BRENHAM ISD GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM COULD SEE CUTS
Brenham ISD’s Gifted and Talented (GT) program could see a reduction in the amount of hours students spend in the program, as well as how many teachers are involved.
At Monday’s school board meeting, trustees heard a report from Special Programs and Advanced Academics Director Lori Ruiz-Wamble, who explained that there could be a shift to the Challenging Scientific Investigations (CSI) program, science and technology enrichment for students in grades 2-6.
The presentation shared by Ruiz-Wamble indicated that CSI students would go down to weekly two-hour enrichment lessons with one CSI teacher, who would travel to all elementary schools and have a home campus at Brenham Middle School. This compares to the 2019-20 school year, which had weekly five-hour enrichment with two teachers in grades 2-4 and three hours per week from core instruction in grades 5 and 6. During the 2019-20 school year, students would travel to and from Krause Elementary School for their enrichment lessons.
Superintendent Dr. Tylor Chaplin said the number of students in the program does not warrant the need for two teachers.
According to Ruiz-Wamble, the district currently has 344 GT students, about 7 percent of the overall student population. In comparison, she said GT students make up roughly 6 to 8 percent of the overall student population in Texas. She said the district generally averages 25 to 35 GT students per grade level.
Due to COVID-19, the CSI program during the 2020-21 school year featured weekly one-hour virtual lessons in the fall and one-hour face-to-face lessons with one teacher in the spring, with the CSI teacher travelling to each campus.
Dr. Chaplin said it needs to be noted that all students are behind in some way because of the pandemic, and that catching them up on core instruction is crucial.
Several trustees voiced their disappointment in the potential reduction and remarked on how creativity among students is often sparked in larger group settings. Board Secretary Susan Jenkins said Brenham ISD has been a leading district in the GT program, and believes a decision like this could ruin it quickly. She also argued that the students who are eligible for CSI would not need as much core instruction. Trustee Dr. Michael Altman suggested holding off on making major changes to the program until reviewing data from a non-COVID year.
Explaining how students are accepted into the GT program, Ruiz-Wamble explained that the district holds an annual screening process to identify GT students. Parents are able to nominate students to be screened for the program during a referral window, which she said is available in-person and online.
Ruiz-Wamble said in order to be compliant with the state, districts are required to provide access to assessment and provide services to all student populations. She said districts are put into a “recommended” category if the ethnicity of their GT population becomes more closely reflective of their overall student population over the past two years, and that Brenham ISD is considered part of that category. She said while the district has made positive incremental changes, it still has “a lot of room for growth in this area.”
Also at Monday’s meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Brandi Hendrix presented the board with an update on the district’s Special Education program. Hendrix stated that, according to the 2020 SPED Program Area Cut Points and Associated Determination Levels, Brenham ISD is one of 23 school districts—out of 1,202 in the state—with a Level 4: Needs Substantial Intervention mark in Special Education. She said Brenham ISD had a Level 1 rating the year prior, and that the lack of state accountability data last year is part of the reason for this.
According to Hendrix, there are 50 to 60 students per grade level in the district who qualify for Special education services in grades 2-12, and there are 780 students in total—about 15 percent of the student population—who receive those services.
Hendrix said the district missed three results-driven accountability targets for Special Education. The state requires 70 to 100 percent of students to be in general education classes for 80 percent of the day; Hendrix said the district only had 44.6 percent of students at that threshold. The state allows up to 10 percent of students to spend less than 40 percent of their day in a general education classroom; according to Hendrix, the district had 27.8 percent of students at that mark. In addition, the state allows districts to remove students from their placement at a rate of 19 percent; Hendrix said the district removes Special Education students from their regular placement to disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP), in-school suspension or out-of-school suspension at a rate of 94 percent.
The district’s corrective action plan includes meetings on each campus to determine student placement for the upcoming school year, as well as the implementation of a professional development plan for inclusive practices. Hendrix said professional training has been difficult to accomplish due to the lack of substitute teachers available to fill for full-time teachers who need training, but there are some training sessions scheduled this summer.
Trustees also heard from Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability Director Sarah Cook, who discussed how the district plans to close the learning gap caused by COVID-19 for the 2021-22 school year. Cook said some goals to close the gap include providing professional development to build capacity in all staff; reducing the student to teacher ratio by staffing early elementary grades at 16 to 1; establishing a Reading Horizons Phonics program for grades K-3, while having Pre-K through 4th grade teachers attend reading academies during the 2021-22 school year; having counselors provide social and emotional learning; providing in-class support by certified teachers to serve special populations; creating master schedules to provide collaborative planning time for teachers and time for research-based intervention and extension for student learning; expanding and improving upon current programs and practices to better serve the student population; and continuing to provide extended day services for intervention.
Maybe we could save some money by looking at the Superintendents $200,000 paycheck. Think there’s any room to trim there? Hmmm
I know that there is plenty of money in the BISD budget for more GT and more special education classes. The taxes that we pay to the district every year, plus all the new houses being built, will cover it easily. If they are short for now, take it from the sports budget. Sports are fun for some, but an actual knowledge based education is what will determine whether the student is successful in life, not their High School sports record.
GT program with all the hoopla of getting a true GT student identified and providing qualified instruction is difficult. This identified class of students is no different from the students needing special education for physical or mental difficulties – they should be served with the same fervor as any special population. The program has existed in Brenham for well over 20 years but as a addon or a pull out of students for such short periods of time – and now the superintendent response is not enough students to justify 2 teachers. There are not suppose to be great numbers in this classification of student population – but they have right and need to be served. BISD routinely will boast and publicize it’s great programs and being first public school in state etc. But it is just on paper and the bare minimum. Kids deserve better – not less.
I do believe though all students deserve schools that require teachers to provide enrichment in their classrooms not just rote boring copy and copy again. Each classroom teacher should be given the permission and time to go beyond their standard rote learning and stimulate and reach the bored kids – which are many in every classroom. All levels of ability would rise – from the exposure of exciting hands on methods.
Teachers are your true asset – give them time and opportunity to try new things. Don’t boast we have programs and then cut it to the quick to make it ineffective.
Put some athletic budget into the classroom budget and watch kids soar.
“…if the ethnicity of their GT population becomes more closely reflective of their overall student population…”
There it is. I was reading this story looking for some kind of motivation in the District’s reasoning for wanting to further dumb-down public education. But I guess reducing the number of students in the program while still keeping the standards high is better than reducing the standards so that we allow more students of a certain demographic in. This is absolutely one of the worst decisions the District could make. Why on Earth would you want to decrease the quality of education in BISD? If you own a business that manufactures a product, wouldn’t you constantly be trying to make the product better to increase sales, distribution, and demand for your product? Shouldn’t education be the same? You should always be trying to improve and expand your programs, not reduce services. If you want to make changes, how about starting with cutting so many of these non-academic elective courses the kids can take and requiring more academic courses? Or stop giving away free lunches to anyone under the age of 18 all summer long? If we continue to keep dumbing-down education then we’re going to have an entire population of useful idiots who have never been taught to think for themselves and will follow along with anything the government wants to do, which is really what this is all about. The sad thing is, it’s been happening for so long in our public schools that those who are now making the decisions, who claim to be “smarter than that” are acting as an agent of change in the Socialist agenda and moving us one step closer with decisions like these. And they think we are the “crazies” for thinking like this.
That is the Marxist idea of “equity”. Instead of equality, the leftists are now pushing for equity…meaning everyone should have the same outcome. Equality means everyone has the same opportunity, but equity is the attempt to force outcomes. Equity takes away opportunities from high achievers and stifles innovation. It is the same reason why Communist economies never thrive. There is no longer incentive to go above and beyond if everyone receives the same outcome. Anyone pushing equity is a Marxist and has no business influencing our children.
If one of the two GT instructors are removed from the program, where will they go? Will you lay off that teacher and use that salary money to pay for new sod on the baseball field or a new gym floor? GT programs and participation should be encouraged and fully supported, not cut. This would be like a university making cuts to their doctoral program. Why would you do that?
Don’t forget about your school ratings. If you make cuts to the GT program, you will lose those students to the private schools who offer a better education. GT kids have to score high on tests to be in that program, so they probably score well on everything. You need those “A” students to keep your school’s overall grades/rating up.
GT students are good for a school, they behave and make good grades. The GT program should be encouraged to grow. Any cuts to GT will hurt BISD.
This is Why We Need School Vouchers!
Right, so then the schools get LESS money and have to cut MORE, and then education as a whole goes down. Great idea.
Nope, it’s a classic case of “supply and demand”. Instead of being forced to make their product (students education) better, they can let it continue to be dumbed down because there is no demand. Students don’t have much of a choice on where they get their education. Small town = limited amount of private schools. Factor in the cost and parents are forced to send their kids to BISD. If parents had a choice, Brenham schools would do everything they could to keep those students in the classroom so that the state would continue to send $$$.