Every now and then I receive questions from parents about our gifted and talented program.  Unlike other local schools, Liberty does not have a gifted and talented program.  Our school sets rigorous academic standards and students and staff work hard to achieve them.  With a school philosophy based around the premise that it is the right and responsibility of the parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children, we feel that challenging students to their top potential does not rest solely on the school.  We play a part but so do the parents.

Some schools like to boast their gifted and talented program. They sport the shiny bumper stickers that say, "Proud Parents of a Gifted Student". Does this mean that the regular program at their school is subpar?  When smart students are in schools with low standards, they become bored and unchallenged.  These students are then given tests to qualify them for the Gifted and Talented services.  This makes the teachers and the parents feel better, but is it really best for the students?  When schools begin ability grouping students to meet the needs of a variety of abilities they show that they do not have a robust, coherent educational program, nor do they have a vision for the best curriculum for all students.  

The Liberty BOD Policy states, "Our goal is to provide a rich and balanced educational opportunity for all students.  High standards are at the heart of our expectations, although we recognize every student has unique abilities, interests, and motivations.  Parents encourage their child's success by monitoring progress in school and at home, and by participating as fully as possible in the Liberty community.  Class work and homework are designed to challenge each student to make the most of his or her talents."

When schools develop a program to enrich the curriculum for a few special students, it shows that the curriculum was not rich and rigorous enough for any of the students.  This is done to cover up a school-wide curriculum deficit.   All children deserve a rich, coherent curriculum that benefits all students.  By holding all students accountable to a high standard at Liberty, we are able to challenge the students on the high end, motivate the average student to become better, and set a trajectory for success for the students that are struggling.  At Liberty, teachers will say that students are more successful because they are able to listen to these higher level conversations between high achieving students and the teacher.  Students implicitly learn taught concepts through these conversations.  For example, a struggling student will understand how a math problem is solved if they hear another student or teacher explain it in class.  Classes that contain students at various academic levels help fuel the discussions helping all students succeed.   
 

Liberty Common School follows the Core Knowledge Sequence and researches other teaching methods and curriculum to provide the best education possible within a public school system.  We have a large percentage of potentially gifted and talented students at Liberty Common Elementary School (approximately 38% of our students perform at or above the 95th percentile on major benchmark tests per testing season), and the majority of these students find Liberty challenging and rewarding.

Liberty offers many opportunities to students to further excel - both within the classroom and through extracurricular activities such as athletics, Odyssey of the Mind, Lego Robotics, forensics, club activities at the junior high and high school level, and geography and spelling bees, among others.  Keep an eye out for any upcoming Liberty sponsored extracurricular activities in the Monday notes.  

Thanks for all your help at home reinforcing all the instructional material we present here at Liberty every day, and thanks for sharing your gifted children with us and with all the students in their classroom.