Little Geniuses

     We are about to have a data meeting at school and I am overwhelmed. We are going over our most special friends - ones with needs that exceed general classroom expectation, both big and small and on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, we are making sure that all of our students are achieving at least at grade level, and discussing accommodations to be made for students particularly struggling to meet their goals. On the other hand, we are looking over students who are high-achieving to evaluate whether or not we think they are a good fit for the district's pull-out program for gifted students, ENCORE.

     Currently, 3 of our kindergarteners are already in ENCORE, and are removed from class once a week to meet for pull-out. Recently, a parent approached my teacher about her son testing for ENCORE, and my mentor teacher was taken aback. Little did she know that this was just the first to come for many requests by parents for their children. We have had so many requests of kids that are perfectly wonderful – but not necessarily above level. The uncomfortable thing is that teacher’s are required to give their input, and my mentor teacher is stuck in an awkward place with more than one student where she doesn’t have a lot to say. I love the fact that there is so much growth and student achievement at Lockeland – it is clearly a great school full of really caring and involved parents and gifted children. However, sometimes it seems a little excessive looking at all the kids that qualify for ENCORE in each grade! I don’t know a lot about ENCORE, and I would be really interested to hear from any of y’all that have had a little more experience with it, but to me it seems that if the whole school is gifted – shouldn’t we just be pushing them more in the regular classroom. Most of the parents that called my teacher asking to get their kid tested did so after hearing of another student in the class that was already in ENCORE, and it ended up seeming a lot like a competition instead of an accommodation for students on the gifted end of the spectrum. There was a really similar program in my school district growing up, and it was honestly one of the best things about elementary school, so I’m not saying that ENCORE is a bad thing. I just am curious about how to deal with all of the little obstacles that accompany it.