PA Association for Gifted Education

DATE: DECMBER 30, 2003

FROM: Revelly Paul

TO: The membership of PAGE

IN RE Meeting with the Secretary of Education on December 8, 2003

Members of the PAGE legislative committee met with members of the Department of Education on Monday, December 8, 2003 to discuss concerns of the PAGE membership.

The three concerns under discussion were compliance, misinformation about gifted education being special education, and implementation of the BEC.

Following this memo is a summary of the notes from that meeting. Following this are a few statements to add clarity. There are a number of important points that were decided that day.

The PAGE legislative committee left the meeting feeling that this was an administration which considered it important to implement the law of PA.

The next issue of the UPDATE will have an editorial on this meeting.

It is strongly suggested that all members of PAGE join the PAGElist discussion group to monitor and/or participate in the conversations that will follow as parents and educators across the state discuss the implications and implementations of this new support from the PDE.

http://www.penngifted.org/listserv.html

Please help us distribute this important communication by distributing copies of this announcement to fellow educators and parents. Affiliate Leaders are asked to forward to their membership.

Revelly Paul,

PAGE President

A Summary of the PAGE Meeting with Dr. PhillipsDecember 8, 2003

In attendance:

From the PDE:	From PAGE:
Dr. Vicki Phillips Dr. Gerald Zahorchak Susan Enfield Marian Sutter Barbara Thrush	Revelly Paul Joyce Clark Donna Benson Jim LoGiudice Donna Weldon

We were pleased with the cordial reception at the Department of Education on December 8, 2003. Our meeting was upbeat and our message was well-received.

Dr. Phillips and her staff listened to our points, and then went on to describe ways in which our message fit their over-all plans for the PDE’s leadership role in the state.

On the basis of this meeting it would appear that implementation of Chapter 16 is completely supported by this administration and that steps are being taken within the PDE to strengthen communication between PDE and school districts across the state to strongly support the efforts of PAGE.

Dr. Phillips outlined several of her target issues:

1. A revamped website with more easily accessible communications from the PDE; and, with a consistency of message through that medium and through her entire staff’s communications with school districts to address the issues of sending “mixed messages.” (An example of a mixed message for us is the message that gifted is no longer in special education – when it clearly is so.)

2. Dr. Phillips outlined a goal for an Education Portal on the PDE website with links to Exemplar programs for all types of programming including gifted programming.

3. She referred to her goals for a new Secondary Agenda, which would better address issues for all students across the state, including early college admission opportunities. She anticipates introducing this Agenda in Spring 2004. (This one could be very important to gifted students.)

4. The Secretary has directed that a new, more streamlined reporting database, be developed so that all departments within PDE will access the same data gathered from school districts across the state. This would eliminate redundancies in collection of data from one department to another and should ease reporting for school districts.

5. The PDE plans to use this data to review each district’s programs as a “whole.” They could then monitor a “whole” district’s programs and determine ways and means of assisting/encouraging district’s efforts at compliance. Conversely, PDE could determine which districts are working well. This would include data collection on gifted programming as described in the BEC document, therefore monitoring and compliance would come logically and integrally.

Points we discussed with Dr. Phillips and her staff:

1. Gifted Education is Special Education in Pennsylvania.

a. Dr. Phillips response was clear that gifted education is special education by state law and that this should not be confused with IDEA, which is federal law.

b. Marian Sutter also confirmed this point.

c. Susan Enfield, indicated that PDE will work through internal channels to communicate that more effectively.

d. Barbara Thrush indicated that this could/would be addressed during staff development, which will automatically come with the institution of the new Guidelines. (These workshops are being developed now with the Gifted Liaisons across the state.)

2. We asked if the BEC regarding Chapter 16 would be implemented.

a. Dr. Phillips indicated that the PDE stood behind the BEC and they had no intention of modifying it, or removing it.

b. Dr. Phillips also indicated that the PDE would be willing, within the short term, (before their new “whole district”) monitoring system is implemented in Fall 2004), to contact districts that are out of compliance. This is AFTER Barbara Thrush and Marian Sutter have done their task of speaking with districts that have been brought to their attention as being out of compliance. (If Barbara’s and Marian’s contact with districts does not rectify a legitimate complaint, Dr. Phillip’s indicated her willingness to lend the weight of the PDE in encouraging districts to resolve compliance issues.)

c. Dr. Phillips will direct their legal department to review the BEC and she will get back to us within a short period of time as to the legal parameters under which they must work to assure that districts implement the BEC.

3. We asked whom we might contact at PDE in future.

a. Susan Enfield, Head of Bureau of Curriculum and Academic Services, invited us to contact her.

4. We invited Dr. Phillips, Dr. Zahorchak, and Susan Enfield to speak to our conference in 2004 or 2005. Dates are being consulted as to their availability.

End of Official Summary of Notes

Further comments for clarity:

On Compliance:

The PDE’s plan to create a new single information gathering database for school districts will include questions related to gifted programming. The questions found in the Self-Assessment document in the BEC will serve as a guideline to determine the questions that need to be asked.

This new, single database will place gifted education information gathering directly into the mainstream of information gathering done by PDE and ALL departments within PDE will have access to the same data.

Second, until this database is implemented, hopefully, by Fall 2004, any compliance issues that are brought to the attention of Barbara Thrush and Marian Sutter will see resolution, or they will be brought to the attention of the Secretary of Education.

On the BEC:

Dr. Phillips has asked her legal staff to determine the authority/options the PDE has to enforce state law as it relates to the BEC and Chapter 16. She will report back to us shortly. (In other words, we discussed what penalties could be imposed on districts by the PDE if they are unwilling to comply with state law.)

On Misinformation:

PDE will work internally to communicate consistently that gifted education is special education in PA. One method of communication will be through the upcoming staff development workshops that are being developed by the gifted liaisons and Barbara Thrush. These workshops cover the BEC and will soon be available across the state.

As many of you are aware, Barbara Thrush has been developing gifted liaison positions across the state. As more and more of these liaisons are trained, communication should improve through the I.U.’s, etc. Already several gifted liaisons have worked with districts and conducted workshops. The liaisons meet with Barb regularly and are instrumental in developing the gifted materials being produced by the PDE.

Additionally:

We will be sending a letter of thanks to Dr. Phillips covering these topics and will look forward to our next actions. The next PAGE Board meeting is in late January.

I would like to personally and publicly thank Dr. Phillips for her leadership in gifted education. It would appear from this meeting that Dr Phillips intends that the law be implemented in good faith. Governor Rendell stood behind his campaign promise to PAGE that he would appoint a Secretary of Education who would support the cause of gifted education in Pennsylvania.

Your Support is Needed:

Your membership and support makes these things happen. If you are not currently a member of PAGE, we need your support. Every PAGE Board member is a volunteer. All monies go directly to advocacy, education, and professional development.