Gifted education experts are evaluating Tacoma School District programs aimed at highly capable elementary and middle school students.

“This is a continuation of the highly-capable program review we started last year,” said Carolyn Treleven, director of curriculum and instruction for Tacoma Public Schools.

The evaluation included expert visits to Tacoma schools last week. Tacoma contracted with Carolyn Callahan, director of the University of Virginia site of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, and Holly Hertberg-Davis, a researcher for the center, to complete the evaluation.

In addition to visiting classrooms and talking with teachers and administrators, the pair will analyze demographic and test score data from students in the program.

Their study will cost the school district about $20,000, Treleven said.

District officials will add recommendations from a committee of teachers, principals and parents who looked at the district’s gifted program last year. They also will include feedback from parents.

They plan to present recommendations to the Tacoma School Board in the spring. They’ll suggest ways to best define and identify gifted students and create programs to serve them. Callahan said one plus for Tacoma is its many levels of gifted programs.

Gifted education can be a hot-button issue. Parents of students in the programs worry that their children’s special classes can be targeted for cuts in times of tight budgets.

The school district budgeted an estimated $714,000 for the programs this year. Last year, the figure was $719,000.

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s new proposed state budget would cut $7.4 million for gifted education statewide.

Last school year, parents of students in Tacoma’s programs were invited to public meetings to hear about the school district’s review. The environment quickly turned tense, as skeptical parents questioned what changes might be in store and educators tried to calm their fears.

Educators, meantime, also want to ensure that gifted programs are accessible to all kids, including those from low-income families.

Callahan said low-income kids can miss out on learning opportunities that children from higher-income families take for granted – travel, adults reading to them, quality preschool. She said she hopes to offer suggestions for programs that can help.

Treleven said part of the challenge is defining who is gifted.

“That’s part of why it’s nice to have folks here who are experts in the field,” she said.

The school district currently uses testing combined with teacher and parent recommendations to choose students for the program.

Treleven said last week that the district is not looking to eliminate gifted education services. She said it is interested in assessing those services to ensure what’s best for students.

Paul LaKosky, parent of a fifth-grade student in the JAWS enrichment program, said he was not reassured by last year’s meeting. He said the people running it essentially asked parents to vote on how well they liked several models for gifted education. But he said no one could adequately explain the models or why they were chosen.

“The pushback from the meeting delayed any decision-making,” LaKosky said. “That’s the impression I was left with.”

But LaKosky said his son loves the JAWS program.

“It’s the kind of learning environment he thrives in,” he said. “I’m sure my son would love it if school were like JAWS every day. I would love it if they fully funded the schools so that all children could get more. I’m concerned about schools taking away from one program to feed the needs of another.”

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635

debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com

Acronyms explained

There are four programs serving Tacoma School District students through grade eight who have exceptional abilities:

JAWS (Joining Ability With Subjects): Students in grades three, four and five attend their home school four days a week and their JAWS classroom (often at a different school) one day a week.

SAIL (Self-contained Advanced Individual Learning): Full-time programs for a limited number of students in fourth and fifth grades. Programs draw from students districtwide, but are based at Wainwright and Lister elementary schools.

GATE (Gifted And Talented Education): This is a pilot program offering multi-age classrooms for students in third, fourth and fifth grades. Students can have the same teacher for all three years. GATE is based at Downing and Franklin elementary schools.

HIGHLY CAPABLE: Accelerated instruction for middle school students in math, language arts and other classes.

Debbie Cafazzo, The News Tribune Schools visited

These Tacoma district schools recently hosted visits from experts in gifted education:

Elementary schools

Wainwright

Skyline

Downing

Lister

Lowell

Franklin

Browns Point

Middle schools

Gray

Stewart

Mason