e) Aligns professional development opportunities with local AIG program goals, other district initiatives, and best practices in gifted education. The district will provide professional development during required workdays to address this goal. Professional learning opportunities focused on AIG best practices will fall in alignment with district PD initiatives for instructional strategies, use of data to inform practice, and content knowledge. Principals will identify teachers who work with cohorts of gifted students and require them to participate in this local endorsement or to enroll in a licensure program with an IHE. f) Provides opportunities for AIG specialists and other teachers to plan, implement, and refine applications of their professional development learning. General education teachers and AIG specialists will work in PLCs regularly to: Plan differentiated activities for AIG students in the regular classroom Implement and refine these activities Collect data on the impact of activities and reflect for continuous professional growth. Ideas/ Strategies for Strengthening the Standard: Currently, most AIG specialists are being used as testing coordinators at the elementary level. This is problematic since the district administers benchmarks quarterly and time spent organizing testing is time taken away from AIG duties. We could strengthen this standard by not using our limited AIG staff as testing coordinators. As we broaden our net to serve more students we will have to rethink school daily schedules given the number of AIG specialists serving the district. We may need more intense professional development and support for general education teachers who have a high population of AIG students in clusters so that daily instruction in all subjects is differentiated. Because of differences in the early childhood enrichment between families in poverty and the rest of our population we need to pay close attention during K-2 nurturing to students who come to school less ready but have high IQ and high potential for academic achievement. We will seek community partners to assist in finding resources for those families. AIG specialists may need training and support in how to best collaborate with general education teachers using co-teaching and “push-in” models. There is currently little incentive by the state for teachers to gain AIG certification. We will need to explore local incentives for teachers to do extra course-work. Professional development will need to be ongoing and include embedded coaching in the classroom next year in order to be effective. The district needs to provide updated training to teachers on administering and calibrating the Gifted Children Behavior Rating Scale to ensure consistency and fidelity. Sources of Evidence: School schedules showing AIG specialists and their duties
c) Establishes and utilizes an advisory group to develop, implement, and monitor the local AIG program and plan. This advisory group is representative of the diverse populations of the district and is at least comprised of community members, AIG parents and families, AIG teachers, and other instructional and support staff. MCS will re-establish and utilize an AIG advisory group to include: PAGE representatives AIG specialist representatives Principal representatives General education teacher representatives from K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grade levels Diverse community members d) Informs parents/families and the community of opportunities available to AIG students on an ongoing basis and in their native language. MCS intentionally uses an array of communication modes to ensure parents/families and our community are informed via the mode of their preference about the opportunities available to our AIG students. e) Forms partnerships with institutions of higher education, local business and industry, and other stakeholders within the community to enhance and gain support for AIG programs and services. MCS has established partnerships with McDowell Technical Community College to support dual enrollment in college courses for students at our traditional high school as well as our early college. The community college also supports our E-3 Day and other extra-curricular meetings and activities. We are working to increase our partnerships with business, industry, and non-profit organizations to provide service learning experiences, internships, and field trip experiences. Ideas/ Strategies for Strengthening the Standard: MCS will seek partners among local organizations to provide more extensive service learning opportunities for AIG students. MCS AIG specialists will seek grant opportunities within the community to provide more unique learning experiences. MCS AIG specialists will consider creating a quarterly AIG newsletter to send home with students to educate parents on how to best support their students. MCS will seek a diverse group of community members to sit on the newly formed AIG advisory board. MCS will work to have stronger communication between general education teachers and AIG specialists in the middle schools using face to face meetings and online portfolios with shared documents. MCS will explore partnerships for extending current and creating new opportunities such as Quiz Bowl, Science Olympiad, Robotics competitions, Debate etc. Sources of Evidence: