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News and Events
December, 2004
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From Star Wars to Classroom Stars. The George Lucas Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization that documents and disseminates information about exemplary programs in K-12 schools. The purpose: to help exemplary practices spread nationwide. The latest vehicle in the foundation’s media garage is Edutopia, a glossy, attractive, information-filled, bi-monthly magazine for educators and others interested in the K-12 education process. Sample topics from the first two issues:
Wynton Marsalis on how the soul learns
Cool (and innovative) schools
Finding funding
Who controls our textbooks?
Integrating schools into community institutions
The magazine is free to qualified applicants. Past issues have subscription cards, or interested readers can go to www.edutopia.org for more information.
LD and the Family. SchwabLearning recently featured an article on how learning disabilities affect family dynamics. The article notes that “a strong relationship is required to withstand the additional stress of raising a child with special needs,” and brings out issues that 2e subscribers may have experienced in their own homes: the impact of less than full support for a “case manager” parent from the other parent; parental denial of problems; and self-blame for the child’s problems. The article is at www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=328.
Ask Your Librarian About This. Grey House Publishing has released the 2005 Comparative Guide to American Elementary and Secondary Schools. The report provides a snapshot profile of school districts with over 1500 students. For each state, the document provides a state educational profile, school district profiles, and school district rankings. District profiles include data such as total spending per student, spending on support services, and teacher/student ratios. See www.greyhouse.com/elemntary_secondary.html.
U.S. Legislative Update. Before the 108th U.S. Congress adjourned recently, it passed legislation that affects gifted and twice-exceptional children in several ways. The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) each sent out e-mails marking the influence of the associations and their memberships in shaping the legislation.
NAGC noted that the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act received funding at a level of $11 million for fiscal year 2005, calling that a victory given the lack of support for this act in the White House.
NAGC also reported that in its reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Congress for the first time included the needs of twice-exceptional children. The act now includes what they term the gifted and talented disabled in “the groups of students whose needs have priority in the U.S. Department of Education grants to guide research, personnel preparation, and technical assistance.”
The revised IDEA no longer requires school districts to use a “discrepancy” formula in determining whether a student has a learning disability. That formula targeted a “severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability.” Now, districts may see whether a child “responds to scientific, research-based intervention as part of the evaluation procedures” to determine disabilities. NCLD notes that this change will enable schools to use IDEA funds to begin supplying services to a child early, before the child fails.
NCLD also says that “schools will be allowed to use federal funds provided for IDEA activities to provide early intervention services for students who are not receiving special education services but who require academic and behavioral support to succeed in the regular education environment.”
Finally, Congress aligned IDEA with the No Child Left Behind law in certain ways, for example by providing earlier attention and better instruction to students at risk for reading failure.
March 2-5, 2005, LDA 42nd Annual International Conference, Reno, Nevada. For parents, teachers, professionals, adults with LD and/or AD/HD. By the Learning Disabilities Association of America, 412.341.1415.
February 25, 2005, Beyond Giftedness XII, 12th Annual Conference, Renaissance Hotel in Denver/Broomfield, Colorado. For parents, educators, counselors. By Open Space Communications, 800.494.6178.
April 15-16, 2005, AEGUS Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado. For teachers, administrators, clinicians, parents. By the Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students.
May 12-15, 2005, 11th Annual ADDA Conference: New Frontiers in AD/HD, Tucson, Arizona. By the Attention Deficit Disorder Association.
July 8-10, 2005, 22nd SENG Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. For educators, parents, mental health professionals, gifted adults, gifted children. By Suporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted, 773.857.6250.
August 3-7, 2005, Gifted Child 2005/16th Biennial World Conference, New Orleans. By the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, 818.368.7501.
For state association conferences relating to giftedness, see www.hoagiesgifted.org/conferences.htm on Hoagies’ page.
For
additional
conferences on
learning differences, see
www.sped.cec.org/pd/meet.html
on the website of the Council for Exceptional Children.
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