Parents of Talented and Gifted students face a dilemma. They want the best for their kids, but the best is often difficult to locate. The 'Best' often consists of programs of various sorts. These programs abound, but too many are trivial. They are often anti-intellectual. They produce very little in the way of concrete results. And while they are ubiquitous in the lower grades, they nearly disappear at the high school level. But there are exceptions.
I believe that the Academic Decathlon is one such exception. Corbett's experience seems to bear this out. Far from being another 'quiz game' or 'bee', the Academic Decathlon consists in an ambitious interdisciplinary curriculum (this year's topic is the French Revolution) and students prepare for exams in Literature, Economics, Science, History, Music, Art, and Math. They prepare speeches and deliver impromptu speeches. They sit for an interview, and they compete in an essay-writing event. It's a pretty exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting!) experience. It's a chance to compete on a national stage, and last year we brought home Oregon's first national gold medal (in Literature)! Decathletes compete for individual as well as team recognition.
While Corbett's program is only in its third year (we got in on the ground floor when Oregon started competing again in 2008) we already have a group of Decathletes who have made a spectacular transition from high school to higher education.
Our first competitive team (comprised of the minimum number of students required to participate) was formed in the Fall of 2007, won a state championship, and represented the State of Oregon at the 2008 national competition. Of those six, four returned for a second year of competition and a second state championship. Over all, five of the original six have graduated and can now be reached at Oregon State University, Vassar, Willamette University, and Reed College. The sixth is working toward a three-peat at the State competition and a third trip to Nationals.
In the Fall of 2008, the returning four decathletes were joined by five new competitors. Two of them have since taken their places among the university crowd, one in architecture and the other in art. The other three are competing again this year.
Of these eleven decathletes, who were selected to meet the event requirements that one third be 'C' students, one third 'B' students, and only one third could be 'A' students, five posted SAT scores in the top 2%. Two more scored in the top 10%. The eight team members who have graduated thus far passed a total of 53 Advanced Placement classes. One was Corbett's first AP National Scholar (one of 53 in the State of Oregon), and another was our first AP State Scholar (one of two in the state).
This year the Corbett Academic Decathlon program has taken another leap, and it includes about 90 students comprising two full teams: one for The Corbett School and one for Corbett Charter School. It is our goal to win first and second at the state competition and to provide another opportunity to compete on a national stage. Having finished 31st in the nation in 2009 and 27th in 2009, we are hoping to break into the top 20 this year. Patience and improvement are the hallmarks of our approach. We will see how it goes.
Meanwhile, the Academic Decathlon provides an opportunity for limitless growth for even the most gifted students. In the 40-year history of the national competition, brilliant students from throughout the country have tested their ability against this curriculum. In 40 years, no student has posted a perfect score. No student has scored even 95%. This is tough. It's challenging. This is a program that a talented student can pour heart and soul into and never be in danger of running out of meaningful work to do.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Talented, Gifted, and Advanced Placement for All
Talented and Gifted advocates, those who are concerned with the education of our most able students, have become used to the argument that Oregon lacks the financial resources to appropriately educate all of its children.
Their response has been measured and largely productive; they seem to have resigned themselves to seminars on differentiated instruction (which is useful, so far as it goes) and enrollment with special summer-and-weekend TAG opportunities.
Differentiation is certainly useful, and special events are often inspirational and informative. But there is an elephant in the room.
The power of differentiation is limited by the availability of appropriate curriculum. If differentiation is to be effective, a gifted student has to be able to work at a minimum of two to three years beyond what Oregon would define as 'grade level standards'.
For example, in order to truly differentiate math instruction, a 10-year-old needs access to algebra. Not 'pretend' algebra or algebra-like enhancements, but real algebra. High School algebra. I wonder how often that's what people mean by differentiation.
At the high school level, most TAG advocates (and most services) seem to disappear altogether. TAG students are largely assumed to be served by whatever passes for 'college prep' at the local school. Active parents with choices may put considerable effort into finding just the right school, but many more parents don't have good choices. They take what they can get, hoping for Honors, Dual-Credit or AP classes, usually beginning in 11th grade and usually limited (where they are available at all) to a half dozen course titles.
This state of affairs is as unnecessary as it is inadequate. There is no high school in the state that can't offer either Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes to the vast majority of students. And access doesn't have to be delayed until 11th grade. And yet this state of affairs persists.
While much more aggressive Advanced Placement programs would vastly improve education options for all students, they would be of inestimable and particular value for Talented and Gifted students. For example:
Corbett's Class of 2009 included some academic heavy hitters. 40% of them were AP Scholars, meaning that they passed three or more AP exams during their school careers. The top half of those scholars, just the TEN students that made up the top 20% of the class posted the following results:
Two of them passed AP Calculus(bc) at age 15. (Hard to do without algebra at a tender age).
Nine passed an AP Calculus exam, with 8 passing the second year (bc).
Nine passed an AP English exam...these are not one-trick ponies.
All ten passed an exam in one of the social sciences.
In all, these 10 students earned 79 passing scores on 15 different exams, with a passing rate of 81%.
The Oregon University System has a standard matrix for awarding University Credit for AP exam scores. These 10 students would have earned a total of 278 credits: the equivalent of six years of full-time college credit.
Of course they didn't all take their credits to an Oregon Public University. They took them to Willamette, Reed, Vassar, Smith, U of O, Oregon State. They garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial aid and advanced credits.
The next eight students in the Class of 2009 passed an additional 30 exams. None of them was identified as TAG, but their results represent more achievement at a higher level than is made available to the vast majority of TAG students around the state.
The Advanced Placement program is effective. The results are both intellectually sound and bankable. The program is affordable. AP (or IB) should be available to every student in Oregon, and Talented and Gifted students should have unlimited access beginning in 9th grade. The best preparation? Differentiate in the lower grades.
Talented and Gifted Advocates should speak up. If the parents of first graders start today, access to Advanced Placement classes in every high school in Oregon could be a reality in time for their children to benefit. Most importantly, they could recruit as fellow advocates every other parent (TAG or not) that is committed to a better education for their children. Talented and Gifted Education will always be inexorably tied to the general classroom. Effective advocacy of Talented and Gifted Education, it seems to follow, needs to focus on dramatically raising the bar (and eliminating the ceiling) for all students.
Their response has been measured and largely productive; they seem to have resigned themselves to seminars on differentiated instruction (which is useful, so far as it goes) and enrollment with special summer-and-weekend TAG opportunities.
Differentiation is certainly useful, and special events are often inspirational and informative. But there is an elephant in the room.
The power of differentiation is limited by the availability of appropriate curriculum. If differentiation is to be effective, a gifted student has to be able to work at a minimum of two to three years beyond what Oregon would define as 'grade level standards'.
For example, in order to truly differentiate math instruction, a 10-year-old needs access to algebra. Not 'pretend' algebra or algebra-like enhancements, but real algebra. High School algebra. I wonder how often that's what people mean by differentiation.
At the high school level, most TAG advocates (and most services) seem to disappear altogether. TAG students are largely assumed to be served by whatever passes for 'college prep' at the local school. Active parents with choices may put considerable effort into finding just the right school, but many more parents don't have good choices. They take what they can get, hoping for Honors, Dual-Credit or AP classes, usually beginning in 11th grade and usually limited (where they are available at all) to a half dozen course titles.
This state of affairs is as unnecessary as it is inadequate. There is no high school in the state that can't offer either Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes to the vast majority of students. And access doesn't have to be delayed until 11th grade. And yet this state of affairs persists.
While much more aggressive Advanced Placement programs would vastly improve education options for all students, they would be of inestimable and particular value for Talented and Gifted students. For example:
Corbett's Class of 2009 included some academic heavy hitters. 40% of them were AP Scholars, meaning that they passed three or more AP exams during their school careers. The top half of those scholars, just the TEN students that made up the top 20% of the class posted the following results:
Two of them passed AP Calculus(bc) at age 15. (Hard to do without algebra at a tender age).
Nine passed an AP Calculus exam, with 8 passing the second year (bc).
Nine passed an AP English exam...these are not one-trick ponies.
All ten passed an exam in one of the social sciences.
In all, these 10 students earned 79 passing scores on 15 different exams, with a passing rate of 81%.
The Oregon University System has a standard matrix for awarding University Credit for AP exam scores. These 10 students would have earned a total of 278 credits: the equivalent of six years of full-time college credit.
Of course they didn't all take their credits to an Oregon Public University. They took them to Willamette, Reed, Vassar, Smith, U of O, Oregon State. They garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial aid and advanced credits.
The next eight students in the Class of 2009 passed an additional 30 exams. None of them was identified as TAG, but their results represent more achievement at a higher level than is made available to the vast majority of TAG students around the state.
The Advanced Placement program is effective. The results are both intellectually sound and bankable. The program is affordable. AP (or IB) should be available to every student in Oregon, and Talented and Gifted students should have unlimited access beginning in 9th grade. The best preparation? Differentiate in the lower grades.
Talented and Gifted Advocates should speak up. If the parents of first graders start today, access to Advanced Placement classes in every high school in Oregon could be a reality in time for their children to benefit. Most importantly, they could recruit as fellow advocates every other parent (TAG or not) that is committed to a better education for their children. Talented and Gifted Education will always be inexorably tied to the general classroom. Effective advocacy of Talented and Gifted Education, it seems to follow, needs to focus on dramatically raising the bar (and eliminating the ceiling) for all students.
Corbett's Advanced Placement Passing Rates
Corbett High School was ranked 8th in the nation by Newsweek Magazine in 2009 based on its rate of participation in the Advanced Placement program. This is a remarkable achievement, but with a caveat: what about the PASSING rates? It's the second question that comes up at every conference and presentation that we do.
So what about Corbett's passing rates? There are a number of ways to look at this question, but let's get away from the sweeping statements and look at specifics.
Last year Corbett had .12% of all of the students in the State of Oregon. So what would be a reasonable passing rate? It seems to me that we ought to have .12% of the passing scores in each subject in order to have 'our share'. So how did we show up, subject by subject? I'm going to create an index where if got .12% of Oregon's total passes in a subject, we call that a "1". "1" means we got our share. If we got .24% of all of the passing scores in the state, we get a "2". With me? (The reason for presenting this way is simple...it eliminates the need for everyone to pull out a calculator to deal with decimals and percent signs.
Let's start with an easy one. In Biology, Corbett students posted .6% of all of Oregon's passing scores. Divide that by Corbett's .12% of Oregon's student population, and you get an index score of "5". So Corbett passed 5 times its share of AP Biology Exams last year.
Here are some other indexed results:
Subject Index
Biology 5
Calculus (ab) 6.5
Calculus (bc) 22 (yes, really)
Statistics 27
Micro Economics 8
World History 48 (not a typo)
Chemistry 13
Physics 18
Psychology 16
English 19
Spanish 7
Studio Art 29
What's Corbett 'fair share' in each case? A score of 1. Did we really have 48 times our 'share' pass World History last year? Indeed we did.
Corbett's passing rates are not remarkable if one divides the number of exams passed by the number attempted. And while we have kids earning college credit, class by class, exam by exam, at anywhere from 5 to 50 times the rate of their peers around the state, I can't bring myself to care. We are in the business of learning what we can and creating exceptional opportunities for kids. Business is good.
So what about Corbett's passing rates? There are a number of ways to look at this question, but let's get away from the sweeping statements and look at specifics.
Last year Corbett had .12% of all of the students in the State of Oregon. So what would be a reasonable passing rate? It seems to me that we ought to have .12% of the passing scores in each subject in order to have 'our share'. So how did we show up, subject by subject? I'm going to create an index where if got .12% of Oregon's total passes in a subject, we call that a "1". "1" means we got our share. If we got .24% of all of the passing scores in the state, we get a "2". With me? (The reason for presenting this way is simple...it eliminates the need for everyone to pull out a calculator to deal with decimals and percent signs.
Let's start with an easy one. In Biology, Corbett students posted .6% of all of Oregon's passing scores. Divide that by Corbett's .12% of Oregon's student population, and you get an index score of "5". So Corbett passed 5 times its share of AP Biology Exams last year.
Here are some other indexed results:
Subject Index
Biology 5
Calculus (ab) 6.5
Calculus (bc) 22 (yes, really)
Statistics 27
Micro Economics 8
World History 48 (not a typo)
Chemistry 13
Physics 18
Psychology 16
English 19
Spanish 7
Studio Art 29
What's Corbett 'fair share' in each case? A score of 1. Did we really have 48 times our 'share' pass World History last year? Indeed we did.
Corbett's passing rates are not remarkable if one divides the number of exams passed by the number attempted. And while we have kids earning college credit, class by class, exam by exam, at anywhere from 5 to 50 times the rate of their peers around the state, I can't bring myself to care. We are in the business of learning what we can and creating exceptional opportunities for kids. Business is good.
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