Montgomery County teachers recommended twice as many second graders for advanced reading classes as they did in 2009 under a new testing process for gifted and talented students.
SClBNearly 39 percent, or 951 of 2,467 students, were identified in the spring as above-level readers using the process, called Student Instructional Program Planning and Implementation, or SIPPI. By contrast, just 404 of 2,293 students, or 17.6 percent, were recommended for above-level reading courses in 2009 using the traditional screening process.
The number of students approved for above-level math increased less dramatically, from 32.3 to 40.2 percent, while the number of students labeled “gifted” slipped from 35.9 to 35.3 percent.
The tool evaluated all second-graders in 31 test elementary schools, and will be rolled out to the rest in the winter and spring of next year, according to a memo Superintendent Jerry Weast sent to the school board. “These results clearly show that this process is helping us better identify students who are ready for accelerated instruction,” he wrote.
The literacy rate has been a chief priority for Weast, who will retire in June after 12 years. He identified advanced reading in grades K-12 as the first step toward college readiness, and a score of “advanced” on the Maryland State Assessments in grades 3-8 as the second. About 28 percent of third-graders and 57 percent of eighth-graders achieved this second step in 2010.
Martin Creel, director of Department of Enriched and Innovative Programs for the county public school system, said the relatively bigger jump in reading recommendations is a result of SIPPI’s ability to compile more performance measures in one place — side by side on a computer screen — so schools can make a “whole-child” decision about recommendations. This was already being done with math to some degree, “because math is easier to quantify.”
“In first and second grade it’s simple things like, can you identify place value,” said Creel, noting that the aspects of reading evaluation such as comprehension are “much more complicated.”
Michelle Gluck, chairwoman of the Gifted Child subcommittee for the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, said she was excited by SIPPI’s increased capability to identify talented students, but questioned the school system’s definition of “grade-level.”
“Anything that can or should be done by more than half of a given population is not advanced for a population,” said Gluck, pointing to the approximately 60 percent of Asian students and 50 percent of white students selected for above-level math and reading courses. “It should be standard.”
School board member Michael Durso said he wanted to be sure that the placements are accurate, “and not just for statistical purposes.”
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