Gifted programs and services: what are the nonnegotiables?

Higher Level Questioning Techniques

The use of high-level questions is also a key way to ensure that gifted students are being challenged. Many questioning models have been employed to promote higher level thinking, including the simple PBL model:

1. What do we know?

2. What do we need to know?

3. How can we find out?

More complex models involve key elements of reasoning, such as

1. What is the issue?

2. What perspectives are there on the issue?

3. What are the assumptions of each stakeholder group on the issue?

4. What would be the consequences of each perspective holding sway?

These models of questioning, among others, promote advanced learning in the gifted learner, as well as other students (VanTassel-Baska & Little, 2003).

Assessment Differentiation

Just as differentiation involves careful selection of core materials and curriculum that underlies them and the deliberate choice of high-powered instructional approaches, it also requires the choice of differentiated assessment protocols that reflect the high level of learning attained. High-stakes assessments, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), AP exams, and even state assessments required by NCLB, are the standardized symbols of how well gifted students are doing in comparison to others of their age. Secondary schools, to be considered high quality, must produce students who score at the top levels on these nationally normed instruments. Yet deep preparation for success on these tests rests in individual classrooms. Even strong learners like gifted students cannot do as well as they could without adequate preparation in relevant content-based curriculum archetypes. The use of assessments as planning tools for direct instruction in each relevant subject area is a key to overall improvement in student performance. Administrators responsible for the review of teacher lesson plans need to know how such assessment models can be converted into work in classrooms. Curriculum directors and departments need to spend planning time on strategies for incorporating such elements. Because assessments are a reality of NCLB and viewed by our society as crucial indicators of student progress in school, we need to make them work for us rather than against us in the public arena.

In addition to standardized measures being employed to assess student learning, it is also crucial that more performance-based tools be employed to assess individual growth and development. In tandem with more standardized measures, performance-based tools provide a more complete picture of individual progress toward specific education goals. For gifted learners, in particular, the quality of performance on such measures may be a better indicator of deeply mastered skills and concepts than paper-and-pencil measures, because performance-based assessments require students to articulate an understanding of the learning process, often by providing responses that may have multiple parts or are open-ended (VanTasselBaska, Johnson, & Avery, 2002).