Maricopa mom: If you think your children are Gifted, get them tested

By Merry Grace

It is time that MUSD continues to raise the bar and strives to meet the academic needs of our accelerating students who are Gifted. For far too long this district went with little to no services due to budget cuts.

Thankfully the district reinstated the Gifted program last year, but it currently only serves 3rd-6th, which now is in question as sixth grade will be moved back to middle school. Our older students need services as well, and it is up to us parents to advocate for continued expansion of services and programs.

I am pleased to see that a district-wide Gifted committee was started. Our first meeting had just a handful of parents when that room should have been packed! It has been requested that the district do a better job of communicating about the next meeting to ensure more parents can give their input and feedback.  It is crucial that parents attend and learn about the plans while giving feedback. Look for the next meeting to happen after Spring Break.

It is my belief that our district has a huge number of unidentified Gifted students partly due to parents not knowing about the test and also due to parents used to not having services for so long, seeing no reason to get their student tested. We need to change this. When we have more students identified it becomes easier to advocate for expansion. How many parents know that the next testing period is coming up?  According to the district website, the  Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) will be offered Feb. 27-March 10 at the student’s home school. I encourage parents to speak with their teachers if they feel their student needs to be tested.

Go into your school offices and inquire about the paperwork to get them tested in the next round. This is for all grade levels, not just 3rd-6th. It is important for a student to be identified that way teachers, who should be going through professional development, know how many students are Gifted in their classrooms and more can be done to meet their academic needs. In moving through high school and preparing for college, the identification is important and will help with college courses and scholarship applications.

At the district meeting we learned of some future plans that include:
* Qualification Standards (currently – 97% or above in any of the 3 giftedness areas)
* Increase student identification through educating, training and communication with teachers
* Continue curriculum design & plan for multiple areas of giftedness
* Secondary clustering and placements ( Blended Learning, Honors, Advanced Placement, Dual Enrollment, CTE Courses)
* Program Design for 2017-2018
* Dates and locations for quarterly parent committee meetings
* Update gifted website and create a gifted newsletter

I strongly urge all parents of Gifted students to join me in advocating for our students to ensure MUSD continues to take the strides forward in raising the bar, ensuring that expansion happens and plans become more than just ideas on paper.  We all need to do our part to become parts of the solution. Our students are counting on us! Look for the Gifted website on the MUSD website under the Curriculum Dept section.  Look for our facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/670989473031369/

Merry Grace is a Maricopa resident.