Javits Funding in Peril in Senate:  Help Needed with Senate Appropriations Committee

The Senate appropriations subcommittee that handles education funding allotted $0 for the Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act yesterday.

We have a chance to recover Senate funding for the Javits program if a few Senators on the committee speak to Chairman Harkin personally when the full appropriations committee meets TOMORROW (Thursday) afternoon.  Because your Senator, Maria Cantwell, is on the Labor/HHS/Education appropriations subcommittee, we’re asking you to CALL her office and ask to speak with the Education staff person in an effort to get Senator Cantwell to take action in support of the Javits program at the Appropriations Committee markup tomorrow.  Please make your as soon as possible, but before Noon on Thursday.  You may have to leave a voicemail message. 

We’re working in coordination with the Council for Exceptional Children in suggesting the following points to make when your call:

My name is _______________. I am a constituent from ____________ (town/city) and I am extremely concerned that the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education voted to eliminate funding for the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students program earlier this week. This program is the only federal investment in gifted education. While the Javits program is small by federal standards, funded at $7.5 million last year, it impacts thousands of students, teachers, and schools across the country.

Studies show a growing gap at the highest achievement levels between low-income students and their more advantaged peers, which is partly due to a lack of resources and teacher training to identify and serve these students. The Javits program directly addresses this issue by focusing on developing strategies to identify and serve students who traditionally have not had access to gifted education programs. Because of work done through the Javits program, teachers have been trained to better understand how to identify high ability in students and modify curriculum to meet their needs.  Elimination of funding for the Javits program would also result in closure of the National Research Center on the Gifted & Talented, which would be a tremendous loss to classroom teachers and school leaders who depend on the best practices information produced and disseminated by the Center to improve instruction.

I understand that the full Appropriations Committee will review the bill on Thursday afternoon.  I urge the Senator to do everything possible to reverse the earlier decision made by the education subcommittee and fund the Javits program at at least the $7.5 million funding level it received this year.

If you have any examples of how how your state or school district has benefitted from the Javits program (e.g., that you use curriculum or assessments developed under a Javits grant, or if your districts have relied on information about gifted students and classroom strategies from the National Research Center), be sure to tell the staff person.  It’s important that Senators understand who has benefitted from this federal investment.

All Senate offices can be reached through the Capitol operator at 202-224-3121.  Senator Cantwell’s office is 202-224-3441.  You may also use the Council for Exceptional Children’s online action center, which will link you to your Senator’s office, at http://capwiz.com/cek/callalert/index.tt?alertid=15422516

I just called and left my message.  My phone call lasted three minutes.  Please pick up the phone right now and make the call.  Thank you for your support!

On Tuesday, July 27th, the Northwest Gifted Child Association, http://www.nwgca.org, and SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted),  http://www.sengifted.org, are hosting a free presentation, Eleven Key Parenting Issues, with Dr. James Webb, author of  A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children and other books, in the Lake Washington School District this summer.  Dr. Webb will be in town preparing for next year’s SENG Annual Symposium in Seattle in July 2011.
  
Eleven Key Parenting Issues, Presented by Dr. James Webb
 
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Redmond High School Performing Arts Center
17272 N.E. 104th Avenue, Redmond
 
This is a FREE EVENT — there is no RSVP required!!
  
Eleven issues are common concerns for parents of gifted children — from tots to teens:
           
♦ Communication and relationships
♦ Motivation and underachievement
♦ Discipline, power struggles, self-management
♦ Intensity, stress and perfectionism
♦ Acquaintances, friends and peers
♦ Siblings and only children
♦ Values, traditions and uniqueness
♦ Idealism, unhappiness, and depression
♦ Complexities of modern parenting
♦ Misdiagnosis
♦ Finding a good educational fit
 
Information will be given about each, along with how four major factors – range of ability, asynchronous development, over excitabilities, and thinking styles — influence these issues.

James T. Webb, Ph.D. has been recognized as one of the 25 most influential psychologists in gifted education. In 1981, he established
SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted), a national non-profit organization with programs that support gifted individuals and the parents, educators and health professionals that support them. He is the lead author of five books including A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children and Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults.
 
This event is sponsored by the Northwest Gifted Child Association and Social & Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), hosted by the Lake Washington School District and the Gifted Education Advisory Council (GEAC).
 
For questions, contact Pauline Bowie, 206-715-5261, Pauline@RaisingTheGifted.com

On Thursday, July 29th, Seabury School in Tacoma will be hosting Amy Price, Executive Director of SENG from 7-8:45pm at its middle school campus, 925 Court C, Tacoma, WA 98402.
 
Amy will do a general presentation on characteristics of gifted children with resources and tools for parents and educators.  This event is open to the general public.  From 8:15-8:45 we would like to give local district representatives/leaders an opportunity to talk about what is happening with gifted education in their districts.

This is going to be a unique opportunity for advocates of gifted ed in the South Sound to come together and create a stronger partnership with each other and SENG.

For more information call  253-952-5944.

All current QUEST and PAGE students and their families, as well as all new QUEST and PAGE students for 2010 – 2011 and their families are invited to attend.

Two Sisters Concessionaires will be back with Kielbasa Meals available for purchase for $7, and Hot Dog Meals for $5.  Also available for purchase will be Shave Ice (provided by the Foulon Family), cookies, and drinks.  There will also be a 30 foot long inflatable obstacle course for QUEST families to enjoy.

This year has provided us with some significant challenges as we’ve adjusted to the district’s new regional model, but we’ve had some amazing victories.  Thank you for helping us make those victories possible.  Come celebrate all we’ve accomplished this year!

Volunteers are needed between 3:15pm and 6:00pm to help with setup for the event, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm to help us keep things running smoothly, and from 8:00pm to 8:30pm to help with cleanup.  Please contact amyprez@comcast.net if you are available to volunteer.

This is how it works.  You pay $50 for a gift card from Safeway.  You will receive a $50 gift card for Safeway to use for your groceries, and Gift Cents will donate 4% of your purchase ($2) to ABC.  Percentages vary by retailer.  You can use gift cards for your routine shopping and give to your child’s education without any extra money from your pocket.

Graduation and Father’s Day are just around the corner.  Cards also make great end-of-the-year gifts for teachers.  There are gift cards from Starbucks, Macy’s, Aeropostale, Dick’s Sporting Goods, as well as lots of other merchants.  You can also buy movie tickets and gift cards for restaurants.  It’s a great way to pay for your dinner and movie dates while benefitting QUEST.  If you like to give gift cards, this is a great opportunity.  You can download a copy of the order form here.

Please return your orders on Wednesday, May 19th.  Your gift cards will be available for pickup in early June.  You can pay by cash, check, or credit card.  Please makes checks payable to ABC or Academic Booster Club.  To use a credit card, please contact our Gift Cents coordinator, Kirby Burchett at (253)435-7422.

Thank you for your support of ABC!

The ABC Read-A-Thon kicks off March 26th and runs through April 4th.  The Read-A-Thon is our largest fundraiser of the year.  Where ever your Spring Break may take you, we hope you’ll bring along plenty of reading material for your kids and challenge them to read all they can.  Ice Cream parties, gift certificates, and much more are on the line for out participants.  For more information about the Read-A-Thon, including our rules and extra pledge sheets, please be sure to read all about it on our website.

On April 15th, ABC is joining with SENG, the national organization dedicated to supporting the emotional needs of gifted, to share a webinar titled “Navigating the Quest for Help:  Understanding Your Gifted Child’s Puzzling Behavior.”  Puyallup parents are invited to join us at Stewart Elementary at 7:00 to view the webinar and discuss what we hear with other parents in your situations.  For full details and to reserve your spot, see here.

Stewart was selected as the site of our discussion because the QUEST Regional site currently hosted at Meeker, serving students from Stewart, Karshner, and Meeker elementaries, will be moving to Stewart beginning in the 2010 – 2011 school year.  Meeker has been an amazing host school for our students for a number of years, but physical limitations have forced a move.  The number of kids who need highly capable services has grown beyond what Meeker can accomodate.  Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Franks will bring their years of experience teaching highly capable students along with them as they join our kids in making the move to Stewart.  Mrs. Hoban, Principal at Stewart, worked with our highly capable students during her time at Meeker, and is looking forward to working with all of us on making the move a success.

A little bit further out, SENG has recently committed to bringing their national conference to Seattle in July of 2011.  Some ABC volunteers have already met with SENG representatives to begin the planning process and we’re very excited about working with other gifted advocates from around the region to make this conference a valuable experience for you and your children.  ABC has been looking for ways to improve the services we can offer our parents, and we’re looking to introduce some SENG concepts and tools to you as we build toward next year’s national conference.

Thank you for your support of ABC, and our highly capable students.  We welcome each of you to participate with us as we continue to support excellence in the Puyallup School District, and increase awareness of the needs of our academically talented students.

Parents of gifted children often struggle to understand how to best need their son or daughter’s needs. When a gifted child has some type of puzzling behavioral, social, or learning challenge, this struggle can intensify which can result in numerous visits with professionals and people in the know.  This “quest for help” can be a very frustrating and exhausting experience. In this webinar, Dr. Curtis will begin with a description of the pathway of the “quest for help” that so many parents of gifted children take.  This will be followed with a presentation on the common characteristics of gifted children, how gifted children are identified, common controversies and myths, and how gifted children are often misunderstood and mislabeled as having something else.  Parents will then learn about possible educational options and ways to create/implement a strength-based strategy of success.  The goal of this webinar is to help parents better understand the needs of their child, know how and when to intervene, have a better understanding on who to turn for help, and feel more empowered to help their gifted child find success.  By participating in this webinar, parents and caregivers will find that the quest for help is much less costly and more effective in the long run. 

ABC is hosting a special group night in the library at Stewart Elementary to participate in the webinar.  The webinar will begin at 7:00pm on April 15th.  To register for the ABC viewing of the webinar, and receive a free download of the webinar presentation, a $40 value, please send your name, child’s school, and number of adults attending to president@questabc.org.  We will pay the registration fees for any parents joining us at Stewart.

For more information on the webinar, or to register to participate from home, please visit the SENG website at www.sengifted.org.

Before the webinar, at 6:30pm, families from Stewart, Meeker, and Karshner are invited to meet Anne Hoban, Principal of Stewart Elementary.  The QUEST Regional classrooms that have been hosted at Meeker are moving to Stewart beginning next year, and many  parents have expressed an interest in being able to meet Mrs. Hoban.  She has welcomed us into her school and is excited to work with us to support our QUEST students.

The Read-A-Thon is our most important fundraiser of the year.  ABC uses donations to support you, your teachers, and your classrooms.  ABC has paid for computers, printers, field trips, and professional development for your teachers.  So far this year we’ve also hosted the back to school ice cream social and the pool party.  We’re working on adding more opportunities for parents to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Every minute read counts.  Please use the pledge sheet on the Read-A-Thon envelope to keep track of the pledges you receive and the minutes you read.  Checks can be made payable to ABC.  We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit and all donations are tax deductible.

Be sure to put your name, grade, phone number, teacher, and school on your Read-A-Thon envelope.  Donors have pledged to provide prizes to every student who raises $40 or more during the Read-A-Thon.  Gift cards have been donated for the student in each grade who raises the most money.  There are also classroom awards for the class that earns the most money and the class that has the highest average number of minutes read per student — each will receive an ice cream party.

Reading that counts:

1. Reading aloud to other people counts, and having others read to you counts.

2. Reading aloud to the cat, the dog, or the fish counts.

3. Reading in a tree, on a bus, in a car, on a plane, in a hotel and under the bed covers with a flashlight counts.

4. Assigned reading counts.

5. Reading comic books, newspapers, or magazines counts.

Reading that doesn’t count:

1. Reading that you think you will do in the future if you have extra time does not count.

Important Tips:

1. Use a clock, timer or stopwatch to keep track of your reading time. No guessing.

2. Keep your reading record handy at all times.

3. Do not go door to door to collect pledges and do not ask strangers. Your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, babysitters, doctors and family friends are all good choices.

 Please return your completed Read-A-Thon packet and your collected donations to your classroom on Friday, April 9^th.

Second graders, and students who’ve filled their pledge sheets can download a copy of our pledge sheet here.

Gifted Education Day 2011

We are scheduling GEDay 2011 for Friday, February 11, 2011. The 2011 Legislative session will be a long session budget year and the formulas for school funding will have changed. We have no idea of what this will mean for highly capable program funding as part of basic education so we will need a good showing on Feb. 11 to put our case for adequate funding before the Legislature.

2010 Legislative Session

Well, it is finally over! I want to summarize our actions in the Legislature this session.

1. SB 6604 originally contained a clause for highly capable funding “as funds may be available” which we felt would hamper proper funding for years to come. After our testimony this section of the bill was removed and has not reappeared in the version which passed the Legislature and has gone to the Governor for signature. We consider this a substantial victory.

2. HB 2776 for implementation of educational reform in Sept. 2011 has passed the Legislature and gone to the Governor for signature. Highly Capable Programs will become a mandated part of basic education beginning September 2011 with special supplementary funding. This will complete our victory of last year in being made part of basic education.  You must be aware however, that this does not mean more money for highly capable programs as the funding formula is based on the 2009-2010 budget appropriations.

3. SB 6696 also passed the Legislature and has gone to the Governor for signature. This bill contains the other measures needed for education reform, such as accountability for low performing schools, teacher, principal and superintendent evaluations, and several other items. It does contain directions for use of student data in these evaluations which support our work with the Data Governanace Group – see next item.

Data Governanace Working Group

The Coalition is working closely with the Data Governance Working Group on implementation of data gathering on Highly Capable Programs beginning September 2011 and with the Quality Education Council to resolve any outstanding questions about the programs. We will keep you informed of our activities.

Special Session

The Legislature returns to work on Monday to adopt a budget and tax package for 2010-2011. In the versions of the budget currently under consideration highly capable programs take only a 2% cut to $9.185 million. The funding will get us through the transition year of 2010-2011, until we become a part of basic education in Sept. 2011. This of course, could change in the negotiations that will be taking place. You may wish to contact your Legislators to support this funding. We will keep you informed.

Thank You!

Our successes in the just-concluded Legislative short session are due to the work of all of you in contacting your Legislators and in attending Gifted Education Day.   A big Thank You!