Tips for Services

Hello,

this is just going to be a a quick video on some tips or things

to keep in mind as you're designing services for your um high ability learners.

This is not a video on comprehensive treatment of services. If you want to

um get more information on common services,

make sure that you are looking at the uh D O E handbook for high ability

as well as I I posted in kind of intro video on gifted programming elements

in the first module.

So make sure to look at those for some more common service

options and some things to keep in mind for those services.

The purpose of this video is just to give you some tips about

things that are coming up that I keep hearing about current trends or,

or issues that I want you to keep in mind as

you're thinking about expanding services for your high ability kids.

OK. So to start that conversation, this is the the biggest thing to say today is

make sure when we're thinking about services for our high ability learners,

we're not thinking of a program

and that's usually what I hear is we have a program.

Like, for example, in middle school we've got others classes in math and language,

arts

and I think an honors class is not a program. Right?

Um The same with high school. Oh, we have advanced placement or?

Oh, we've got dual credit

but beyond those courses, what do we have for our high ability kids?

So, thinking about our identified population,

there's still quite a range in differences and needs

and that's what we really need to focus on.

So are we finding the needs for those

extreme outliers and providing services for those?

Are we finding a service option for those kids who need

some additional supports in terms terms of social emotional needs and adjustment

um as well as different career and college guidance.

Thinking about that for high school students.

So when we're thinking about services, it's not just we have a program,

a one size fits all.

Instead we should have a menu or a range of options for kids depending

on what they need and what stage they are in terms of their development,

we also need to be open to acceleration and and this is

something I included in the module linked to the University of Iowa's Acceleration

Institute.

They have compiled the research over several decades to

show how beneficial acceleration can be for kids.

It's an inexpensive option.

It doesn't cost anything really to accelerate kids, subject acceleration or,

or whole grade acceleration.

It's not right for all kids.

Um and certainly you need to go through a process that the University of Iowa has

a tool to help you do to consider whether or not that's a viable option,

but it's definitely an option that is under used in Indiana.

So I strongly strongly encourage you to read through that body of information.

Look at that website that Iowa puts out.

It has um powerpoint presentations that you can use

with different groups of stakeholders to kind of help

them understand that this is really a viable option

for high ability kids to consider our outliers.

Anyway.

Um Their research is really robust that

kids generally speaking, who have been accelerated, never go back and say, oh,

that was a terrible idea.

You know, for the strong most part,

they're very happy with that option of acceleration.

They're much happier,

socially and emotionally and better adjusted because of that.

So just make sure that you don't immediately cross that out because at one point

and one time we knew one kid who is accelerating and it didn't work out.

Ok, we all have our anecdotal evidence.

But when we look collectively at the research

and the body of evidence that provides,

it is really a strong option that I hope more districts will consider

for their high ability learners who are in, in need of a more rigorous challenge.

And even the high

program at that grade level can provide.

The other thing to keep in mind is the importance of a therapeutic dose.

Ok. In terms of the amount of time that kids are spending in service. Um, for example,

I know some districts might have uh enrichment Fridays where the high ability kids

go to a high ability enrichment program from two until 2 45 on Fridays.

And they work on higher order thinking skills or something.

And a colleague of mine always used to compare this to the analogy of being on a diet.

If you're only on an a, a diet Fridays from two until 2 45 that's,

that's not gonna work, right?

It's not gonna show a lot of results, ok. But, and the same is true for high ability,

you need to have a therapeutic dose in terms of the time and services.

So really look at that and on your high ability documentation form,

it asks you to fill out the number of minutes that kids are

receiving a differentiated experience um in each of the core subject areas,

how many minutes they're receiving that uh per week?

And if that is too low or, you know, not high enough,

then maybe that is an area to start with in

terms of thinking about program improvements for the future.

Because if we're not giving them enough time, you know,

it's really going to be hard for them to show any achievement growth.

So therapeutic dose,

make sure they're having enough time in that

service that it's actually going to be impactful.

And along with that,

we can consider supplementary services and services in additional domains.

So we know in Indiana,

we're required to provide services in math and language arts at minimum.

And so at the elementary level, we can be doing that right,

we can cluster them or use between class grouping or something for their

core content instruction.

But there's also a lot of time in the day that we

could be offering additional services that

frequently we're not taking advantage of.

For example, a lot of districts have what I need time or win time or success time or,

or some time in the day, 25 30 minutes

that they are using to provide kids additional um

time and instruction who need some remediation or support.

But for the kids who are high ability,

that time could easily be used as an enrichment or an extension of services,

a supplementary service.

So instead of random acts of enrichment, which is usually what happens.

Maybe we could purposefully group those kids together and it could be multi age,

you could have a second through fourth grade, you know,

depending on the schedule in your building.

But that those high ability kids come together to the same teacher during that

win time or success time and they are

provided with some instruction in high order thinking,

problem solving, creativity.

OK.

Whatever it might be, but that it's systematic and planned,

not just random so that you can actually see growth in some of those skills or

those additional areas or additional domains that you

might be able to provide services for.

The same is true at the middle and high school level with home room

and with um advisory,

different opportunities there that if we grouped our kids together purposefully,

it would be a lot easier to give um some

time and attention to the social emotional piece as well.

So those targeted

um guidance and counseling lessons that

are differentiated from high ability kids,

if they're grouped together for home room,

there might be some time to do some of those lessons or for that remediation,

success time

that we might not otherwise have in the school day.

So really pay attention to your schedule, um talk with your administrators,

your building administrators and think.

Can we carve out some additional time in the day

to expand on the services we're already offering in language,

arts and math or to offer services in some of these additional domains,

leadership, technical arts like robotics or, or science areas or creativity

that we're not currently offering,

but we could find more kids who might qualify or need those services or benefit from

them and expand our program that way or

just strengthen the exposure to that skill development,

higher order,

uh critical and creative thinking and problem solving during that time as well.

So that's something I want you to,

to think about if that's a possibility in your district

also at middle and high school um focusing on high school here for a minute.

There's a current kind of push in our state for dual credit.

And I'm hearing this a lot even in the dashboard and the measurements,

the percentage of kids who are graduating high school with some

um

postsecondary credential or these different um credits that they can apply.

And I think that's a good goal.

But the problem is if it comes at the expense

of offering the most rigorous option for high ability kids.

So for example, if um a dual credit is offered and that is a

pathway that a lot of kids are interested

in because they can automatically get the credit,

they don't have to pass a course at the end or pass a test at the end

like you do for A P to get credit.

Some districts are doing away with their A

P offerings and offering the dual credit version.

Instead,

the problem with that is dual credit is not standardized.

Some dual credit is excellent and provides a lot of rigor and preparation

and others other dual credit does not.

And because it's not standardized,

we can't be sure that it is being taught at the level

that our high ability kids need in order to be well prepared

in that particular subject area.

The other issue is that kids who are applying for selective colleges,

especially out of state

dual credit doesn't translate often the college admissions don't

know what to do with that because again,

it's not standardized,

everyone knows what to do with an A P score of A five in calculus.

We all understand what that means because it's the same across the country.

Kids who took, they take the same tests, it scored on the same, you know, level.

And so we can very easily understand and interpret

that and apply it in the college admissions process.

So for that reason, I want you to kind of think about

advocating for advanced placement to be offered,

not just dual credit in some particular subject areas.

Um Math and science as as two areas to consider. Specifically,

I want to show you here some data,

the commission for Higher Ed and I'm gonna post this,

this research report, so you'll have access to it.

Um has done multiple studies looking at the

predictive validity of dual credit and A P

in terms of predicting first year college grades as well as persistence.

So those kids who go on and continue in college for sophomore year,

and you can see when you look at that, that

um the kids who had dual credit only 43% of those earned the

first year um college grade point average of the 3.0 or above.

But look for the kids that had a P only that goes up to 65%.

And then the kids who had a mix of both it goes up to 74%.

So the takeaway from this is more is better,

you know, that we get to 74%.

But between dual credit and A P A P is a better predictor

of that first year college grade point average than dual credit alone.

The same is true if we come over here and look at persistence.

So those kids who continued on for their sophomore year as opposed to dropping out

um kids who had dual credit, only 75% of them returned for their sophomore year.

But 90% of the kids who had A P only returned for their sophomore year

and again, a little bit better if we had a combination of both A P and dual credit.

But the point on this is that

A

does have a predictive advantage over dual credit alone.

So we just want to make sure that we are

offering our kids the most rigorous experience in those courses.

So they're going to be successful.

I think about the kids, for example, who are going into

premed or engineering programs,

those kids who have had a PC C or A P physics

or any of those advanced placement courses in the math and science,

everybody else who's admitted to those programs from different states have

had those most rigorous um A P options as well.

So they go in

at the same level of preparation

for our kids who didn't have access to the A P,

they're automatically at a slight disadvantage there.

They're just not as ready or prepared for the rigor that

some of those courses are gonna require those weed out courses.

The intro,

engineering, chemistry, biology kind of courses.

So, what we don't want to happen is that our high ability kids who think

they were all that in high school, you know,

they were the top of the top and then they get to school and college and they think,

oh my gosh, you know, everybody here is smart, I'm not as smart, I'm not as ready.

Maybe I'll drop

down in terms of my career as aspect um aspirations,

maybe I won't go into engineering or I won't go into premed.

We don't want that to happen. We just want to make sure that we have given them

the appropriate level of preparation.

So they can be as confident in their skills and abilities going

into those classes as any other kid they might meet there.

Ok.

This is kind of piggybacking on that same conversation,

making sure that we're having differentiated college and career guidance.

I mean,

I can sit here and talk to you about the

importance of the difference between dual credit and A P.

But kids don't understand that and families don't necessarily understand that.

So making sure when we're meeting with them and the counselors are meeting

with them that they're having these same discussions with the kids and families.

So they understand and are guided to the right course selection.

The same with the college application process.

It's an entirely different process applying for selective colleges than it is

for a typical or as not as selective um college application.

So having those different conversations with kids and the

idea of what is expected,

what is the typical applicant who's successful

applying to these schools look like?

What kind of experiences, extracurriculars,

leadership opportunities um have these applicants had that are successful?

So our kids have a plan for that,

we have those conversations early enough so that they can develop a course

plan of study that will set them up to be a competitive applicant

early on

and that they have a sense,

a realistic sense of what it's gonna take to be successful in that area.

And then finally

at the middle and high school level,

making sure that we're having additional opportunities for connection.

OK. We talked about this a little bit

um with regard to

services, grouping them together for home room and advisory. But

are there other options or other opportunities

for those kids to be together socially?

So

some districts, for example,

I found it to be a good idea to have what's called a zero hour where they

have a faculty member who is willing to come

in early and meet with those kids informally,

just open up his or her classroom,

have them come in and they can either

study together, prepare for quizzes.

That they might have coming up or just talk and complain together about their,

the the amount of work that they have and things that they have coming up.

But just having that shared experience, kind of that foxhole mentality,

we're all in it together

can be a buffer against other influences

that are, are forces that are kind of anti

achievement, anti-intellectualism that kind of are happening on the periphery.

So if we can kind of put these kids in a little bit of

a protective bubble where they start to develop an identity of a high achiever,

they have other kids who are in it with them, experiencing it together

that might make it easier to resist some outside forces.

That might be saying, why are you taking that A P class? Why are you doing that?

Why aren't you having early release? Why aren't you doing this that or the other

that's counterproductive to um developing their academic talents?

So trying to find those informal opportunities for supports,

maybe it's just, you know,

every two weeks having an opportunity for a lunch seminar where they come

in and you can just talk and eat together and talk about ideas or

um areas of challenge they're experiencing

um with a counselor over lunch.

So just trying to think of ways in the

day that we can offer some supplementary services that will

help them feel connected to other high ability kids and

feel that strong support network that they might need,

especially if the,

the attitude towards achievement or the culture towards

achievement in their high school or their middle school

might not be as supportive for

um advanced opportunities as it might be in other districts.

Ok.

So these are just a few ideas to keep

in mind for um thinking about expanding services.

We're gonna talk about additional ideas when we cover some

special issues or considerations for

kids from traditionally underrepresented populations.

So stay tuned for that. Thank you.

Tips for Services

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