The Parent Information Meeting provided a great deal of information to our parents about the changes coming to the QUEST program. There was not enough time to answer all the questions that people had in the time we had available that night, so Brian Fox, Director of Student Learning, brought a stack of your questions home with him. More questions have been submitted through this website. Brian’s been compiling the questions and working on answers for you. We’ll share answers here as they become available.
QUEST Regional Classrooms – Attendance areas, Siblings, and Choice
Recently we announced the eight elementary schools preparing to host the QUEST Regional Classrooms and their feeder schools. Families currently living in the attendance area of a feeder school or the host school will send their highly capable child to the host school. Students who move into the attendance area of ANOTHER host school or feeder school for ANOTHER region will be required to attend class at the regional site in which they are then living.
If families do not wish to send their highly capable student to the classroom within their region, but wish to attend another QUEST Regional Classroom, they are welcome to complete a Puyallup School District Request for Intra-District Transfer form (the “choice” form). If space becomes available in the desired classroom, AND if withdrawing from the assigned QUEST classroom does not result in lowering the class size to an unhealthy level, your request is more likely to be approved. This will be determined through consultation between the building principals and Directors of Student Learning.
Families wishing to send siblings of their highly capable child to the QUEST Regional Classroom host school are also invited to complete a PSD Request for Intra-District Transfer form. If space in the appropriate grade-level becomes available at the site, and if the student meets the requirements noted on the form, your request is more likely to be approved. This decision is made by the building principals. Parents can obtain the PSD Request for Intra-District Transfer form in the office of any elementary school building.
QUEST Regional Classrooms – Transportation
The district-provided transportation is not free of “issues,” but does provide more than has been provided in the past. Creating a service-delivery model closer to each neighborhood school also reduces cost to the district, and reduces student time spent on the bus.
If a family wishes to take advantage of district-provided transportation to the host school they must have their child at their neighborhood school prior to the start of any local bus runs. These times will vary for each neighborhood and will be posted at a later date. A shuttle will take students from the feeder schools to the host school and QUEST Regional Classroom teachers will begin instruction 15 minutes earlier than the other classrooms at that site. Parents may wish to simply drive their child to the host school – which is perfectly acceptable.
At the end of each school day, QUEST students from the feeder schools will be taken by shuttle to their neighborhood school where they will transfer to a bus returning them to their neighborhood. Students living within the attendance area of the host school will be supervised for 15 minutes while they wait for the students in regular education classrooms to end their instructional day. At that time, they will board buses which will return them to their neighborhood.
These transportation services will be provided for QUEST students only. Siblings will be required to utilize existing district transportation. Supervision at the host site will not be provided for non-QUEST students, thus limiting this service to QUEST students only.
As is currently the practice, any parent wishing to by-pass district-provided transportation is permitted to drop-off and/or pick-up their student themselves as long as supervision at the school is in place.
QUEST Regional Classrooms – Teachers
In the state of Washington, teachers of the highly capable are not required to have an endorsement in Gifted and Talented. This makes identification of teachers more challenging. However, research reported by Karen Rogers in her book, Re-Forming Gifted Education gives us traits that are important for an effective teacher of gifted children. These traits, along with the professional relationships already established, give building principals some tools in recommending teachers for this program. In collaboration with the director of student learning, building principals have begun recommending teachers for the QUEST classrooms. Later this spring, teachers’ names will be posted.
From Karen Rogers’s book:
“Many of the leading thinkers and researchers in gifted education have compiled lists of traits that are important for an effective teacher of gifted children. The traits most frequently mentioned in the research are listed below:
- High degree of intelligence
- High degree of intellectual honesty
- Expertise in specific academic area
- A genuine interest in and liking of gifted learners
- Recognition of the importance of intellectual development
- Strong belief in individual differences and individualization
- Highly developed teaching skill and knowledge of how to teach
- Self-directed in their own learning, with a love for new advanced knowledge
- Level-headed and emotionally stable”
Teachers identified for these classrooms will participate in professional development beginning as early as this June. Current QUEST teachers will provide training in our adopted curriculum, and lend their expertise to the introductory workshops. Experts from the field of gifted education will provide training in summer months, and regular “staff meetings” will be held throughout the school year to ensure consistency in program, and to provide support and on-going professional development.
In addition, we are fortunate to have significant experience and talent in our program coordinator. Nancy Velazquez will continue to serve as full-time coordinator of highly capable programs, and will provide support to QUEST teachers through classroom visits, joint planning sessions, and consultation.
Clustering Potential Classrooms
The cluster grouping model is one promoted by a number of experts in the field of gifted and talented education, including Marcia Gentry, PhD and Susan Weinbrenner, PhD. A cluster grouping is a group of highly capable students clustered into a mixed ability classroom with a teacher who is trained to differentiate for highly capable students. This model supports the notion that highly capable learners are highly capable all five days of the week and should attend class with a teacher who is providing differentiated instruction and support each day.
In January, first-grade students were tested for QUEST and many were recommended for placement in the pull-out program. As 2nd-graders, these students will automatically be placed in the Clustering Potential Classroom at their neighborhood school. In addition, building principals will work with their first-grade teachers to identify students who are demonstrating potential, and may eventually qualify when tested for QUEST – these students may also be placed in the Clustering Potential Classroom.
Since research shows that 5-7% of the population is “gifted,” we believe that even the smallest elementary school will have a couple of highly capable students for this classroom. We will continue to work with principals in the identification of students with potential. Those parents interested in testing their current first-grade student are urged to contact their building principal, who may recommend testing sometime in June.
Beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, we will test second-grade students for the QUEST Regional Classrooms. This will be the earliest that we formally test students for our highly capable programs. However, in this year of transition, those students who were tested and qualified as first-graders will not have to re-test in order to qualify for placement in the QUEST Regional Classroom for the 2010-2011 school year. Keep in mind however, that it may be during the annual review of student achievement (as is done with all students in the highly capable program) it is determined that a student currently “in program” would be more appropriately placed in a regular education classroom due to inadequate student achievement. These decisions are made collaboratively through a formal student review process.
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April 27th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
[...] There were a few minutes at the end for questions. Some parents were concerned about how the QUEST Regional students would be integrated into their host schools. Brian assured them that the classes will be welcomed into their host schools and the students will be quickly integrated into the day to day events of each site. There was some concern about the transition for students into a full time highly capable classroom. When Brian responded that it was true that kids may actually have to work in their new classes, a very knowing laugh came from all in attendance. We were told to expect that class sizes are likely to grow from what we had this year as budget cuts affect teachers and students across the district, but that the split classes would still likely have a lower total size than a single grade level class. Transportation came up several times. While still a barrier, Brian likened it to a 6 foot wall in comparison to the 12 foot wall that the pull-out program presents. The hour long meeting was up at that time, so Brian took a stack of questions home with him to answer, and we’ll be sure to share his answer…. [...]