TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

USF reaching out to find more gifted students

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICHELLE FINLAYSON and REBECCA WAINRIGHT

Special to the Tribune

Published: October 25, 2009

TAMPA - Chatter filled Diana Favata's classroom as students calculated weight, density and volume with chocolate bars, part of a science class for gifted fifth-graders at Hunter's Green Elementary.

Chloe Gousse, 10, was among the students with melting chocolate stuck to their fingers.

Chloe, who takes math and science classes in the gifted program, is not typical of her classmates because English is not her first language. Students who are not native English speakers and those from lower socio-economic groups generally are underrepresented in gifted programs, said Lauri Kirsch, the district's supervisor of K-12 gifted education in Hillsborough County.

Recently, the University of South Florida's College of Education received a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund REACH, which stands for Recognizing Extraordinary Accomplishments of Children, to research this issue.

"I think it's a great opportunity to find those kinds of kids who aren't traditionally identified as gifted kids," Favata, Chloe's science teacher, said. "Their performance might be hindered or masked by other factors in their lives."

Chloe was born and raised in Haiti until her family moved to Tampa in 2005. French is her native language, but she quickly mastered English.

Chloe's mother, Joanne, said her daughter got the highest score on both parts of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in fourth grade.

She was placed in the gifted program after taking a nonverbal test.

Elizabeth Shaunessy, coordinator of the gifted education program at USF, wants to research whether using a nonverbal test would increase the representation of students from lower socio-economic levels and those learning English, such as Chloe, in the Hillsborough district's gifted programs.

The test uses picture patterns to test intelligence. Researchers also will train educators to recognize characteristics of gifted students and use an accelerated reading program. Hillsborough will implement the program during the next four years.

Because of its diversity, Hillsborough is an ideal place for the research, Shaunessy said.

"I think Hillsborough has the opportunity to really do something with a district that is a lot more like the rest of the country, and, hopefully, what we learn will be beneficial to other people throughout the country," she said.

Nationally, gifted education is receiving less funding and programs have fewer teachers because of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, created to improve students' proficiency in the basics.

With fewer resources for gifted education, there are fewer educators who are trained to identify these students.

"Their general education teachers often don't recognize the signs of giftedness, either because they don't understand the child's native language, or they're not trained in the characteristics of gifted learners," Shaunessy said.

Some signs of giftedness include a profound interest in a subject, advanced verbal skills at an early age, the ability to build sophisticated structures or the ability to acquire a second language faster than the average person, Shaunessy said. In Hillsborough, about 3 percent of the district's 190,000 students are identified as gifted.

It's important that these students' needs are met. Bright students who go unnoticed can lose their joy for learning and can regress in their education, Shaunessy said.

Before moving to Tampa, Chloe had a basic understanding of English from attending a private Catholic school in Haiti. Now she is fluent.

The written exams used to identify gifted students can be culturally biased and don't cater to students who have strengths other than verbal skills. Joanne Gousse said the REACH program will benefit students who are gifted but overlooked because of factors that are out of their control, such as language.

"It's a positive program," Gousse said. "It opens doors to those who would otherwise not have the opportunity."

Michelle Finlayson and Rebecca Wainright are students in a University of South Florida multimedia journalism class.

Keyword: Gifted, to read Chloe Gousse's thoughts about the gifted program, for tips on identifying giftedness and to watch a video story. Keyword: Gifted, to read Chloe Gousse's thoughts about the gifted program, for tips on identifying giftedness and to

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT