The Trenton Times published the following article on March 12, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton school district plans to revive gifted and talented program

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on March 12, 2013 at 7:30 AM

TRENTON — The school district plans to revive its gifted and talented program, an idea enthusiastically received by school leaders last night who said the district’s gifted students need a program to nurture their talents and inspire them.

Superintendent Francisco Duran said the district, in its haste to support struggling students, can’t let its high-achieving students get lost in the shuffle.

“We can’t forget about those students who are there and need a little challenge and a push,” he said.

Norberto Diaz, the district’s supervisor of fine and performing arts and gifted and talented, updated the school board on the formation of a Gifted and Talented Educational Services Planning Team comprising parents, students and staff members who will help the district resurrect its gifted and talented program that was the victim of budget cuts several years ago.

Diaz said the term “gifted and talented” described not only students thriving in the usual academic subjects — math, language arts, science — but students skilled in the visual and performing arts — musicians, artists, photographers, dancers.

NJ ASK standardized scores for students in grades three through eight show the district has 283 students with advanced proficient scores in math and language arts — and that’s only based on the one narrow criteria of standardized testing, Diaz said. Other identifying factors for gifted and talented students are grades, student performance, IQ and other intelligence tests and parent and teacher recommendations.

“At minimum there are 283 we know that scored on the academic side proficient or advanced,” Duran said. “That’s not just to say we have 283 gifted and talented students. This was just to show you that at the very least we have 283 based on the academic NJ ASK. Some students are not good test takers, had a bad day, don’t speak English well yet. … We have to look above and beyond academic achievement tests.”

Diaz said his gifted and talented planning team will begin researching and designing the new program in May and work on professional development throughout the summer to prepare teachers for gifted and talented instruction. By September, the program should be ready to start and the goal is to identify gifted and talented students and enroll them in the program as early as possible.

“To have a real true G&T program, you have to start in the elementary level,” he said.
Board members said they were happy to see the program brought back.

“I’m real excited about this program and it’s very much needed in this community to highlight and show the successes of our students,” board member Gerald Truehart said.

But he and board vice president Sasa Olessi Montaño questioned where funding for the program would come from, saying they wanted to make sure the school had the financial resources to fully support a G&T program so it wouldn’t end up on the chopping block again.

“Are we going to be able to sustain this program going forward?” Truehart asked. “We’re going to be pushing to make sure we fund what we start and we can finish what we start.”

Duran said the district’s $307 million budget for the 2013-2014 school year includes some funds to be set aside for professional development and instructional materials for the G&T program. The district will also seek grant funding, such as a VH1 Save the Music Foundation grant Diaz has been pursuing to bring instrumental music classes and programs back to Trenton.

Anyone interested in joining the G&T planning team can contact Norberto Diaz at 609-656-4900 ext 5799 or ndiaz@trenton.k12.nj.us