October, 2014 Hot Topic: “Are American Schools Failing Our Brightest Students?”

 Thursday, November 13 PARENT RESOURCE MEETING Topic: "The G-Word; Defining Gifted.” We will be joined at this meeting by the new Superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools, Dr. Eric Williams. Location: Bean Tree Learning Pavilion, Greenway Corporate Dr, Ashburn, Virginia 7:00pm - 8:30pm RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.

 Tuesday, December 16 EXPERT PRESENTATION & HOLIDAY CELEBRATION Topic: "Why Boarding School Might Be Right For your Gifted Student” Bring a dish to share for our potluck dinner! Children will be treated to a complimentary cricket lesson by a certified coach. Location: Wicket Club,45698 Elmwood Ct, Sterling, VirginiaWicket Club 6:30pm - 8:30pm RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.

 Alternating Wednesday and Thursday, all from 7:00- 8:30pm  Topics and locations TBA  Th, January 22  W, February 25  Th, March 26  W, April 22  Th, May 28  W, June 24  Th, July 23  W, August 26

 “A Nation Deceived” was published in 2004 but is still talked about today  “Dumbing Down America” was published in July of 2014  Bonus…  “Why Gifted Education Doesn’t Make Sense” was published in WashPost by Jay Matthews this month (10/8/14)

 Promoting acceleration for students who are ready for a greater academic challenge  “Acceleration allows for educational flexibility” for gifted students  There are 18 types of acceleration to consider  The big categories include… ▪ Single subject acceleration (also called telescoping) ▪ Grade skipping ▪ Early entrance into K ▪ AP/College courses in high school

 Of a group of middle school students who took the SAT…  High scoring students can absorb a year’s worth of high school instruction in 3 weeks  The highest scoring students could absorb a year’s worth of high school in 1.5 weeks

 Brown v. Board of Education has not resulted in equality in the classroom  Grouping children by age is no different than grouping children by skin color…it’s an arbitrary characteristic unrelated to a child’s readiness and aptitude for learning

 Teachers and Administrators are uneducated or misinformed about gifted students and their needs  Most education degrees do not include a single course on gifted students  There are many misperceptions or exaggerated disaster stories out there about acceleration  There are few other cases where research supports a concept so strongly but educators ignore the research

 Characteristics about your child to consider  Curriculum mastery  Motivation  Social-emotional maturity  Interests  I would add one more…  Physical size

 The “IAS Kit” (Iowa Acceleration Scale) is available from Julie Kelly’s office  You can purchase it yourself at greatpotentialpress.com