All About the Project

1. All About the Project Karen B. Rogers University of St. Thomas kbrogers@stthomas.edu

2. Our Beginnings • Two GT coordinators • Javits Grant Request for Proposal was announced in April-May, 2008 • Included different districts in project • Capitol Hill (SPPS) - single school model • Inver Grove Heights • South Washington County • Bloomington • Received news of being given the grant in October, 2008, on of 7 grants nationwide

3. Who will be involved • Twice exceptional learners starting with grades 3 or 4 to be followed for 5 years • Teachers in self-contained gifted classes, one grade level per year, from grades 3-8 • Parents of twice exceptional learners starting with grades 3 or 4, plus all twice exceptional learners in each earlier grade once the accommodations have proven successful

4. Project Phases • Phase One - identification of gifted learners who also present with • Learning disabilities - reading, math, or writing • Emotional/behavioral disorders • Autism Spectrum disorders • Attention deficit disorders • Phase One A - find first year’s twice exceptional learners and place them in either the experimental or control classes (randomly) • Phase One B - identify all twice exceptional learners in each school or district grades 3-8 for future accommodation (fall, 2009)

5. Project Phases • Phase Two A - provide training for experimental class teachers in first year of implementation (grade 3 or 4, depending on school) • Phase Two B - provide training for experimental class teachers in succeeding four years as they ready to take on the experimental group of twice exceptional learners

6. Project Phases • Phase Three A - provide writing time for experimental teachers to develop a “toolkit” of accommodations for the gifted curriculum they currently teach for use with their twice exceptional students, Summer, 2009 • Phase Three B - provide writing time for each succeeding year’s experimental teachers for use with their experimental group

7. Project Phases • Phase Four - provide on-going, tuition free graduate courses leading to a 6-course certificate in twice exceptional education open to all participating experimental teachers, beginning Fall, 2009 • Separate certification will be provide for elementary and for middle school teachers of these learners. Middle school certification begins in Fall, 2011.

8. Project Phases • Phase Five - provide on-going training and support for parents of BOTH experimental and control twice exceptional learners, using the experts who are able to come to train the teachers, beginning Fall, 2009. • Develop a resource manual for parents of both experimental and control twice exceptional learners including the strategies and accommodations that are considered “best” practices for home and school

9. What we hope to learn from this project… • What is the best way to find these twice exceptional learners systematically and objectively? What is their prevalence? • Discrepancies between various index scores on the WISC-IV? • Generic or specific teacher and parent checklists? • Learners identified for SPED but who show “above average” IQ scores, suggesting their scores are depressed by the disorder or disability? • Gifted learners who are not “thriving” in gifted classes and with gifted curriculum?

10. What we hope to learn from this project… • What accommodations work when using the gifted curriculum so that twice exceptional learners can thrive with it too? • Separate accommodations depending on disability or disorder? • Generic accommodations across disabilities or disorders? • Are there developmentally-related accommodations that must be considered? • Are the accommodations needed more likely to be affective ones or cognitive/environmental ones?

11. What we hope to learn from this project… • How can teachers be supported when they are trying to accommodate both gifted and twice exceptional learners in the same self-contained gifted classroom? • Special centers? • Special materials? • Education assistant?

12. What we hope to learn from this project… • How parents can best support the work that the schools are doing with their twice exceptional children • Use similar strategies at home when supporting homework and self-directed projects? • Use affective strategies at home to complement what is occurring at school? • Use totally different strategies and resources at home to balance what is happening at school?

13. What we hope to learn from this project… • Can GT teachers “take on” twice exceptional learners in a self-contained classroom and succeed without killing themselves with overwork? • Is on-line certification and training support helpful? • Is summer planning and writing time (with stipend) helpful? • Do these teachers actually use the accommodations they develop as their “toolkits”?

14. What we hope to learn from this project…Back to the kids • Can we improve academic achievement for twice exceptional learners in mathematics and in reading/language arts? • Can we improve their self-efficacy about succeeding in academic work? • Can we improve their motivation to learn math and reading at school?

15. How Will We Do It? • Quasi-experimental study • Matched pairs who are identified with same form of twice exceptionality and degree of exceptionality randomly assigned to experimental and control classrooms • Both members of the matched pairs will be pre- and post-assessed on achievement levels, self-efficacy, and motivation to learn across the five years • Experimental member will receive the teacher-developed accommodations in each succeeding grade level for the next five years • Control member will receive the same access to gifted curriculum and special education services he or she has previously received • Parents of both experimental and control children will receive the same extensive training in what to do at home

16. How Will We Do It? • Students will be asked about their experiences with the accommodations and the project at the end of each year, in addition to the objective measures of achievement, self-efficacy, and motivation that will be administered to them. • Teachers will be asked about their experiences with the accommodations -what has worked, what needs revising • Teachers’ participation in the on-line coursework will be monitored for achievement of 2X proficiencies

17. How Will We Do It? • Parents will be asked to help us identify special behaviors they see in their children, whether these behaviors change for the better or the worse, and whether or not the training and resources they have received are helpful

18. What will your school or district have at the end of all this hard work? • A field tested “toolkit” of strategies, accommodations and resources for use with twice exceptional learners in grades 3-8 to use with all such students in the school who need this • A parent training and resource manual given to all parents of twice exceptional children in the school • An identification “protocol” - a systematic way for finding these children up front instead of after they have stopped “thriving”

19. What will your school or district have at the end of all this hard work? • ‘A cadre of well-trained teachers who will know how to accommodate the needs of twice exceptional learners in grades K-8 and who have the certification to prove it --not to mention the enthusiasm and motivation to do it well!