Gifted program still not reaching all in U-46

In February 2014, Elgin District U-46 settled a 9-year-old discrimination lawsuit filed by a few of the district's families who charged the district with placing Latino students in a separate, segregated elementary gifted program.

With the intentions of meeting the demands of the settlement agreement, U-46 revised the existing process of gifted student identification to be more inclusive of the district student minority populations. Additionally, the district expanded the gifted program to every middle school; however, the expansion was made far too prematurely, without putting into place adequate training or supports for teachers of the new sections of gifted classes.

Although the district is attempting to comply with the demands of the court that are designed to address discrimination, ultimately, the current program is now diluted and does not provide effective equity for gifted learners across the district.

During this school year, many gifted students in the district were not afforded the opportunity to attend the middle school that was tried and trusted. Instead, the district opened gifted sites at each middle school so that students could be in a gifted program within their neighborhood school.

No districtwide differentiated curriculum, resources, or training were provided to the new teachers of gifted learners even though experienced gifted teachers and parents spoke up about the need at a school board meeting.

I realize that the district has the best intentions as they roll out access to gifted programming to include a more diverse population of learners, and I applaud their intentions. My concern is that in the interest of equity, they have achieved the opposite.

The district is clearly not achieving its mission: " ... to be a great place for all students to learn, all teachers to teach, and all employees to work."

All means all.

Margaret Lesniak

Streamwood