There’s a difference between “high ability” and “high achieving” students. As Sunman Dearborn School Corporation High Ability Services coordinator Shawn Wilhelm told the school board recently: “When I have parents that call and say ‘well they are getting all A’s, but they don’t understand that they are doing the regular typical classroom work. The high ability student is working above grade level. The bright child knows the answer, but the gifted learner knows the answer and they are asking questions beyond that.”
She and Bright principal Norb Goesling, the high ability administrator, gave a presentation on the corporation’s high ability program to the board.
She also added, “Typically high ability students start their school year knowing 40 percent of the material for the year, and they can move at a quicker pace. Typically, high ability students can learn something after one to three repetitions whereas a typical student needs six to eight repetitions.”
Nationally, three to five percent of students on average are high ability.
Some data she shared: They had 5 percent of first graders labeled as high ability; 9 percent of 4th graders, 19 percent of 7th graders, with 26 percent of them for high end math.
The educators said it’s difficult to assess kindergarten, first and 2nd grades, but the state encourages them to do so.
Students are identified for the program through a number of testing assessments, and also through a teacher/administrator task force. Sunman Dearborn clusters 1-6th grade students in a classroom, as Goesling explained. “It’s not the same as tracking. Because tracking would put all the highest kids in one class, the medium or lower performing ones in another class. Cluster grouping gives you a cluster within a classroom of like-ability students,” he said.
Each grade has a percentage of gifted students, and there is curriculum to enrich their academics. For high school, it’s the AP, dual credit college credit courses. For middle and high school they offer honor classes in language arts and math.
The teacher incorporates various methods in the classroom to enrich the academic experience.”
They are aware of high ability student emotional needs. They can often be perfectionists and some are prone to depression, the two educators said. Some high ability kids are underachievers.
For more information, go to their website at www.sunman.k12.in.us, and click on Bright schools, under information.
