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.