Read an interesting article about how Florida is looking to lower the requirements of entry into public school gifted programs.
Traditionally, entry is based on getting a score above 130 on such classic IQ tests such as the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler intelligence scales. About 4% of children who take these tests score above 130.
What I found most interesting, however, is the reason why the U.S. government started gifted programs to begin with:
The first gifted class started at a public school in New York City in 1922. Funding for widespread programs did not come about until 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The federal government turned its attention to making sure the new generation would be competitive in science, math and technology.
The idea was driven by fear of being surpassed by other nations, but evolved to address concerns that the nation’s brightest students were bored and unchallenged by traditional coursework. (From the article Who’s gifted? Criteria is in flux)
It seems like in 1957, the U.S. government realized how important education is to the viability of a nation. In 2007, however, it’s my impression that this country has lost sight of this fundamental truth.
Over the last 10 years many articles have been published describing how poor American students fare against their international counterparts.
A quick search around the internet reveals some recent statistics(can view here):
- Mean Performance in Mathematics: U.S. ranks 25th
- Mean Performance in Science: U.S. ranks 20th
Tags: American-students, gifted-programs, IQ-tests, Sputnik, Stanford-Binet, Wechsler-intelligence-scale
I got to 2 trains and thought it was hard!
Some gifted programs now have been used secondarily as devices for bussing more intelligent children into the poorly performing schools of the black ghettos and thereby bringing the averages up for those schools and causing the appearance of integration and of higher achievement as a whole for the previously academically failing schools. In Gainesville, Florida we call them “Magnet Programs.” The overwhelmingly white and asian population of the gifted programs are kept well away from the normal black ghetto population of the schools.