TUSTIN : Trustees Broaden Gifted Program

Sweeping changes in the Tustin Unified School District’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program will allow more children to benefit from the decades-old system for top students.

Under a modified program approved by the Board of Trustees, students will be able to participate in accelerated classes in specific subjects rather than in the entire advanced program. The change was made as part of efforts to address the district’s increasingly diverse student population, said Julie Hume, district director of curriculum planning.

“We were caught suddenly a few years back . . . we were not honoring the students (with limited proficiency) in English that are gifted in science and math,” Hume said. “If we have these kids with all these cultural diversities and all these smarts, we need to know how to work with them.”

Currently, GATE students, who are selected in the fourth and fifth grades, are clustered in separate classrooms at four magnet schools. Beginning in the next school year, the fourth-grade GATE classrooms will be eliminated at magnet schools, with advanced programs offered throughout the district. For example, it will be possible for a student who excels in math to participate in an accelerated math group but continue taking other lessons in a regular class setting, Hume said.

Gifted students moving on to the fifth grade will continue to attend magnet schools, but Hume said that will probably change in the 1994-95 school year.

What is still unanswered is how students will be targeted for inclusion in GATE classes. In the past, IQ, cognitive and achievement tests have been used to identify advanced learners. Under the new program, students will probably be identified by performance and teacher recommendation, Hume said.

While district officials say increasing diversity makes the changes necessary--district records on ethnic diversity show that the Latino student population has increased from 14.2% during the 1988-89 school year to 24% in 1990-91--parents of students currently enrolled in GATE, which has been unchanged for 20 years, were skeptical.

“I’m a little concerned about the changes being made without a new program being firmly in place,” said Kay Needle, president of the Parent-Teacher Organization Coordinating Council. “I don’t want to see a mediocre education, and whenever they look like they are pulling away from the top I think that is happening.”

Supt. David L. Andrews said district officials are anticipating that there will be some opposition.

“We are swimming in new waters,” he said. “When you have something that old being considered for change, you are going to have problems.”