History of BSD Gifted Ed

History of gifted education in Bellevue School District, Bellevue, WA and the history of Bellevue Gifted Alliance, from a parent’s perspective.

Timeline
late 1970’s Enrichment program started in BSD – Medina, Somerset, Cherry Crest, Bennett

1982 approx                       Prism program started in BSD – Stevenson and Odle

1984 The state of WA mandates highly capable services for all who qualify

1989 Choices, a derivative of the 5-hour enrichment program opens - Puesta, Newport Heights, Eastgate

1990s Vicky Murray becomes head of gifted ed in BSD

2004 Gifted education mandated by State for all who qualify

2006-2007                          Gifted IB high school program started – Interlake – called Gifted High School
Program (GHSP)

2009 Stephanie Woods-Garnett hired by BSD Superintendent to oversee gifted program

2009-2010                          Enrichment & Choices put on list of potentially cut programs

2009-2010                          Foundation of BellevuePAGE (Parent Alliance for Gifted Education)

2010 Randy Stocker replaces Stephanie Woods-Garnett overseeing gifted program

2010-2011 Gifted program review by Joyce VanTassel-Baska, EdD

2010-2011                          Elementary Prism moved to Spiritridge

Winter/Spring 2011 Program review by independent contractor

Fall 2011 to current Director position funded for Gifted Ed in BSD – this position replaces the gifted
program “overseer” held by Randy Stocker
Teresa Janes (2011-2014)
Lora McHugh (2014-2022)
Kristin Tinder (2022 to present)

Fall 2011 to current Gifted ed assigned to Teaching and Learning from Special Services
  (Sharon Kautz is head of Teaching and Learning)

2011-2012                          Academic Extension Program-Literacy (AEP) for 2nd grade students who would
have qualified for Enrichment

2012-2013                          AEP replaced, all gifted elementary to centered program,
  2nd site added – at Cherry Crest

2012-2013                          Prism roll up to become GESP; GESP: grade 2 & 3, Prism grade 4-5

2013-2014                          All gifted programs names changed to GESP, GMSP, GHSP

2013-2014                          GMSP added, in addition to Prism, both at Odle

2013-2014                          GMSP expanded to two sites – Odle, Tyee. Prism continues at Odle only

2014-2015                          GESP expanded to four sites – Spiritridge, Cherry Crest, Medina, Somerset

January 2016 BellevuePAGE becomes BGA (Bellevue Gifted Alliance)

Fall 2016 BGA becomes a group under PTSA Council

2017-2018                          Domain Specific gifted education begins

2016-2017                          Roll up complete (Prism is phased out) all gifted students in GESP, GMSP, GHSP

2018-2019                          Program name changed to Advanced Learning (AL)

2023-2024                          Elementary consolidation, Spiritridge AL moves to Woodridge

History
The beginnings of gifted programming in BSD - Enrichment programming
Bellevue School District’s gifted program, known as Enrichment, was started in the late 1970s, for elementary students, grades 2-5, who were gifted (CogAT 132 and higher). This program was a pull out program (5 hours a week), located in four elementary schools in BSD: Bennett Elementary, Medina Elementary, Somerset Elementary, and Cherry Crest Elementary – one program in each high school attendance area – and again, students generally had to transfer from their community elementary school to attend one of these four schools (as assigned by address) and attend classes in the general education program full time, minus the five hours of pull out Enrichment classes (with the exception of some students at Bennett). In middle school, these students returned to their community middle school in general education classes, except for those students who chose to take 7th grade math as 6th grade students. (Note, the ability for 6th grade students to take 7th grade math in middle school has changed many times over the years, from a parent opting their student in, to being required to test, to not allowing this at all, depending on what time period is being discussed – that is a topic for a different discussion.)

In 1989, Choices, a derivative of the 5-hour Enrichment program opened in South Bellevue (Puesta, Newport Heights and Eastgate) – 1.0 FT was divided between all three schools.

Students in the Enrichment/Choices classes generally thrived, although the rest of the week in general education classes was sometimes tedious for these students. As well, there was sometimes conflict as the Enrichment classes cost extra money per student compared to general education students and Prism students.

A Second gifted program - Prism
A second gifted program was started in approximately 1982, a centered classroom program (not a pull-out program), called Prism, for highly gifted students (CogAT 144 or higher) in elementary school, grades 1-8. This program was located at Stevenson Elementary School and Odle Middle School. Students who qualified for this program had to leave their community elementary school and attend Stevenson/Odle full time. Students then went back to their home high schools and took AP classes as their “gifted” classes, or chose an outside accelerated program, such as the Robinson Program at University of Washington. In high school these students often worked a year or two ahead of their classmates, with many gifted freshmen taking classes with sophomores and juniors.

As general education students started taking high school AP classes, the classes felt less “gifted” for the highly gifted students. AP classes have a rigid curriculum, which also made the curriculum less than ideal for gifted learners who wanted to go more deeply into material than the AP curriculum provides.

Students with CogAT 132-143 continued in the elementary Enrichment program.

Adding High School Gifted Programming
In Fall 2006, BSD started a high school gifted program, as a part of the Prism program, located at Interlake High School, with the help of Prism parent lead Karen Roper. The program consisted of gifted classes for 9th graders (that extended from the gifted middle school curriculum), and the International Baccalaureate program in an accelerated fashion for 10th and 11th grade students. The IB classes were also deeper and more advanced than other International Baccalaureate programs across the world, allowing for a deeper examination of material so that gifted students were able to push discussion in each of their classes to a depth beyond that experienced in most IB classes, so this program was deeper in content and advanced in that younger students were in the classes. In 12th grade, these students would take a few gifted classes (usually college-level classes in English and humanities and the appropriate level math class, originally taught by UW professors who came to the high school, then by Bellevue College professors, then by Interlake teachers who prepared for the college-level classes) as well as electives in high school and spend several periods each day in an internship.

All three of these programs (elementary, middle and high school programs for highly gifted students) were known as Prism.

Since its beginning in 1982, the Prism program was fantastic for many of the highly gifted students. However, as the reputation of the program grew, some families wanted their students in the program who were gifted, but not necessarily highly gifted. This resulted in families tutoring their children (through various methods) so that the children scored high enough on the CogAT to receive admission into the Prism program. Prism was too challenging for many of these test-tutored students, and the program started to get a two-fold reputation. Some students loved the program (elementary, middle and high school) and thought the rigor and level of homework were fantastic. Others (often those who were tutored) felt the program in middle and high school was too difficult with too much homework. Some liked the difficulty, but did not like the amount of homework.

As the district became aware of the extent of tutoring to enter the program, and as state requirements changed to require the use of three measurements to determine who was qualified for gifted education, the district started using more than just the CogAT to determine admission into the gifted program, including teacher recommendations, STARR testing, and other cognitive tests.

Formation of PAGE
In 2009, the then-superintendent (Dr. Amalia Cudeiro) placed the part time, pull-out gifted Enrichment and Choice programs on a list of “possible cuts” (along with swimming, reducing heat in buildings, etc.). Parents of Prism and Enrichment students partnered to protest cutting an academic program of any kind. Realizing that we had a very large community of informed advocates for Gifted Education with representatives from every K-12 building in BSD, PAGE (Parents Alliance for Gifted Education) was formed. Founding members include Melissa Lloyd, Stephanie Ault Justus, Susie Pietz, Francine Wiest, Karen Roper, Laura Van Horn, Terri Forsberg.

As well, in 2010, the local population at Stevenson Elementary had grown, and the Prism program needed more space, so it was moved to the brand new Spiritridge Elementary (via one year at the swing school Bellewood while Spiritridge construction was completed.

The next step for BSD gifted programming - AEP
2011-2012 school year: Enrichment was not exactly cut during Dr. Cudeiro’s tenure, however, because of the cost difference between educating General Education and Prism students and Enrichment students, and because of the results of the recommendations of the Joyce VanTassel-Baska report, all 2nd grade students who qualified for Enrichment level programming were instead placed in Academic Extension Program-Literacy (AEP), a class within the general education classroom, where the gifted students (CogAT132-143) had their own reading groups for LASS. Some students were also given a “walk to math” option that placed them into higher grade-level math classes, but that was a school-by-school decision. (Students already enrolled in Enrichment/Choice were allowed to finish out the program through 5th grade). The intention was that AEP-Literacy would roll up one grade each year, and that AEP-Math would be added at some point. When AEP was taught well, these students excelled in reading, but really had no other gifted programming (beyond perhaps “walk to math”). When AEP was done poorly, the gifted students were basically not being served, which was the case most of the time, leaving these students disengaged in their education.

All gifted students in centered program - moving to two gifted elementary sites
After just one year of AEP, the district realized that AEP was not working for most elementary students it was supposed to serve, and decided to totally revamp gifted programming. In 2012-2013, all students, gifted and highly gifted, were lumped together in elementary school in a centered program called GESP – Gifted Elementary School Program). This doubled the number of elementary students being served in gifted programming, so a second site was added. All students north of NE 8th St. would attend the brand-new Cherry Crest Elementary, and all students living south of NE 8th St. would attend Spiritridge Elementary. This boundary was arbitrary, and caused some students to take very long bus rides to/from school, as well as not keeping students close to their community schools. Long bus rides were not new in the gifted program, but the district did not draw this two-school boundary with bus ride length in mind.

In 2013-2014, students who qualified for Enrichment in elementary school and entering 6th grade, could choose to attend gifted middle school programming, at a second level of gifted classes. At this point in middle school, there was the Prism program for highly gifted students (CogAT 144+) and GMSP (Gifted Middle School Program) for gifted students (CogAT 132-143).

Also in 2013-2014, the name for all (centered) gifted programs were changed to GESP (Gifted Elementary School Program), GMSP (Gifted Middle School Program) to match GHSP (Gifted High School Program) – except for those students in 7th or 8th grade who continued in Prism until they reached high school, and those students in 4th or 5th grade Enrichment who continued in that program until they reached middle school.

Moving to two gifted middle school sites
Because of the large size of the Odle Gifted Middle School Program, in 2013-2014, the district added a second middle school site at Tyee Middle School. Students in the middle school Prism program would continue to attend Odle, but incoming 6th grade students at both schools would only have the option of GMSP classes.

Most of the founding members of the middle school gifted curriculum stayed at Odle to teach in the Prism program, but there was supposed to be collaboration between the two sites in GMSP programming and curriculum.

Once the Prism students moved on to high school, many parents felt there was a large inequity between the two middle school sites, with the Odle program being more challenging (in their opinion) and “better” for the highly gifted population, in part because the Prism teachers stayed at Odle.

In addition to these perceived issues, the then-principal at Odle, Aaron Miller, felt that there was division amongst the Odle teachers, since some only taught gifted classes and some taught only general education classes. In his opinion, the teachers of gifted classes were perceived to have the “better classes” and he believed this weakened the community feeling among his teachers. His solution was to require all teachers at the school to teach at least one gifted class and at least one general education class. This had mixed results. Some teachers realized that they really enjoyed teaching gifted students, when they had never done so before. General education students who had “gifted classroom teachers” were sometimes too challenged. Some teachers really preferred to teach general education classes (or were better at teaching that level), and those gifted classes suffered. Even more important is that teachers in gifted education could earn a special endorsement by taking a certain number of hours of training. The teachers that Mr. Miller assigned from general education classes to gifted classes rarely had this training, or enough of this training.

Elementary gifted programming continues to expand
By 2014-2015, the number of students qualifying for gifted programming increased enough (mostly due to better identification of students) that the district added two more elementary sites, so the centered GESP was offered at four sites – Spiritridge, Cherry Crest, Medina, Somerset. While this change was necessary, there were some parents who were concerned about the consistency of the program across four sites. Teachers were given collaboration time, but over time, some people felt differences started to emerge, almost immediately, in part because many teachers of gifted classes now did not have the endorsement for gifted teaching. Other families were thrilled that gifted programming was being offered in more sites so that children could stay closer to their community school.

Evolution of BellevuePAGE to BGA, under PTSA Council
In 2016, BellevuePAGE changed its name to Bellevue Gifted Alliance (BGA), and soon after BGA became a program under the PTSA Council, and. One reason BGA joined PTSA Council was for insurance purposes, so that Events are covered by insurance. Being a part of PTSA Council also gives BGA legitimacy in the community and in the district. BGA is NOT a Bellevue School District committee.

Domain Specific programming
In 2017-2018, students who were strong in either math or language arts, but not both, could officially qualify for domain specific programming within their community school. This domain specific programming had been happening for years in BSD, but was formalized across the district in 2017-2018. In elementary school, this usually happens with differentiation. In middle and high schools, students can be advanced a year in math when they qualify for math domain specific services, but not in science. Middle and high school students who qualify for language arts domain specific services receive services only through differentiation.

Yet another name change for gifted education in BSD
In 2018-2019, The name of gifted education programs in BSD was changed to Advanced Learning. By the 2016-2017 school year, the Prism program is no longer in use, and it was felt that this new name would encompass all gifted students, whether in a centered program or a domain specific program. Much of the Prism and Enrichments curricula were rolled into the Advanced Learning curriculum, however, students who are truly highly gifted sometimes felt they were not challenged enough at times.

Elementary consolidation
In 2023-2024, BSD consolidated elementary schools, due to money issues and a significant decrease in attendance numbers across the district. Two elementary schools (Eastgate and Wilburton) were closed, and those students moved to other nearby schools. The Advanced Learning program at Spiritridge Elementary was moved to Woodridge Elementary. [Note – Eastgate was repurposed to hold Big Picture School and Wilburton was repurposed to hold Jing Mei Elementary School.]

BGA Website
www.bellevuegifted.weebly.com

BGA Mission
The Bellevue Gifted Alliance (BGA) in the Bellevue School District encompasses families of highly capable students, teachers, administrators and interested community members promoting excellence in “gifted” or “highly capable” education. Note: BGA is a parent-driven organization that relies on volunteers to achieve the organization’s mission and is part of the Bellevue Council PTSA.

BGA strives:
To build and maintain a supportive community of parents/educators for highly capable students in the Bellevue School District;

To advocate for excellence in gifted/highly capable elementary, middle school and high school level programs in BSD;

To understand global best practices in gifted/highly capable education and leverage local, state, and national resources to enhance BSD programs;

To inform/educate parents on the elements of gifted/highly capable education and on ways to support highly capable students; and

To provide teacher/staff training and networking opportunities in gifted/highly capable education

The scope of BGA is broad, encompassing all the elements of BSD gifted/highly capable programs, including providing feedback on the following areas:

Assessment and placement of students;
Curriculum and materials;
Administrative oversight and support;
BSF pilot recommendations;
Staff training and selection criteria;
Gifted education community building;
Overall alignment with a long-term coherent strategic plan for excellence.

To be a part of the BGA effort in BSD, please make sure to:
Receive and forward the monthly eNewsletters;
Volunteer to help in any BGA aspect: web site articles, leadership, information nights, school liaison, other? To volunteer, email [email protected]

How does BGA function as a Committee?
BGA meets monthly to solicit building based strengths and issues. We escalate widespread issues to the Deputy Superintendent of Gifted (Heather Edlund in 2024). We invite the BSD Director of Advanced Learning to attend the monthly meetings which sets up a strong partnership with the BSD administration. We plan Events and support total programming (vs. pushing personal agendas.

How does BGA continue to grow the community?
BGA collects email addresses at our events and adds these (with permission) to our database. When schools used to have open houses before the school year, we would send a representative to each of these and collect email addresses as well. Other ways people can join our database is to email [email protected] or to go to http://www.bellevuegifted.org/get-involved.html

Our eblasts include information about upcoming events, recently published articles about gifted or twice exceptional (2E) students, local gifted seminars, etc., basically anything that would be of interest to families of advanced learning students.

Twice Exceptional means that a student is both gifted (IQ above 132) and has a special need (like ADHD)

BGA hosts several community Events each year, including What is Gifted discussions, a panel of High School students about why they chose their high schools, a panel of College students about why they chose their colleges, Critical Thinking seminars, info about ACT/SAT, How to Write a College Application Essay.

History of gifted education in Bellevue School District, Bellevue, WA and the history of Bellevue Gifted Alliance, from a parent’s perspective.​

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History of gifted education in Bellevue School District, Bellevue, WA and the history of Bellevue Gifted Alliance, from a parent’s perspective.