VENTURA : Change in Gifted Program Planned

Ventura educators are planning to change the way they run an academic program for exceptionally bright students in elementary schools, officials told the school board Tuesday.

Instead of busing smart students once a week for special lessons at a designated school, children in the Gifted And Talented Education program would remain clustered together at their home schools, GATE director Margaret Gosfield said.

GATE students would receive the same instruction as their classmates, but would be encouraged to take on more challenging assignments, Gosfield said.

When studying literature, for instance, non-GATE students might be asked to identify a plot and characters. But GATE students would get the additional task of analyzing themes in the book and comparing them with other literature they have read, she said.

“It’s not just giving them more to do,” Gosfield said. “It’s getting them involved in more complex thinking.”

A change in the 20-year-old program is needed because the cost of busing students and providing specialized teachers has become prohibitive, Gosfield said. But there are educational advantages to the new model as well, she said.

“Kids are gifted every day of the week, not just on Tuesday morning,” Gosfield said.

There are about 250 students in the third, fourth and fifth grades who are enrolled in GATE programs in the Ventura Unified School District, she said. Advanced academic programs for middle school and high school students will not change, Gosfield said.

Educators at individual schools can decide if they want to cluster GATE students in the same grade level full time, or bring them together part time for instruction in a particular subject, she said.

And if there is only one GATE student at a particular grade level, a school can develop a special curriculum just for that individual, Gosfield said.

For the new program to work, it will be critical to train teachers on how to motivate and challenge bright students, she said. Some parents may also object to the change because it will be more difficult to determine if higher-level learning is taking place, she said.

“The old plan was very visible,” Gosfield said. “The smart kids were with intellectual peers and were taking on projects together. This new one is a little more difficult to see.”

The revised GATE program will begin in the fall, she said. Teachers will be given training beginning this summer.