Problems+Facing+Gifted+Education


 * What do you think are major problems facing gifted education? (D.JLove)**


 * I received this response from Dr. Ficici a few semesters ago. I think it would be good to think about our current situations before we take the comps. If possible leave a response.*

The mindset of many education stakeholders is that gifted students will succeed without any extra help---or treating them as special-needs children is unfair to other students. The feeling about gifted education is often that it is "elitist" and that it violates the principle of equity in education.

As educators of, and advocates for gifted students, our job is to point out that equity means giving all students an equal opportunity to develop their unique abiliies--not giving all studens the same opportunity. Giving students with different abilities, talents, and interests access to identical educational programming is not equitable, because students for whom the programming is not a good fit will not receive the services they need.

The next step is to put the principle in practice---by working to develop a range of curricular options that we can use to enable the students in our care to develop their potential. Even within gifted education, students have different needs and respond differently to various programs and services.

The purpose of this course (SPE 523) is to provide you with a range of educational tools---systems, models, and methods---for serving gifted children, and also to give you the opportunity to create an overall framework in which to use these systems, models, and methods with your students.

====There is also the funding problem. There are many states that give funding for required gifted programs. However, there are also states that require gifted services, but provide no state funding, leaving the district or system to provide its own. Our own federal government has cut the gifted education spending because of NCLB. Students have to be reading and completing Math on grade level by 2014. Systems have been forced to reallocate their funding into programs that increase development and scores in these areas. Therefore, gifted education spending gets cut again. It is difficult for teachers to provide services and opportunities with few resources.==== ====Lack of support for gifted programs can also be an issue. I have found that there are many states that do not have a mandate for providing gifted services. These states do not see the need for providing specialized services for our gifted and creative students. Lack of support does not only come in the form of money. It also means that teachers and students are able to see that their specialized needs are also important enough for leaders to take an interest in.====