Parents of gifted students are often perceived as ‘whining’ when they complain that their children’s needs are not being met. There is a cultural assumption that these students will achieve regardless of what the educational system does, or does not, do for them. We parents all wish that were the case; but, to quote the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, "the statistics sadly refute this assumption."

The use of the word ‘gifted’ seems to imply that our children have things that others do not. What they ‘have’, in practical terms, is educational needs that cannot be adequately addressed in a ‘regular ed’ classroom. No less than learning disabled students, highly gifted students require specially trained instructors and a course of instruction appropriate to their actual capabilities.

I have given you a chart showing the distribution of students into ‘standard deviations’. I do not think that anyone would dispute that people in the two columns on the left would require a special learning experience in order to reach their full potential. No one would dispute that a ninth grader who reads at a second grade level requires specially trained teachers and an appropriate course of instruction. A one size fits all education is simply not adequate to address the needs of such a student.

However, relatively few educators and school districts understand that a highly gifted second grader who reads at a ninth grade level has the same need for differentiated instruction as his learning disabled counterpart. Students who fall into the two columns on the right have needs as distinct, as definite, and, yes, as urgent as those in the two columns at the left.

When these needs are not met, highly gifted students will probably languish in the classroom, uninspired and unchallenged. Some may fall behind academically and disrupt the education of other students; others are often satisfied with mediocre performance since that is all that is expected. Many gifted and talented students physically drop out of school, but many more are intellectual dropouts who have resigned themselves to going through the motions of receiving an education. Studies have pointed to high rates of suicide and juvenile delinquency among this population.

The needs of the highly gifted are NOT met by once-a-month ‘pullout’ programs. Neither are they met by annual Shakespeare festivals. They ARE met when highly gifted students are grouped with other students who can learn at their pace, and are instructed by teachers who can teach at their pace.

For over a decade, DPS has recognized these students’ needs through its ‘self-contained’ classrooms for students ‘identified’ by the Gifted and Talented Office as falling within the top 1% when tested for performance and potential. DPS became a nationally-recognized pioneer in gifted education through the establishment of self-contained peer groups, composed of gifted students in grades 1 through 8, taught by specially trained teachers, and offering an accelerated and challenging course of instruction to its students.

PROBLEMS IN EXISTING SOLUTIONS

The biggest problem with DPS’ self-contained programs for the gifted is that it has been grafted to a number of scattered sites as ‘schools within schools’. This creates a struggle for limited resources in every school in which it is placed. I have witnessed or heard stories of squabbles over classroom space, textbooks, copy paper, and probably any other school resources you could imagine. Even when the principal is supportive of gifted education, a certain amount of partisan bickering may be natural. If ‘regular ed’ or other teachers are actively encouraged to see the symbiotic gifted classrooms as hostile parasites, the situation can become much worse and the resentment can flow down over the HGT children themselves. I know that at least on some occasions the Board has allocated resources to meet the needs of HGT students in under- served quadrants, only to have the local school negate this effort by using these resources for other needs.

Since the end of busing, gifted education’s position within DPS has become increasingly precarious. Self -contained gifted education for grades 1 through 8 is now available only in the Southeast quadrant of the city., which presents some obvious equity issues. No such program even exists in the high schools.

In the ‘school within a school’ model offered by Denver’s current gifted and challenge programs, the needs of the ‘normal’ majority always come first; the special needs of the at-risk highly gifted kids are considered second, if at all. This is understandable; but to the parents of these at-risk students, it is not acceptable.

In Columbine Elementary and Horace Mann, the gifted program has been swallowed up by of these issues. In other locations such as Corey, the ‘gifted’ program is a program in name only, which has neither the trained staff nor the differentiated education these students need. In still other locations, such as Ellis, the gifted program is being gradually squeezed out by a simple lack of physical space. In all of these places, board members and others would be quick to point out that each situation is ‘unique’ and does not mean that the DPS board and administration are indifferent to the needs of the gifted. And they would be right.

That is precisely why the at-risk gifted children of Denver need their OWN unique situation, a situation that does not rely on the resources or intentions of another school for its quality or its very survival. That is why we are asking you to grant a charter for a self-contained SCHOOL for the highly gifted.

THE APOLLO SOLUTION

A GT charter school will ensure that these students’ interests need no longer be balanced against the needs of ‘regular ed’ or other students. Our teachers will be able to spend their time in educating our children and not in fighting over resources.

The Apollo charter school will address the needs of these at-risk students by grouping them by ability rather than by grade level. It will have trained instructors challenging children at their own levels in each subject. You have in your possession a copy of our curriculum plan, which has been developed by teachers with experience with this population. The five design elements would ensure that these children are engaged in their education, and not merely attending a school.

In particular, multi-aged learning groups will enable us to meet the special need of highly gifted and twice exceptional students whose asynchronous development cannot be properly addressed by untrained teachers in a regular classroom. Using our unique educational program as an intellectual lever and our school as a solid emotional and social fulcrum, we confidently expect our students to move the world.