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PEGS: appropriate education for exceptionally gifted students.

Article Excerpt
Few children who score at the extreme top end of measures of intelligence can be appropriately educated in regular classrooms, or even in typical gifted education programs that only meet for a few hours each week. In addition, few educators have encountered extremely gifted students, so most schools are ill-prepared to provide meaningful learning for these children. Parents of exceptionally gifted children express concern when their child refuses to go to school, complains that there is nothing to learn, or develops other inappropriate or disruptive behaviors in response to a school program that is a poor match for the child's academic level and learning needs. Many families have tried home schooling or private schools without finding a comfortable match of resources and needs. In St. Louis, Missouri, a group of visionary educators has developed a public school partnership to address the diverse and unusual needs of such children. The Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students, PEGS, is in its 10th year of providing challenging education for 50 students in grades 1 through 12.

Jamie

Ten years ago, Jamie entered kindergarten in the Lindbergh School District in suburban St. Louis. Before the end of the first day, the teacher realized that Jamie was vastly different from typical kindergartners. Jamie was reading on the fifth-grade level and bubbled forth with an amazing array of information. She not only knew the entire periodic table of the elements, she could describe each element, give the date it was discovered, and name the scientist who discovered it. She could solve algebra problems, and possessed an extensive vocabulary. When conversing with Jamie, it was easy to forget that she was only 5 years old, developmentally and socially.

Placing Jamie in a fourth- or fifth-grade classroom might have met her academic needs, but would not be completely successful because she had not learned to form her letters correctly or to keep her numbers on the line. Her fine-motor skills were those of a typical 5-year-old, as were her abilities to stay focused on an assignment or to record information on the wide variety of topics that interested her. Kindergarten alone wasn't an option either; she would be deprived of the individualized attention and curricula she was ready to absorb. She needed to interact with her age peers to learn social skills and school readiness skills. But how would she thrive in kindergarten when the other children wouldn't understand her vocabulary or share her knowledge base or interests?

Creating a Program

With great foresight, Jamie's elementary school principal brought her case to the attention of the school district's think tank, the Vertical Team. That group brainstormed solutions and expressed interest in forming a regional school for students like Jamie. The group knew that individual school districts would each have at most a handful of exceptionally gifted students. The team envisioned a collaborative effort in which many school districts sent their "Jamies" to a single location, where they would attend school with other children like themselves, and where specially trained teachers would meet their needs. Lindbergh's Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction began networking with Missouri's State Director of Gifted Education and with administrators and educators of the gifted in other school districts. A steering committee formed to pursue the vision of a regional program for exceptionally gifted students.

The State of Missouri had recently established funding for innovative gifted program models. Within a few months, the program was approved as a 3-year pilot. The steering committee became the advisory board, with its members serving as liaisons to the school districts they represented. Several sites were considered for the program, and Lindbergh School District was selected. The district committed classrooms, supplies, computers, and leadership. The advisory board established the program description and goals, and disseminated information to all school districts in the greater St. Louis area. The program would serve third, fourth, and fifth graders in its first year, and would expand in future years. Several school districts formally committed to transfer tuition money to Lindbergh School District for their students who qualified for the program. One teacher was hired, and seven students representing five school districts walked through the door of their new classroom in the first year of the St. Louis Regional Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students, now known as PEGS.

The Early Years

The PEGS advisory board met twice a month for the first several years of the program. The board refined goals and curricula, developed a formal application process, and established communication procedures with the participating school districts. The program required extensive materials and various districts loaned textbooks, reference books, and software. The advisory board resolved many procedural and legal issues, such as teacher tenure, attendance records, and standardized testing.

Teacher turnover was a concern during...