Tag: Santa Fe (page 1 of 2)

Save the Date 2018 Gifted Education Fall Institute

This year’s NMAG Fall Institute will be in Santa Fe, October 19-20, 2018. Save the date in your calendar and sign up for our mailing list for specific updates.

You can expect stellar training opportunities, connections with cultural and educational organizations, and the roll-out of the revised Gifted Technical Assistance Manual that our members have been working hard on all year.



KUNM’s Let’s Talk About Underfunding Education of At-Risk Students

Last week Judge Sarah Singleton issued a ruling that the constitutional rights of at-risk public schools students in New Mexico have been violated due to inadequate funding. Today Hannah Colton invited her KUNM listeners and panel of guests to talk about “How New Mexico Is Failing To Educate At-Risk Students.” Continue reading



Gifted Educator Jobs in Santa Fe

Several site-based gifted education jobs are currently listed at Santa Fe Public Schools.  Contact Geoffrey Moon for more information.

SFPS has embarked on a multi-year plan to transform our special education services to all special education students including gifted. Initiatives include intensive teacher training and support, 1-1 assistive technology, and state of the art digital and curriculum resources.

2017-2018 SY – Special Education-Gifted Teacher, Job ID 2219
017-2018 SY – Special Education-Gifted Teacher at El Dorado, Job ID 2310

To apply you will need this link to the  SFPS jobs list, where you will submit an Applitrack application online.

Here’s a hint: If you are actively searching for jobs and have another district’s application started with Applitrack, you can transfer most of the info you’ve inputed over to other districts, like Santa Fe, who also use this service.

Do you have an job opening to share? Let me know and I’ll post it.



Action Needed!

Dear supporter of gifted education in New Mexico:

Please read this message and forward it to anyone and everyone–friends, family, co-workers etc. Ask them to send it to others.

Contact your representative to support HM 15 ALLOW SCHOOL ACADEMIC ACCELERATION and HB 354 EXPAND “SCHOOL-AGE PERSON” DEFINITION.

NMAG has worked with Representative Christine Trujillo to sponsor these for the benefit of high ability students in public schools. You may click on this link for the Find My Legislator tool online.

Thank you for your help in ensuring both the memorial and bill get to the governor’s desk.

Cut and paste the paragraph below and add your signature and contact information.

_________________________________________________

Dear [Representative],

Please support HM 15 and HB 354 to ensure that the needs of gifted and high ability students have their needs met in New Mexico’s public schools.

HM 15 ALLOW SCHOOL ACADEMIC ACCELERATION

HB 354 EXPAND “SCHOOL-AGE PERSON” DEFINITION

This legislation will provide acceleration options and consideration for gifted students to receive social work/transportation/ancillary services, and it includes a twice-exceptional definition for our gifted students who meet the criteria for a disability under federal law. I thank you for your support in providing best practices in education throughout New Mexico.

Sincerely,

[Constituent Name]

[Constituent Address]

______________________________________________

Pridefully yours,

Dr. PJ Sedillo

President, NMAG



Press Release from Santa Fe: Equitable ID and Services

We’ve decided to repost this press release from SFPS as a clear articulation of a vision that aligns well with our association’s vision for education in New Mexico. This is also a pivotal theme of our October 14 & 15, 2016 Institute for Gifted Education.

Santa Fe Schools Improve Equity in Gifted Education

June 14, 2016, Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe Public Schools, building on its commitments to diversity and world-class schools, has embarked on a multi-year mission to increase the identification and improve services to gifted students through its new program of Services for Advanced and Gifted Education. By identifying and removing barriers to participation, SFPS SAGE has started on a path to establish strong gifted programs across all schools, including students from every background.

Giftedness, according to the National Association for Gifted Children, is defined as high performance or potential in about the top 10% of a field or domain.   The State of New Mexico provides supplemental funding to support services for a portion of the intellectually gifted, around 3-7% of the total school population.  To maintain motivation, growth in skill and knowledge, and interested in school, these students generally require more advanced curriculum than their grade level provides.  In addition, some subgroups of gifted students, such as those with extremely high levels of ability, specific learning challenges, or those who will be in their family’s first generation to attend college, may need special services to help develop potentials into results.

In past years, gifted students have been found in Santa Fe schools using a series of IQ, achievement, and thinking skill tests that were administered when a parent or teacher felt very strongly that a student may be gifted. While the tests measure a broad range of abilities associated with good educational and life outcomes, and are highly reliable, this system failed to identify many of our gifted students.

Why? IQ scores and the likelihood of a student being nominated for testing are both influenced by students’ previous opportunities. Students who are culturally different, linguistically diverse, or economically disadvantaged are underrepresented in gifted programs across the United States, since they are less likely to get referred for testing in the first place and, if tested, are on average less prepared to score well on the tests.

To reduce this inequity, Santa Fe School’s SAGE program has trained teachers to better recognize characteristics of giftedness, and in addition to teacher and parent nominations, mined achievement test scores to find and automatically refer high-performing students.  Improving equity in testing, SAGE is using tests that can be delivered in Spanish as well as English, and compares each student to others with similar previous opportunities.  More than 800 students, or about 1/20 Santa Fe public school students, were tested this past school year. Continue reading



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