School Board To Study Magnet School For Gifted Students

The Spokane School Board agreed Wednesday to study the idea of a magnet school for gifted students and to review how the school district selects students for its existing gifted and honors programs.

Both ideas were recommended by a task force of teachers, parents and administrators that has studied gifted education in the district for almost two years.

The board stopped short of endorsing other proposals from the task force, such as assigning a coordinator to oversee gifted programs.

Uncertainty about the cost blocked the board from wholeheartedly embracing the recommendations.

“We’ve got a budgetary process we need to go through,” said board member Rob Fukai.

The district now offers several programs for gifted and high-achieving students.

Gifted students in grades 2 through 6 attend Tessera, a one-day-a-week program at Libby Center.

Students in grades 7 and 8 take Extended Learning Program classes in language arts and social studies.

High school students take honors classes designed to prepare them for college. They also may take advanced placement classes and earn dual high school-college credit.

During a dozen public meetings, the task force heard parents criticize the lack of communication and coordination among these programs and between the gifted program and the regular program.

“We’re not willing to drop the idea of a coordinator or a facilitator,” said task force chairman Mike Cantlon, a Tessera teacher.

The task force envisions a magnet school for all grades with a broad definition of giftedness. The magnet school would not replace the current options, but exist in addition to them.

The board did not rule out any task force recommendations, but instead asked district staff to report back on costs by December.

Peggy Soden, president of the Spokane chapter of the Northwest Gifted Child Association, said gifted students are at risk of dropping out if they are not challenged.

Charges of elitism are foolish, Soden said. The district doesn’t ask gifted athletes to play only intramural sports, but provides varsity teams for them to compete to their full potential, she said.

The state superintendent’s office recently reviewed the district’s Tessera program and suggested that its selection process be reviewed for gender bias.

Of 418 students in the program, 59 percent were boys. The ethnic mix matched the district-wide mix: 88 percent were white and 12 percent were minorities.

The state review said it was unclear how the district meets the needs of middle school and high school gifted students.

The special classes in the secondary schools select students based on test scores and grades, excluding students who might be identified as gifted through other measures.

, DataTimes