Maintaining the challenge in academics

Students and parents seek continued opportunities to keep education interesting

COLUMBIA BASIN — Thirteen-year-old Zoe Ford has already taken the SAT.

The Chief Moses Middle School student first took the SAT test as a seventh-grader to get an early start on improving her scores for admission into college.

Like Ford, ninth-grade Warden Middle School student Joel Morrow took the SAT last school year in order to become more comfortable taking the test.

Both students have different academic backgrounds but were chosen to take the SAT as part of a talent search through the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.

CTY was founded in 1972 by a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University when the first talent search was introduced to identify, challenge and reward students who demonstrated advanced academic abilities. CTY conducts research, consults with educational organizations, advocates public policy initiatives and offers counseling services.

Ford does not consider herself a straight A student, whereas Morrow says it has not been difficult for him to maintain an A average in most of his studies. Another difference is the amount of time each has spent enrolled in a gifted program.

Ford was nominated in elementary school into a gifted program and currently takes honors English and algebra. Morrow only participated in a gifted program for a short time in elementary, as there was a lack of gifted programs available in his school district.

Staying academically challenged is something Ford and Morrow have struggled with in the past. Their parents say looking for additional opportunities to keep them engaged has been important.

In second-grade Ford helped her mother Ann, a teacher in the Moses Lake School District, correct fourth-grade reading and math assignments.

"She liked that challenge," Ann said. "Even though she didn't recognize what 2 x 3 was, if you gave her a reasoning problem she could explain it and know what the answer was."

Morrow sometimes finds himself getting bored, particularly in science.

He's the inquisitive type, said Morrow's mother Irene. He enjoys analyzing problems, asking deep-thinking questions and doing hands-on projects.

According to Dr. Linda Brody, director of study of exceptional talent with CTY, teaching students material based on grade level is not good enough.

"When we assess kids and find that they are functioning above grade level we recommend they be taught at the grade level they're functioning, not just the grade they're in," Brody said.

Brody could not say when gifted programs started to become mainstream in education. However, in the last decade she has seen gifted programs move away from grouping students according to ability.

That has hurt gifted programs because it makes it difficult to offer a different program to those students, Brody said.

When asked about the effect state standardized testing has had on gifted programs, Brody said she feels the testing is holding students back because the tests focus on achieving only minimum competency to pass.

"Many of us in the field feel they need to be held to a different standard rather than a minimum standard," she said of high performing students.

School districts offer more for those needing help in order to catch up to their grade level than they do opportunities for those students wanting an extra challenge, Morrow said.