Program Administration and Management: One District's Story

Applying the Standards: One District's Story

The program featured below illustrates one district's exemplary practices related to program administration and management in gifted education. The information is organized around the four guiding principles examined previously. This selection is excerpted from Gifted Program Standards in Action, an NAGC Service Publication.

Gifted Education Program
Springfield Public School District 186
Springfield, Illinois

Program Background

The Gifted Education Program in urban Springfield is a large one, serving 1,464 students in grades 1-12.  Springfield is an Enterprise Community with a population of 113,000.   Approximately 50% of the students in Springfield are from low-income families and receive free or reduced lunch.  The Gifted Education Program in Springfield serves students with gifts in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.  Most program participants are white (84%) while African Americans make up 11% of the students served, Asian Americans 3%, Hispanic students 1%, and American Indians less than 1%. 

Meeting the Program Administration and Management Standards

1. Appropriately qualified personnel must direct services for the education of gifted learners.

The gifted education coordinator of Springfield Public School District 186 has an Education Specialist Degree in Educational Administration from Western Illinois University.  Her dissertation research for this degree explored the relationship between the amount of differentiation elementary classroom teachers provided for gifted students within the regular classroom and the amount of professional development received by the teachers.  She also has a Masters in Education degree from the University of Illinois, and continues to complete gifted education courses through the "required strands" of the Illinois Administrators Academy program.  In addition, she has delivered the 40+ hour Illinois Gifted Education Institute training to Illinois teachers on several occasions.  For the past 15 years, she has attended the state gifted education conference and has been a conference presenter there as well as at the Illinois School Board Association annual conference.  She continues to be active in the larger community as a member of the local parent group and an advisor to the executive board (1.0E).

In 1998, the gifted education coordinator worked with a committee of administrators, teachers, and parents to design and propose a gifted magnet school for students in grades 1-5.  Iles School, the new magnet school, became a reality in the fall of 2000.  The gifted coordinator is also an active member of the gifted design team for Franklin Middle School which features an innovative new configuration of a gifted school-within-a-school for students in grades 6-8. 

2. Gifted education programming must be integrated into the general education program.

The gifted education coordinator and all of the gifted resource teachers are members of the district's Department of Instruction.  This district department is responsible for the establishment of district standards and benchmarks in all subject areas that are specific to each grade level.  This department is also responsible for drafting a new reporting process that is aligned with the district's standards and benchmarks and will effect how student progress is monitored and reported. The district's gifted education specialists had a crucial role to play in this project as they raised awareness of the need for charting and encouraging continuous growth for even the most advanced learners.  The district is in its initial pilot phase of this accountability project.  Iles School (the gifted magnet) will be one of the district's first schools to pilot the new report card that is aligned with the district's standards and benchmarks. 

The elementary gifted education program has two components.  Students in grades one through five that demonstrate high achievement or ability in multiple areas are invited to attend the district's gifted magnet school.  The curriculum at Iles is aligned with the district's standards and benchmarks, but students are generally working at one to two grade levels above the district's established benchmarks and the curriculum goes into greater depth.  Students that demonstrate high ability or achievement in a single area are included in the district's Talent Pool.  Principals are encouraged to cluster these students within the regular classroom with a teacher that has had training in gifted education.  Gifted resource teachers are also available to assist teachers in differentiating the curriculum.  In addition, most of the elementary Talent Pool students within the district are pulled out on a weekly basis to work with a gifted resource teacher to participate in activities which are aligned with the district's standards and benchmarks and promote higher-level thinking skills. 

There are five middle school buildings within the district that serve students in grades 6-8.  Students that have been identified as demonstrating high achievement in multiple areas are invited to participate in the gifted program within Franklin Middle School.  Principals at the four remaining middle schools are provided with lists of Talent Pool students and their scores.  Principals and guidance deans will cluster these students together according to their identified strengths.  Full-time gifted resource teachers are at two of the middle schools to assist students with independent research studies and enrichment activities.  A gifted education contact person is also identified at each of the five middle schools to provide a communication link with the gifted education coordinator.  All middle schools offer a Johns Hopkins' math program which enables students to complete two years of algebra instruction during their eighth grade year and the "second year" counts toward high school credit.

The gifted education program at the high school level at this time consists of the traditional Advanced Placement offerings available at all three schools.  Students who elect to complete the entire Johns Hopkins math sequence receive community college credit for successful completion of Calculus II during their senior year (2.0E). 

3. Gifted education programming must include positive working relationships with constituency and advocacy groups, as well as compliance agencies.

Each year, the gifted education coordinator and gifted resource teachers speak at a fall meeting of parents of gifted students to explain the identification process and the program offerings.  Additional written information is prepared for distribution at parent conferences for gifted students in grades l-8.  Each spring, the gifted education coordinator speaks at district level principal meetings to share the lists of students with high test scores and provide a "refresher" course on the district's gifted policies responsive to student needs. Informational meetings are also held for parents and students that have been invited to attend the gifted school programs at Iles and Franklin school.  Gifted resource teachers provide parents and fellow teachers with practical advice and information about gifted students on an ongoing basis and in many different forms (3.0E). 

A district advisory committee that reflects the diversity of the school district provides input into the identification and appeals process along with program offerings (3.1M).  The gifted program coordinator works closely with the parent groups at Iles and Franklin schools in addition to the district's parent group.  The district coordinator and gifted resource teachers attend the parent meetings and are available to answer questions and provide information regarding program modifications.  The district coordinator and gifted resource teachers also suggest speakers to invite to meet with the parents and help facilitate discussion groups

For the past three years, central Illinois gifted education coordinators from seven larger urban school districts have met three or four times a year.  The Springfield gifted coordinator attends these meetings on a regular basis to share both successful experiences and existing needs. This networking has extended to invitations between local coordinators to participate in professional development activities being held within one another's districts.  This group of coordinators has formed close relationships with one another and the sharing that has transpired has strengthened all of their programs.  This group also invites personnel from the Illinois State Board of Education that have responsibilities within the area of gifted education to attend these meetings (3.2M).  Other examples of out-of-district networking include:

Opportunities such as these allow the gifted education coordinator to network with leaders throughout the state to build a stronger program. 

4. Requisite resources and materials must be provided to support the efforts of gifted education programming.

Springfield Public School District 186 is fortunate to be located within the state capital, which provides easy access to the state library, museums, government agencies and historic sites.  Teachers take advantage of the district's location by conducting field trips and inviting guest speakers into the classroom to share information and to serve as mentors for research projects (4.0E).  Additionally, a database is maintained that identifies potential areas in which parents and other community members are willing to volunteer. 

An initiative to update district technology has opened a door for a host of new resources to support gifted education programming. Every classroom within the school district has at least one computer with Internet access and many classrooms have a cluster of computers within the classroom.  Teachers and students are involved in creating websites and i-Movies (4.1M).  The district's library collection is on a computer database that allows students to search for the book that they need and then be able to borrow it from any of 34 schools within the district through the inter-office mail system (4.2M).  This system provides advanced learners at the elementary level access to challenging texts in the middle and high school libraries. Limited district dollars do not allow for the purchase of all the materials that the gifted staff would like to see at Iles and Franklin, the gifted magnet schools, but the ability to borrow books from any of the school libraries does help stretch limited resources.