and advanced learning in Wisconsin. Most data come from an open records request survey sent to 430 school districts in Wisconsin between June of 2018 and February 2019. In total, 390 districts responded to the 12 queson survey, which covered a range of policies related to academic acceleraon as well as compliance with Wisconsin statutes and Administrave Rules related to gied and talented educaon.The results of the survey related to state policy suggest that between one-third and one-half of all Wisconsin school districts self-report being out of compliance with state mandates aligned with serving gied and talented students.In addion to the summary ndings detailed below, geographic informaon system (GIS) maps based on district responses are included. These interacve maps allow the user to see district responses to individual survey quesons by clicking on the click on a specic school district.... between one-third and one-half of all Wisconsin school districts self-report being out of compliance with state mandates ...
8ACCELERATION FINDINGS BASED ON ANSWERS TO THE SURVEY2/33/42/3Acceleraon PoliciesTwo-thirds of Wisconsin school districts reported having formal acceleraon policies. However, a review of some of those policies suggests these are not really policies that provide access to accelerated learning.Early Start KindergartenThree-quarters of Wisconsin school districts allow students to begin kindergarten early, with strict spulaons.Early Start First GradeTwo-thirds of Wisconsin school districts allow students to enter rst grade early, but this might be less relevant to most districts.Full-Grade AcceleraonSlightly more than 3/4 of Wisconsin school districts allow for full-grade acceleraon. While posive, it’s important to emphasize “allow”. It is unclear how oen Wisconsin districts actually use full-grade acceleraon as a means to meet student needs. 3/485%Subject AcceleraonNearly all Wisconsin school districts allow for subject acceleraon.Early GraduaonEighty-ve percent of Wisconsin school districts allow for early graduaon from high school.
9GIFTED AND TALENTED EDUCATION STATE POLICY FINDINGSSta AssignedTwo-thirds of Wisconsin school districts reported having a person designated to coordinate gied and talented programming. (Note that according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instrucon this value is 32%). Formal Plans in PlaceJust over half of Wisconsin school districts reporng having a formal plan in place for gied and talented services.IdencaonTwo-thirds of Wisconsin school districts idenfy gied and talented students in grades K–12 (or all grades served).Services Provided2/3 of Wisconsin school districts provide gied and talented services in grades K–12 (or all grades served).Parental InvolvementEighty-three percent of Wisconsin school districts provide opportunies for parental involvement in idencaon and service delivery decisions.2/31/22/383%2/3
10THE STATE OF ACCELERATED LEARNING IN AMERICAN SCHOOLSThe 2004 Templeton Report, A Naon Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, started a naonwide conversaon about America’s approach to advanced learners in K–12 schools. It was followed by the 2008 High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Instute, which conrmed earlier ndings of high-achieving students languishing throughout the prior ten-year period. Both of these reports highlighted the rare applicaon of academic acceleraon as a viable way to meet the needs of advanced learners despite the fact that in most cases acceleraon does not use addional funding sources. In 2014, on the ten-year anniversary of A Naon Deceived, a follow up report, A Naon Empowered was published, providing a wealth of informaon to readers about academic acceleraon and the research that supports the various forms of acceleraon as a high impact strategy. It also addressed reasons it is sll sparingly used. Sll, the authors of A Naon Empowered couldn’t hide their frustraon at how rare acceleraon remained in American schools. More recently, in 2017 The Untapped Potenal Project researched and reported on the use of acceleraon within public school districts in the state of Illinois. Their goal was to compel educators and policy makers to embrace the research behind academic acceleraon as a highly successful evidence-based pracce for advanced learners. Two years later, the Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied followed suit. Their goal was to determine and understand which school districts and which forms of acceleraons are being used as a strategy to meet the needs of students in Wisconsin public schools. Once the problem was revealed, advocacy and educaon could take place to make improvements for students within the current systems.
11WHAT IS ACCELERATION?The Naonal Associaon for Gied Children denes acceleraon as “an intervenon that moves students through an educaon program at rates faster, or at younger ages, than is typical.”TYPES OF ACCELERATIONThere are at least nineteen dierent types of acceleraon, with the following types of acceleraons being used the most throughout the naon: • Early Admission to Kindergarten or First Grade• Full Grade Acceleraon also known as grade skipping• Specic Subject Acceleraon• Self-Paced Instrucon • Early Entrance into Middle School, High School, and/or College• Combined Classes • Distance Learning Courses • Concurrent/Dual Enrollment • Advanced Placement • Internaonal Baccalaureate Program • Accelerated/Honors High School or STEM Residenal High School • Credit by Examinaon Some of these acceleraon opons are more widely known and used while others are less understood. For example, many districts in Wisconsin oer college level classes through the Advanced Placement program, yet many students do not know that students can take the AP exams without taking the class. The extensive list of acceleraon opons provides an avenue to match student needs with a strategy to t that specic need. Acceleration is an intervention that moves students through an education program at rates faster, or at younger ages, than is typical.” “”
12WHY CARE ABOUT ACCELERATION?There are three critical reasons to care about the state of accelerated learning in Wisconsin. Large percentages of Wisconsin students score above “grade level” on standardized tests. Research shows acceleraon is a high-impact educaonal intervenon. In most instances acceleraon is a low-cost strategy. LARGE PERCENTAGES OF WISCONSIN STUDENTS SCORE ABOVE “GRADE LEVEL” ON STANDARDIZED TESTS.In January, 2019, at the State Educaon Convenon, Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied (WATG) Board members shared startling stascs about the lack of accelerated learning avenues for students in Wisconsin. They highlighted recent research from the Instute for Educaon Policy, Johns Hopkins School of Educaon where authors of How Can So Many Students Be Invisible? Large Percentages of American Students Perform Above Grade Level revealed a signicant percentage of students, including those from Wisconsin, start a school year a grade level or more above their same age peers. This research reinforces what many educators, parents, and gied students have known for some me: many students are ready for more challenge—much more—than can be provided by typical grade-level instrucon. 1123... many students are ready for more challenge—much more—than can be provided by typical grade-level instruction. “”
13Findings cited in the Johns Hopkins report included the following:• 20% to 40% of elementary and middle school students perform at least one grade level above their current grade in reading. • 11% to 30% of elementary and middle school students perform at least one grade level above their current grade in math. • 8% to 10% of Grade 4 students perform at the 8th Grade level in language arts. • 2% to 5% of Grade 4 students perform at the 8th grade level in math. 20,000 in Wisconsin One Year AheadIn Wisconsin alone, an esmated 20,000 students per grade level are performing more than one year ahead of grade-level standards.Addional studies from the Naonal Research Center on the Gied and Talented have found gied elementary students may have mastered 40% of the curriculum for a grade level before they begin a new grade level, and some highly gied elementary students may have mastered even more. Some districts have systems and acceleraon paths to meet the needs of these students. Others do not.20–40%READINGOne Grade LevelAbove11–30%MATHOne Grade LevelAbove8–10%LANGUAGE ARTSFour Grade LevelsAbove2–5%MATHFour Grade LevelsAbove
14ACCELERATION IS A HIGH-IMPACT INTERVENTION.As noted above, there are numerous types of acceleraon. Mulple meta-analyses have reported the posive academic and social-emoonal eects produced by this range of acceleraon strategies, an important one being a 2016 second-order meta-analysis published in Review of Educaonal Research. The authors reported an overall eect size, averaged across all prior research, of .70. This means that when compared to same-age peers, accelerated students perform .70 standard deviaons higher in terms of academic achievement. To put that in context, here are some educaonal pracces that are common in K–12 schools, and yet show a weaker eect on student learning compared to acceleraon: concept mapping (.64), vocabulary (.62), enrichment programs (.53), parental involvement in schools (.50), teacher professional development (.42), and music programs (.37). ACCELERATION IS A LOW-COST STRATEGY.Oenmes acceleraon is free. The only cost associated with many types of acceleraon is management and facilitaon. A full-grade acceleraon means moving a student to a classroom already in place. Subject acceleraon is oen achieved the same way: a student moves from one class environment to another class. In most instances no special curriculum is required. When acceleraon is used system-wide between schools, transportaon may be a cost, but the per pupil cost is low compared to other learning accommodaons.Acceleraon has a strong research base of improving student learning and comes at very low cost, especially when compared to educaonal pracces with similar eects. HImpactL$$$$ Cost23
15ACCELERATION IS SHOCKINGLY RARE IN AMERICAN SCHOOLSA 2014 report for the Naonal Research Center on the Gied and Talented of 1,566 school districts across the United States (765 elementary, 486 middle, and 315 high school) details just how few students are accelerated. The ndings are shocking. • Only 1.7 percent of elementary school districts provide subject acceleraon and only 0.2 percent allow students to full grade accelerate. • Only 2.4 percent of middle school districts provide subject acceleraon and only 0.3 percent allow students to full grade accelerate. • Only 6.6 percent of high school districts oer dual enrollment courses, 2.2 percent oer IB courses, and 40.4 percent oer Advanced Placement courses.Why don’t more districts use acceleraon as a viable means to meet the needs of students? The most likely answer is that schools and parents fear negave eects on students in terms of social emoonal outcomes. They have reasonable concerns about whether or not their child is truly ready, or if the accelerated placement would do more harm than good. Although it’s certainly true that some accelerated students might have negave experiences, this is true of any instruconal strategy. What’s more, a 2011 meta-analysis found zero to slightly posive eects on social emoonal outcomes due to acceleraon. Again, when compared to same-age peers, accelerated students showed a .14 higher social emoonal rang. Although not stascally signicant, this means students who are accelerated show neither consistent posive nor negave eects on their social emoonal well-being. They have posive and negave experiences with school, just like any other student. The end result of acceleraon is a student who shows greater academic achievement with no negave impact on social-emoonal outcomes, all from a strategy that comes with minimal cost. The other possibility for why acceleraon is so rare is that students who are “above-level” or already procient according to grade-level standards are simply not the main populaon of concern for schools. In 2019, only 40% of American grade four students scored procient or beer on the Naonal Assessment of Educaonal Progress (NAEP). In Wisconsin, that number was 45% of fourth-grade students. More than half of students in Wisconsin as well as in the naon as a whole are not scoring at a procient level. Most oen this is the focus on K–12 educaon, and understandably so. However, this is all the more reason to emphasize acceleraon as an instruconal strategy for advanced learners. As already noted, acceleraon requires very lile in terms of money or sta me to implement, thereby leaving other money and sta me to further support students to achieve grade-level prociency. ... found zero to slightly positive effects on social emotional outcomes due to acceleration.“”
16Required School Decision No Policy21 9 119ForbiddenPOLICIES RELATED TO ACCELERATIONNaonwide, twenty-one states require districts to develop a formal acceleraon policy. Nineteen states leave the decision in the hands of each school district, while another nine states have no policy whatsoever. And one state, Louisiana, forbids it. If only a small percentage of students could benet from acceleraon, the lack of policy naonwide would be problemac, but not alarming. However, the research indicates that there is a larger populaon of students than previously suspected that could benet from acceleraon, and acceleraon policy at the state level. Current federal and state educaon policies focusing on grade-level prociencies are irrelevant for a huge number of American students.STATE EXAMPLESOhio, Illinois, and Minnesota have taken a proacve approach to ensuring students in their states have the opportunity to learn at the pace that works for them. Each of these states has put policy in place with regard to acceleraon. In 2006, in response to a newly-passed state law, the Ohio Department of Educaon published model student acceleraon policies for advanced learners. In addion to example policies, the new state law mandated that every local board of educaon implement its own acceleraon policy to assure all students have access to various types of accelerated learning. Every local school board must either adopt the state’s model policy,
17or develop its own and then request approval from the state. The overall result is that any student who is referred for an accelerated placement must have the opportunity to go through the local school district’s state-approved idencaon process. Illinois followed in Ohio’s footsteps by passing The Accelerated Placement Act in 2017. As Illinois used Ohio as a model, there are many similaries. For example, Illinois now mandates that all school districts have policies in place that allow for accelerated placement in the form of early entrance to kindergarten or rst grade, subject acceleraon, full-grade acceleraon, or early graduaon from high school. What is especially intriguing about the Accelerated Placement Act is that it had biparsan sponsors, received support from state educaon organizaons, and passed with votes of 53-1 out of the State Senate and 98-11 out of the State House both Democrac controlled, and signed by a Republican governor. Meeng student needs through acceleraon appears to be a biparsan goal. It is a rare case in educaon where members of both major polical pares appear to agree. Acceleraon is a common-sense educaonal strategy. Similar to Illinois and Ohio, Minnesota schools are required to “adopt procedures for the academic acceleraon of gied and talented students”. While districts are given control over much of the procedure, they must include evaluaon of each students’ readiness and movaon for acceleraon as well as assuring a student is matched in level, complexity, and pace with his or her accelerated placement. Common across all three states is broad school-district control over local acceleraon policies and procedures. In all three, districts must have policies in place–they must allow for access to acceleraon for those who need it and let districts control what that means and what form it takes. To date, Wisconsin has no specific state policy or statutes related to acceleration. !
18GIFTED AND TALENTED EDUCATION: WISCONSIN STATE STATUTES AND ADMINISTRATIVE RULES Acceleraon is one strategy to meet the learning needs of advanced learners. Overall, school districts in Wisconsin are expected to meet ve standards with regard to gied and talented educaon. 1. Have a school-board approved plan for providing access to a program for gied and talented students. 2. Designate a person to coordinate the gied and talented program.3. Idenfy gied and talented students in grades K–12 and in the areas of general intellectual ability, specic academic areas, leadership, creavity, and visual and performing arts.4. Provide access, without charge, to appropriate programming for gied and talented students. 5. Provide opportunies for parental involvement in idencaon and programming decisions. These requirements can be found in Wisconsin State Statutes and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instrucon • 118.35 General School Operaons• 121.02(1)(t) from Chapter 121, School Finance, Subchapter II, General Aid• Department of Public Instrucon Administrave Rule 8.01(2)(t)2 Each of these is explained at greater detail in the appendix. Various state statutes and administrave rules exist that deal with things such as Advanced Placement, but there is no state policy regarding academic acceleraon. The closest thing would be a state statute that grants power to local school boards to prescribe procedures, condions, and standards for early admission to kindergarten and rst grade. However, in granng this power, actually creang early-entrance policies is not mandated by the state.
19METHODOLOGYThe primary purpose of the research for this report was to address two primary quesons: 1) Do school districts in Wisconsin have policies in place to support academic acceleraon even if they are not required by the state? 2) To what degree are Wisconsin school districts in compliance with current state laws and administrave rules regarding meeng the academic learning needs of gied and talented students? DATA COLLECTIONTo answer these quesons WATG collected survey responses between June 2018 and February 2019. A digital survey with an open records request was sent to 430 public school districts in the state of Wisconsin. A total of four email requests and one standard mail request were sent to idened District Oce sta. In the end, a total of 390 school districts responded. Fourteen schools/districts were removed from the survey list as they were small charter districts.The survey consisted of the following quesons:1. What are the grade levels represented in your district?2. Does your district have a formal acceleraon policy/procedure? 3. Does your district allow students to enter kindergarten early?4. Does your district allow students to enter rst grade early?5. Does your district allow students to take classes at a higher level than their current grade?6. Does your district allow students to skip grades?7. Does your district allow students to graduate high school early? 8. Does your district have a gied and talented coordinator?9. Does your district have a formalized plan for gied educaon?10. Does your district idenfy gied and talented students at every grade level? 11. Does your district provide gied and talented services at every grade level?12. Do parents have opportunies to be involved in idencaon and programming decisions for gied and talented students?
20Quesons 1 through 7 related to the most-common types of acceleraon and whether or not they were allowed or supported by explicit school district policies. Quesons 8 through 12 focused on compliance of school districts relave to the explicit requirements present in Wisconsin statute or Administrave Rules. A nal secon of the survey provided an oponal opportunity for districts to share school board policy, procedure, acceleraon plans, gied educaon program plans, or idencaon criteria that highlight alignment to meeng advanced learner needs. Addionally and through separate communicaons, WATG asked Wisconsin families to share their personal acceleraon stories regarding their student’s experiences in Wisconsin. Requests for stories were posted on social media, sent through WATG e-newsleers, and posted on the WATG website.
21THE STATE OF ACCELERATION IN WISCONSIN DETAILED FINDINGS1. What are the grade levels represented in your district?Of the 380 districts responding to the queson about grade levels served:• 326 were K–12 or 4K–12 districts (86%)• 43 were K–8 districts (11%)• 11 were 9–12 districts (3%) 2. Does your district have a formal acceleraon policy/procedure?The majority (68%) of districts reported having formal acceleraon policies or procedures. Of those that responded having formal acceleraon policies, 35 included links to those policies. However, of those reviewed (some had broken links), only three could be described as actual policies for guiding acceleraon decisions. The vast majority were general gied educaon policies or links to school board policies for gied and talented educaon. This makes us skepcal that the 262 districts that reported having acceleraon policies actually have procedures in place for making such determinaons when they are requested from parents, let alone proacvely seeking out students who might benet from accelerated learning. This is a crical nding. Roughly 1/3 of districts reported having no policy, and of those that reported they did, many of the actual policies are not policies at all, meaning there is lile proacve access to acceleraon. The survey asked respondents about student access to ve types of grade acceleraon. The rst method of acceleraon was early entrance to kindergarten, which was reported as allowed by 73% of responding districts. Yes68%No32%AcceleraonPolicy!K–1286%K–811%9–123%
223. Does your district allow students to enter kindergarten early?An important caveat with this nding is that many districts allow early entrance, but a narrow window exists that states the student’s birthday cannot be prior to a certain date. For example, in one district students entering kindergarten must be ve-years-old by September 1. A child being considered for “early” entrance could have a birth date between August 1 and September 1. Although this technically qualies as early entrance, it limits the pool of students who would be eligible for early entrance, regardless of how ready they might be. 4. Does your district allow students to enter rst grade early?5. Does your district allow students to take classes at a higher level than their current grade (Subject Acceleraon)?Nearly all of the responding districts allowed students to take courses that are typically for older students—called subject acceleraon. Once again, being allowed isn’t the same as proacvely looking for students who might benet from this type of acceleraon strategy. Although a posive nding, it is unknown if responding districts answered armavely in reference to high school courses alone as opposed to subject Yes73%No27%KindergartenEarlyYes67%No30%N/A3%First GradeEarlyYes97%No3%SubjectAcceleraon
23acceleraon throughout the K–12 connuum. For example, many high schools oer Advanced Placement courses or even “honors” courses. But this does not mean that subject acceleraon is available in any other grades. 6. Does your district allow students to skip grades (Full Grade Acceleraon)?79% of responding districts allow for full-grade acceleraon. This response may require the most careful interpretaon. A school might have an acceleraon policy and allow full-grade acceleraon, but the strategy may be rarely used. In some districts it may be technically allowed, but rarely pursued unless a parent requests and lobbies the district to make it happen. The data doesn’t show how oen schools make proacve use of full-grade acceleraon. 7. Does your district allow students to graduate high school early?Nearly all districts allow for “early” graduaon from high school. This is a posive nding, although it might be worth further invesgaon as to what requirements must be met for early graduaon. Yes79%No21%Full GradeAcceleraonYes85%No4%N/A11%EarlyGraduaon
24COMPLIANCE WITH STATE GIFTED AND TALENTED EDUCATION MANDATESIn addion to quesons related to acceleraon policies, we also asked several quesons related to district compliance with Wisconsin Statutes and Administrave Rules regarding gied and talented services. Currently, Wisconsin collects no data on the number of students idened as gied, the services students receive, or the equity of the populaons served by such services. The only data available comes from the Department of Public Instrucon (DPI) “All Sta File,” which includes a range of data on every person employed by the public-school system. Included in this le is a designaon as to whether or not a sta person’s “assigned area code” was “14,” indicang the sta member was assigned to work related to gied and talented educaon. The only two “assignment posions” for which a person could be assigned the area of gied and talented educaon were teacher (53) or program coordinator (64). Of Wisconsin’s 430 school districts, in the 2018–2019 school year, 136 reported either a teacher or a program coordinator in the “gied and talented” assignment area. Some districts had both a teacher and a program coordinator and some districts had many sta in this area (e.g., Madison Metropolitan, Eau Claire Area). Approximately 32% of Wisconsin school districts self-report having some form of gied and talented sta. This data can be viewed in an interacve map online. The following page in a stac version of the map.This data from the All Sta File can be compared to data self-reported on the present survey, the rst queson of which dealt with whether or not the district had a named gied and talented coordinator. For context, a district that responded to any of the following quesons as “no” is self-reporng noncompliance with Wisconsin Statutes or Administrave Rules. Approximately 32% of Wisconsin school districts self-report having some form of gifted and talented staff.
25By pure happenstance, in the All Sta File, 136 districts reported having one or more sta members assigned to gied and talented educaon. In our survey, 251 districts reported having a gied and talented coordinator, while 136 said they did not have any such sta member. Clearly, both of these cannot be true. One likely explanaon is that many districts have a person who handles any gied educaon services, but is not reported as such to DPI. That could explain much of the dierence between the 136 posive responses in the All Sta File and the 251 posive responses to our survey. GIFTED AND TALENTED STAFF DENSITY BY COUNTY
268. Does your district have a gied and talented coordinator?Queson 8 related to state policies and asked districts if they had a person designated to coordinate gied and talented services. Roughly 2/3 of districts responded that they had such a person. However, as was noted above, there is some disagreement here between what districts self-reported to us and what they self-report to DPI. 9. Does your district have a formalized plan for gied educaon?Queson 9 related to state requirement and asked districts if they had a formalized plan for gied educaon services. Again, to be in compliance with state law, all school districts in Wisconsin should be answering “yes”. Despite this, only 58% of districts reported having such a plan. Yes65%No35%G&TCoordinatorYes58%No42%FormalPlan
27WISCONSIN MANDATES Wisconsin mandates that gied and talented idencaon take place in grades K–12 and services are available at all grades K–12. Quesons #10 & #11 report responses to these quesons. In both cases, approximately 2/3 of districts responded they idenfy at all grade levels or provided services at all grade levels. 10. Does your district idenfy gied and talented students at every grade level? 11. Does your district provide gied and talented services at every grade level?12. Do parents have opportunies to be involved in idencaon and programming decisions for gied and talented students?The nal survey queson asked districts if parents were provided opportunies to be involved in the idencaon of gied students and the resulng programming associated with the idencaon. The chart below shows that the vast majority of districts do provide opportunies for parental involvement. Yes67%No33%ProvideYes83%No17%ParentalInvolvementYes64%No36%Idenfy
28EXPANDING ACCESS TO ACCELERATED LEARNINGWHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?Acceleraon is one strategy that has shown posive eects for students who exhibit readiness for a more-challenging curriculum or who learn at a pace faster than what is typical. Given its low cost and documented high impact on student learning, the strategy is one all schools should make available to students who would benet from it. What follows are tangible acon steps state policymakers and individual school districts could take to expand access to all types of acceleraon beer meeng the needs of students who show readiness for a more challenging curriculum. POLICYMAKERTO DOLIST123Remove BarriersMandateAccessIncreaseTransparency
29STEPS POLICY MAKERS CAN TAKE1. Remove Barriers To Accelerated LearningEven before step one, stakeholders should begin by building awareness. Far too many parents, educators, and policymakers believe acceleraon, parcularly grade skipping, will have negave social and emoonal eects on students. The truth is research shows posive eects for students’ social and emoonal outcomes. Instructors in teacher educaon programs, school administrators, and school board members need to understand acceleraon and how it could be a viable opon for some students who may be the hardest to otherwise challenge in the age-based classroom. State policy makers should review and become familiar with exisng requirements for things such as entrance to kindergarten, high school graduaon, and even state mandated tesng with an eye toward understanding if any of these policies might unintenonally hold back advanced learners. Revising policies and pracces that let students enter kindergarten when they are ready instead of based solely on age would open doors for students. Currently state aid to districts is ed to students staying in schools for 13 years. Rethinking school aid to incenvize teaching pracces that help students nish school ready, and earlier than typical could accelerate student learning. State policy makers should take proacve steps to remove barriers to advanced learning. 2. Increase Transparency of Policies and PraccesTransparency on school report cards provides a level of accountability and ensures parents are aware that acceleraon could be a viable learning opon for their children. Wisconsin could follow its neighbors Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota to increase transparency of the access to acceleraon provided to students by each district. The Illinois legislature le how to make decisions about acceleraon up to individual districts. However, access must be provided. Ohio has taken the further step of documenng the number of students who receive subject-specic or full-grade acceleraon on their school report cards. Acon StepREPORT CARDNumber of Subject Accelerated Students 708Number of Whole-Grade Accelerated Students 66Acon Step
303. Mandate Access to Accelerated Learning for All Those Who Are ReadyFinally, Wisconsin could start to remove barriers to advanced content by mandang, through law or policy, that all school districts provide access to accelerated learning opportunies. Mandated policies and procedures with an accountability report of students impacted could help more students receive the challenging curriculum they deserve. What can be said for sure is that students vary in every conceivable way, including in their prior learning experiences and readiness to learn new content. Some students come to a given grade level more than ready to learn the content being taught. They may be one, two, or even four grade-levels ahead of where they are placed in school. All schools need to consider how and where they can break down the hard and fast barriers between grades. Age-based grades give the false impression that all “rst-grade” students are more or less the same - that they have very similar learning needs. But this isn’t true. Acceleraon is one way to try and break down the arcial barriers that prevent students from moving on to new content when they are ready. Acon Step
31HOW SCHOOL DISTRICTS CAN RESPOND123456DISTRICT RESPONSEImplement or Strengthen District PoliciesUnderstand and Measure the ProblemProacvely seek out students who couldbenefitFront Load Learning OpportuniesChange the CultureAssure Access
321. Implement or strengthen district policies and procedures.Where can districts start to take acon? School administrators could start by looking at district acceleraon policies and procedures with the lens of seeking to remove barriers such as age and the number of criteria students need to meet to qualify. If a district doesn’t have an acceleraon policy, implemenng one would be a rst step. The Illinois Associaon for Gied Children (IAGC) has a model acceleraon policy.2. Understand and measure the problem.Next, districts should ask key quesons to nd out if a problem exists and just how big that problem is. This can be accomplished by looking at various forms of data to determine: • Are any students ready for a more challenging curriculum? • How do we know? • What number of students have taken an accelerated learning path in the district in the past year? Two years? At what levels and in what areas? Looking for paerns or gaps will help decision makers nd areas to improve.Looking isn’t enough. Acon must follow for change to occur. Policies and procedures need to be used, not just developed.Acon StepAcon Step
333. Proacvely seek out students who could benet from accelerated learning paths.Perhaps one of the most important acons a school district can take is to use exisng data to proacvely seek out students who might be under-served by the “standard, age based” curriculum or classroom placement rather than assume every child is ready for the same learning at the same me.4. Change the culture around “grade-level” content.In seeking out students who might be under-served, the school district changes the culture around “grade-level” content and instrucon. An appropriate and eecve educaon is one which challenges students at their level of readiness. Students require dierent content and dierent instruconal methods. Schools need to be prepared for the kindergartener who can already read chapter books or the ten-year-old who has read the Constuon cover to cover.5. Front load learning opportunies so that more students can benet from accelerated learning.Finding students somemes becomes tricky. Not all students have the same range of experiences outside of school, nor do they all have advanced abilies in all academic areas. Poverty, being an English Learner, being a student who has experienced implicit bias or instuonalized racism, or having a learning disability may be roadblocks that mask readiness for students being idened for advanced learning opportunies. For these reasons, schools should not only provide advanced, accelerated learning opportunies, but should also provide early learning experiences to help students be ready to benet from advanced opportunies. It is also imperave that programming and support for gied and talented students be systemac and connuous. The advanced trajectory of learning must be maintained throughout a student’s career.6. Assure access for all students who are ready.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, schools need to assure access to accelerated learning opportunies. Systemacally nding students who are advanced is a rst step, but the primary goal is to challenge students at their level of readiness. Policies and procedures are no good without acon. Pung those procedures into place for students who need them is key to their success. Developing ways to monitor and evaluate the outcomes for impact is of utmost importance.Acon StepAcon StepAcon StepAcon Step
34STRENGTHENING GIFTED AND TALENTED EDUCATION IN WISCONSIN WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?As evidenced by the self-reported data presented in the report, inconsistent compliance exists with Wisconsin laws and Administrave Rules related to gied and talented services. Perhaps most concerning is that 1/3 of Wisconsin districts report not oering services at all grade levels. It’s worth nong that an analysis of United States Oce of Civil Rights data from 2016 found that roughly half of Wisconsin schools idened zero students as gied. Regardless of the exact numbers, a large number of schools in Wisconsin report not having gied and talented services available. POLICYMAKERTO DOLIST123Ensure DistrictComplianceRequireTrainingAddressFunding1/3 of Wisconsin districts report not offering services at all grade levels.“”
35RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY MAKERS1. Ensure district compliance with exisng state laws and rules.Ensuring districts are in compliance with exisng state mandates regarding gied and talented idencaon and services is a rst step. The WATG survey and the data reported about stang in Wisconsin show many districts as out of compliance with current mandates. Built in accountability measures that require districts to account for the number of gied and talented students idened and who are receiving gied and talented services would beer ensure more students’ needs would be met. In other states this takes the form of rotang audits of district services by the state department of educaon, requirements that districts submit their gied and talented plans (plans all Wisconsin districts are required to have), or providing funding only upon receipt of a plan for how that funding will be used. Many states have implemented policies to assure greater compliance. There’s no reason Wisconsin cannot do the same.2. Fund educaonal pathways for advanced learners. Unlike special educaon, gied educaon in Wisconsin is not funded. The only source for funding gied and talented services from the State is a $237,200 grant program. Prior to 2018, only one school district was even
36eligible for funding under this program. A more equitable approach could be to replace the grant program altogether with per pupil funding as is done in Minnesota and Iowa. School districts in these states have dedicated funding for gied and talented teacher salaries and benets, professional development for gied and talented educators, and necessary supplies and resources to meet the documented educaonal needs of every gied student. Funding needs to be increased. If the current budget of $237,200 were split evenly among the current list of 446 school districts, each district would only receive about $531 a year to serve all students. This is not enough to make an impact.WATG has advocated for budgeng $5,000,000 for gied educaon in Wisconsin—far less than Wisconsin’s neighboring states, but sll a major improvement. Funding mandated gied educaon in Wisconsin could lead to more students receiving the educaon they deserve.3. Require coursework in gied educaon for preservice and inservice educaonal sta.Finally, only a small percentage of teachers receive any training in gied educaon at the pre-service level. Most pre-service programs do not include a single class devoted to gied educaon and none of Wisconsin’s teacher training programs include coursework about how to meet the needs of advanced learners. It is incumbent upon educators (administraon and teachers) to secure professional development in gied educaon, both at the pre-service and in-service levels. A wide variety of avenues exist, including collaboraons with universies and colleges, conferences, webinars, social media events, professional reading, and professional development acvies specically dedicated to gied educaon. Ideally, pre-service educaon programs would include at least one required course on gied educaon.
37RECOMMENDED ACTIONS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS1. Get to know the state Statutes for gied educaon.Reviewing the Wisconsin state Statutes and Rules for gied educaon is a good place to start; then look for evidence that schools in the District are meeng the criteria. The Department of Public Instrucon has a self assessment tool that districts can use for this very purpose. Districts should idenfy gaps in exisng services and then devise strategic plans for how to ll them. School district administrators and school board members could also start by analyzing their District responses to the WATG survey. If quesons were answered “no,” then the district might be non-compliant and the rst steps become clear.2. Look at data with a lens of possibility.District sta should regularly and frequently ask: How do we know our top students are learning? What evidence do we have? What data can we look at to know these students are growing? Oen parents, teachers and administrators err on the conservave side of answering with no—no to changing a building schedule to allow subject acceleraon to students who are ready, no to a musically gied student taking two music classes in a semester because that’s never been done before. Schools must build a culture of Yes or Possibilies for students.Acon StepAcon Step
383. Review school district policies & procedures.School leaders should review policies and procedures related to gied and talented services. Having policies is not enough. If they are good, put them to use. If the policies need updang, do that so the procedures can be used to guide impacul decision making. Develop a plan to regularly share the policies and procedures with others in the District and support their use.4. Use district procedures to proacvely seek out students. 5. Assure access for all students who are ready.Ensure that access to challenging learning paths is open to all students. Regularly review programs and ask quesons such as these: Who does this path work for and under what condions? Do we have equitable representaon within our learning paths? If not, what changes do we need to make to ensure that all students who have a need have access? 6. Fund gied educaon.Finally, since next to zero funding for gied educaon is provided by the state, supporng these services too oen falls on individual districts. Dollars are in short supply, yet luckily not all services come with high costs. Intervenons such as acceleraon and cluster grouping can be implemented in equitable ways to beer challenge more students at the appropriate level. Sll, me and resources are needed, and support for these needs to come from both the state and district levels. Acon StepAcon StepsAcon Step
39RECOMMENDED ACTIONS FOR ADMINISTRATORS AND TEACHERS1. Get to know the GT policies and procedures available in the DistrictSome districts have policies and procedures for gied educaon, but they are not frequently used. See if your district has them and put them to use. If clarity needs to be built through updang the policies, make the changes. If policy doesn’t exist, work to put it in place.2. Pursue and promote professional development on the topic of advanced learningIn Wisconsin, a teaching degree can be obtained without one single class in gied educaon, making it dicult to know how to meet advanced learner needs. The good news is this—many opportunies focused on meeng the needs of advanced learners exist. Connect online with WATG, NAGC or Hoagies Gied. Take coursework or earn the gied and talented teacher or coordinator cercaon. Provide or engage in sta development opportunies focused on advanced learners. And then put that learning to use.Acon StepAcon Step
403. Build a network of individuals who will are commied to growth for all students Addionally, seek out and build networks of individuals dedicated to serving gied learners. These can be at the district level, the CESA (Cooperave Educaonal Services Agency) level, the community level, the state level, and the naonal level. These networks can disseminate informaon, provide training, and serve educators, families, and students.4. Review, revise and use best pracces By intenonally learning about best pracces in gied educaon and networking, you will be ready to use high-yield strategies such as acceleraon and school wide cluster grouping, strategies that can easily help more students receive a challenging curriculum. 5. Put systems and strategies in place that meet the needs of gied learnersStrengthen or put a system in place that regularly and frequently uses and reviews data on advanced learners. Consider the needs of gied students when considering or updang curriculum, or adopng teaching and learning strategies.6. Build strong communicaon processes and partnerships with parents and guardiansFinally, recognize and treat parents as allies in the quest to meet the needs of advanced learners. Many parents of gied learners struggle to speak up because of their fear of elism. Gied students oen have challenges that other parents don’t see or understand. Parents of gied students are eager to nd help.Acon StepAcon StepAcon StepAcon Step
41WHAT CAN PARENTS AND GUARDIANS DO?1. Ask quesons and seek answers from resources, educators and administrators.Use a variety of avenues to seek out informaon about gied learners and parenng gied children. The Wisconsin Associaon for Talented and Gied (WATG), the Naonal Associaon for Gied Children (NAGC), and Hoagies Gied are good places to start. Join a parent group, read, aend a conference or webinar to learn more about tools and strategies that work with advanced learners.2. Communicate regularly in partnership with the school and district.Connect with school sta and explore the opons available to students in the school. Ask quesons about how students are idened for accelerated learning opportunies. Find out how oen students are idened, what programming is oered, and how oen opportunies and placement are reviewed. 3. Advocate at the school, district, and state levels.Build a strong relaonship with educators and let them know you are a partner and advocate. Oer support and encouragement to the school community. If your child needs gied and talented services or is receiving them, communicate regularly with school sta. Two-way
42communicaon is opmal for building a strong and proacve relaonship. This solid relaonship will benet your child, other children, and the school community at large.Gied and talented advocacy oers a multude of possibilies. In Wisconsin, gied educaon is mandated, but not funded. Wring to state legislators and asking for funding for gied educaon could accelerate change. Though WATG has asked for $5,000,000 for gied educaon, gied educaon in Wisconsin only receives $237,200 in the form of compeve grants. Much more funding is needed. Addionally, you can write leers asking that gied educaon coursework be included at the college level of teacher training. Currently in Wisconsin, teachers do not experience any classes in gied educaon.4. Network.Advocacy and networking oen go hand in hand. Join WATG, aend the annual WATG conference, and visit WATG’s website to determine if becoming a member of the board might be a t for you. Addionally, WATG always welcomes volunteers to further our mission, “to advocate for and educate about the needs of gied in Wisconsin.” Through networking in your local school district, CESA (Cooperave Educaonal Services Agency), state, or naon, you will join others who share your commitment to gied learners. 5. Celebrate best pracces in gied educaon.Celebrate the eorts of educators who are successfully meeng the needs of gied learners. Let administrators at the school and district level know about the specic strategies and the posive impacts they are having on student achievement. Encourage the use of these strategies in all classrooms and schools so that they can impact more students. Nominate a teacher, administrator or community member for a WATG award for the signicant contribuons they are making for gied students. Recognion of success generates more success.Finally, parents, realize the power you have to impact change in the school community. When informed and united, parents can and do eect change at all levels. Working together with educators, districts, state and naonal policy makers, parents can experience rst-hand the dierence that they can make in the lives of their gied children, and all gied children. When informed and united, parents can and do effect change at all levels.
43 A PPENDIX Wisconsin State Statutes and Administrave Rules Regarding Gied and Talented Educaon hps://dpi.wi.gov/gied/laws GIFTED PROGRAMS LAW (from Chapter 118, General School Operaons)118.35 Programs for gied and talented pupils. 118.35(1) (1) In this secon, “gied and talented pupils” means pupils enrolled in public schools who give evidence of high performance capability in intellectual, creave, arsc, leadership or specic academic areas and who need services or acvies not ordinarily provided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilies.118.35(2) (2) The state superintendent shall by rule establish guidelines for the idencaon of gied and talented pupils [see below for current Administrave Rules].118.35(3) (3) Each school board shall ensure that all gied and talented pupils enrolled in the school district have access to a program for gied and talented pupils.118.35(4) From the appropriaon under s. 20.255 (2) (fy), the department shall award grants to nonprot organizaons, cooperave educaonal service agencies, instuons within the University of Wisconsin System, and the school district operang under ch. 119 for the purpose of providing to gied and talented pupils those services and acvies not ordinarily provided in a regular school program that allow such pupils to fully develop their capabilies.[Note: part (4) was revised in 2011 to include UW system campuses; the district operang under 119 is Milwaukee Public Schools]STANDARD t LAW(from Chapter 121, School Finance, Subchapter II, General Aid)121.02(1)(t) […each school board shall…](t) Provide access to an appropriate program for pupils idened as gied or talented.[Context: Standard t is one of 20 standards that are supposed to be met in order for districts to receive state aid. This is the standard under which aid may be withheld from districts that are found out of compliance with Standard t.]
44The following Administrave Rule was established by DPI to provide greater direcon and guidance to school districts regarding what is required. Authority for these rules comes from 118.35(2).Administrave Rule 8.01(2)(t)2. Each school district shall establish a plan and designate a person to coordinate the gied and talented program. Gied and talented pupils shall be idened as required in s. 118.35(1), Stats. This idencaon shall occur in kindergarten through grade 12 in general intellectual, specic academic, leadership, creavity, and visual and performing arts. A pupil may be idened as gied or talented in one or more of the categories under s. 118.35(1), Stats. The idencaon process shall result in a pupil prole based on mulple measures, including but not limited to standardized test data, nominaons, rang scales or inventories, products, porolios, and demonstrated performance. Idencaon tools shall be appropriate for the specic purpose for which they are being employed. The idencaon process and tools shall be responsive to factors such as, but not limited to, pupils’ economic condions, race, gender, culture, nave language, developmental dierences, and idened disabilies as described under subch. V of ch. 115, Stats. The school district board shall provide access, without charge for tuion, to appropriate programming for pupils idened as gied or talented as required under ss. 118.35(3) and 121.02(1)(t), Stats. The school district board shall provide an opportunity for parental parcipaon in the idencaon and resultant programming. As used in these statutes and rules, “access” is dened as “an opportunity to study through school district course oerings, independent study, cooperave educaonal service agencies, or cooperave arrangements between school district boards under s. 66.30, Stats., and postsecondary educaon instuons (from PI 8.001, Wis. Admin. Code). Similarly, “appropriate program” is dened as “a systemac and connuous set of instruconal acvies or learning experiences which expand the development of the pupils idened as gied and talented (from PI 8.01(2)(t), Wis. Admin. Code).