Phase 1 Recommendations

Recommendation One

That a clause be added to National Administration Guideline 1 (iii) to clearly identify gifted and talented students as a group who require identification and specific provision.

Suggested wording for this additional clause could be:

Each Board, through the principal and staff is required to...

iii on the basis of good quality assessment information, identify students and groups of students;

1. who are not achieving;
2. who are at risk of not achieving;
3. who have special needs;
4. who have exceptional abilities; and
5. aspects of the curriculum which require particular attention;

iv develop and implement teaching and learning strategies to address the needs of students and aspects of the curriculum identified in iii above;

Schools would then be expected to incorporate meeting the needs of students with exceptional abilities (gifted and talented) in their self-review process and planning and reporting framework, specifically as relates to NAG 2 (iii), which reads:

Each Board of Trustees with the principal and teaching staff is required to:

iii report to students and their parents on the achievement of individual students, and to the school's community on the achievement of students as a whole and of groups (identified through 1 iii above).

It would be expected that schools would review and report on their response to the following key issues:

• how giftedness and talent is defined
• how gifted and talented students are identified
• how programmes and provisions meet the needs of this group of learners
• how practices are reviewed and evaluated

Their provisions should be based on the Working Party's core principles and on the advice given in the Ministry of Education publication Gifted and Talented Students: Meeting their Needs in New Zealand Schools (Ministry of Education, 2000).

Under the new evaluative criteria to be adopted by the Education Review Office (ERO), schools will attest that they are meeting their legal requirements and this will be checked by ERO. If the education of gifted and talented students is clearly specified in the NAGs as above, it will become a compliance issue for schools. This will improve the current situation where the responsiveness to gifted and talented students varies markedly between schools.

The change to the NAGs would be communicated to schools through a special edition of Sharpening the Focus, and appropriate support for principals and boards of trustees would also be provided. The previous amendments to the NAGs were gazetted on 25 November 1999, but did not take effect till 1 July 2000. Schools were not expected to have the new guidelines fully implemented until the end of Term 2, 2001. A recommended timeframe in this case might therefore be:

June 2002	gazetting
February 2003	take effect
February 2004	fully implemented

This would also tie in with the increased emphasis on professional development and advisory support recommended to begin in 2003 (see Recommendations Five and Six), as schools prepare to meet the new requirements.

Recommendation Two

That a Gifted Education Advisory Committee be established to advise the Minister and Ministry of Education on areas related to gifted and talented education and to oversee the implementation of the recommendations through the respective stages.

It is recommended that the members of the existing Working Party constitute the core membership of this group to ensure continuity of philosophy and direction, and an efficient flow on to Phase 2. The group would, however, co-opt additional expertise as required to consider the areas identified as a focus for Phase 2. It is envisaged that the group would meet several times during 2002 and 2003, and have a lesser but ongoing role thereafter in advising the Ministry on future needs and directions.

Recommendation Three

That the Ministry of Education commission a thorough review of provisions for gifted and talented children in this country to:

• obtain a comprehensive profile of how gifted and talented children are currently provided for;
• identify the barriers to effective practice, especially in low decile schools; and
• undertake an analysis of needs for the purpose of guiding future direction.

This recommendation acknowledges that our research base in this area in New Zealand is somewhat limited. The Working Party has been able to make a number of Phase One recommendations with confidence, based on their combined knowledge of the needs that exist in early childhood centres and schools. However, some areas have been identified for Phase Two recommendations where a clearer picture is required of what exists currently and of specific issues and needs, before the most appropriate recommendations can be tabled. While some information can be obtained by ongoing consultation, in many instances reliable and relevant data is best gathered by well-designed research.

It is recommended that the Ministry of Education operate a tender process for this research, and that the successful tenderer be required to complete the study and submit their final report by the end of January 2003. Members of the Working Party should have some input into the research focus and design.

Recommendation Four

That a contestable pool of funding be established to support innovation and special developments in gifted education.

This contestable pool would allow for the funding of two separate types of initiatives.

(1) This pool would provide seeding funding for innovative and pilot projects to support the development of new approaches or programmes which may improve or extend our ability to provide effectively for gifted and talented children.

This funding would be available to:

• schools;
• early childhood centres;
• groups of schools and/or early childhood centres; and
• other groups or organisations working in liaison with schools or centres.

The Working Party believes that this fund should not be restricted to schools. Many valuable initiatives in this field have come from agencies outside schools, and have required the specific expertise of these agencies to be envisaged and developed. In addition, the education of gifted and talented children in New Zealand is still in a developmental phase. Some schools do not yet have the knowledge and understanding needed to see the potential of such innovations when they are first presented, or to take the risk of hosting them in their trial phase. As such, worthwhile initiatives could be lost by restricting the criteria for funding at this stage. However, the requirement that groups or organisations putting projects forward should be working in liaison with schools should provide some evidence of credibility.

Criteria

• the project is consistent with the Working Party's core principles;
• the applicant demonstrates how the project meets a particular need;
• the applicant shows how the project could improve upon existing provisions in terms of student outcomes;
• the project has a built-in research component to allow for final evaluation of its effectiveness; and
• the applicant demonstrates the extent to which the project, if effective, could be financially self-sustaining in the future.

Funding for such projects would be for no more than three years. There would be an annual selection process for new applicants. Successful applicants would need to submit milestone reports, with the final report being of a type and quality that could be published and disseminated widely. The final report should contain an 'action plan' that would show what a school or centre would need to do if it wanted to use the project as a model for meeting its own needs.

(2) This pool would provide support for specialist providers who offer services not generally available through other channels but who are not otherwise eligible for Ministry funding.

Criteria

• the project is consistent with the Working Party's core principles;
• the project involves the delivery of a service to children;
• the applicant demonstrates how the project meets a particular need that is not already met by other officially funded providers;
• the project has built into its structure a research component to allow for ongoing monitoring and evaluation;
• the project has made provision for sharing the knowledge gained from its activities with other relevant sectors, eg. through reports, publications, resources or professional development; and
• the applicant demonstrates why any or all aspects of the project cannot be fully self-funded.

Conditions

Successful applicants would be funded for a period of three years, and this could be renewable on a three-yearly basis provided that the applicant organisation had met the accountability requirements it had negotiated with the Ministry. Successful applicants would be required to submit detailed reports six-monthly during the first year and annually thereafter.

Recommendation Five

That the Ministry of Education recommend to all providers of teacher education that their programmes include course content specifically aimed at preparing pre-service teachers to understand and cater for the needs of gifted and talented children.

All teachers are teachers of the gifted, and the providers of pre-service teacher education must be made aware of the importance of preparing all future early childhood, primary and secondary teachers to understand and cater for the needs of gifted and talented children. Course content must be based upon the core principles identified in this report and on the guidelines in the current 'handbook': Gifted and Talented Students: Meeting their Needs in New Zealand Schools. It is recommended that this advice from the Ministry of Education should coincide with the introduction of some other key recommendations, especially Recommendation One.

Recommendation Six

That Gifted Education Advisors (as part of School Support Services) provide the primary professional support to schools, and that the number of these advisors be increased to ensure equitable access and to better address existing and predicted demand for support.