CAliVA and the Gifted Student

Educating a child in the current environment of mediocre public schools is tough enough without having to deal with the bitter opposition from administrators and teachers; which intensifies when one's child is identified as Gifted. It's bad enough when they merely believe your child to be a "one of us" behavioural problem; but, when your child is officially recognized as Gifted/Highly-Gifted, interactions between school personnel and family aquire the undertones of "(s)he's one of those entitled, spoiled brats" whom they must put in his or her rightful place. It becomes - in a word - intolerable.

The end-game, when attempting to secure an appropriately challenging education for one's child, is usually one wherein the child will be left to coast along while the other children catch up to their level. It is, after all, more convenient for the teacher; who, most likely, has a lower IQ than the student in their charge. So much for their learning...until the kid hits college, huh?

You're either a compliant family that the district likes, taking only what little they decide to grace you with - no matter how inadequate - or you're a troublemaker to be black-balled on the district circuit, and your child retaliated against in the classroom. At least we are "troublemakers" who possess something the district types don't: spines, distally equipped with brains.

That was the situation we stepped-out of when we removed our two youngest daughters from LBUSD's Jackie Robinson Academy - a K-8 campus in a constant state of downward spiral, since the new site administrator took over. Somebody should really take a look at the facts behind their 'English-Learner' student numbers.

Our (then) 3rd-grader needed some specialized accommodations in the area of math, and wasn't being challenged to her potential in reading and science. She needed to be grade-skipped into 5th but, Frank Gutierrez and (supposedly) Karen Devries agreed that this would be against LBUSD policy. Funny, that. They grade-skip children in East Long Beach - I've talked with some of the parents of just such children. I just suppose that West Long Beach children are too stupid to grade-skip, even when they're identified as Gifted.

Our (then) first-grader needed to skip-ahead to third grade, so she didn't have to go through the same ridiculous punishment that her older sister had to endure...but that's an LBUSD no-no as well. West Long Beach children (and their families) need to realize that they must stay in their place: As far away as possible from getting the same educational services that the East Long Beach children are given. Unless that child can be used to boost the API scores of selected East Long Beach schools, furthering the illusion that ELB schools are really better than WLB schools - this to make ELB families happy and compliant at the ballot box.

We went through the "EXCEL is not GATE" and "GATE/EXCEL is not GATE" arguments until the cows came home (and died of old age); and all we got for our logic and reasoning was the 14 Karat Gold wisdom of Chris Steinhauser, [paraphrased, but logically distilled to pure truth] "If you have no way of driving your child to a real GATE program (in East Long Beach), you choose not to have your child participate in the GATE program."

The man gets $196K a year for issuing logic-free edicts like that????

In the midst of listening to yet another LBUSD lackey tell us how they have to worry about paying their mortgage (as though that is some logical compensation for their sacrificing the best interest of the child for their own politically-correct conduct in the eyes of their superiors); we accidentally stumbled upon the California Virtual Academies.

I know that this may sound like a pitiful reason to bail-out of the local public school; into a virtual public school situation; but, our mindset at that pivotal juncture was that anything had to be better than dealing with these blind, drooling low-brows in LBUSD who were working harder to make our daughters casualties of their war to put us back in our place than they were in any attempt to accommodate their needs.

Shadowed by the specter that we could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire; we enrolled our two youngest daughters in CAliVA@Kern - later confirming the order to immediately transfer their academic records to Maricopa Unified School District.

(For those who have a need to drive up there...take Interstate 5 {aka: The Grapevine} North from Los Angeles. Take a left at Highway 166 {aka: Maricopa Highway}, and keep heading West until it turns into Poso Street. You're then in Maricopa; which puts you a bit more than than 5 miles South-by-South-East of Taft, California)

I wish we could say that we've never looked back but, in all honesty, we have done nothing but look back.

It simply can't be helped; which is hard to justify to people who have nothing but the local public school districts, in terms of first-hand experience.

As a part of enrolling our children in CAliVA, we had to give them placement tests; which, according to the scoring thereof, both our daughters were grade-skipped, 'ahead-by-one', going into CAliVA. We didn't have to ask or beg or argue about it. They (meaning the enrollment specialists) said that this was the most reasonable accommodation for their tested abilities, and asked us if we agreed. They also asked us a couple of things that nobody in LBUSD ever asked us: "What do you believe is best for your child?" and, "What should we do to make that a reality?" Their consistent reasoning was that, naturally, a parent knows their child better than they do; and, the parent is automatically assumed to have the child's best interests as their highest priority.

Back in LBUSD (looking back, you know) Frank Gutierrez consistently argued with my wife over this 'issue'; maintaining that he, as principal of their school, knew them better than we do. Funny...a man who barely remembered their names and grade placements (before we became his most despised family), and interacted with the children little - if at all - wanted us to trust that he knowes what's best for them.

Sorry...no sale.

I find more justification for believing in spontaneous generation than believing that we know and care less about our own children than a principal whose only interest is completing his political fast-track into a cozy, assistant superintendent position at 1515 Hughes Way.

Our third-grader became a fifth-grader, taking 4th grade Math and 8th grade English/Language Arts. Our first-grader became a third-grader, taking 2nd grade Math and 4th grade curriculum in all other subject areas. In the parlance of the business, we 'bulked' their curriculum for the first year, allowing them to naturally diverge - according to their potential to grow.

Our (current) fifth-grader has finished-up two years of Science curriculum in seven and one-half months, and is anticipating the delivery of her third year of Science anyday now. She will be taking high school English/Language Arts courses in the Fall semester of Academic Year 2006 - 2007, and content is a minor issue for her. She's working now on her second year of History and Art, and is waiting for her new Music, Math, History and Art curriculum materials to be delivered to our home.

Our (current) third-grader knocked-out her first year of Math by the middle of December, 2005; and is working on finishing-up her second year of Math curriculum. She is already finished with this years Science, Art and Music subject starnds, and will definitely be finished with Language Skills and History before the month of May is. We anticipate that she will have Spelling and Lit taken care of before June 16th, 2006. New Music, Science and Art curriculum should already be on its way to us.

Back in LBUSD (looking back again) the self-appointed 'experts' said that this was not the best thing for them. In their eyes, it was far better for the children to (and I quote) "Learn to work down-to the level of the other kids in class." (Just between you and me, I heard many muttered concerns over litigation risks in giving the child 8th grade curriculum.)

These 'ignorant', West Long Beach parents are standing exactly where we've accustomed ourselves to standing for more than 20 years - shaking our heads and clucking our tongues at the 'experts' who truly know less than nothing at all.

Both girls took their State Tests over three days last week (2nd, 3rd & 4th of May, 2006) without so much as a complaint, and actually had fun doing it. Guess what? They didn't have to spend all year, drilling in preparation for the SAT-9 tests either. They spent their time learning their subjects and, when we were told that SAT-9 testing was at hand, we went and had the kids take the tests. Nothing more than that.

Back in LBUSD children spend most of their school year preparing for the SAT-9 tests - endless in-class by-rote drills on all SAT-9 content areas (with an additional two hours a day in-home) - instead of learning the kinds of things our children learn. LBUSD's methods aren't something that can be called 'teaching to the test'. It's called, my friends, 'teaching the test'; which is worse, by several orders of magnitude. It's merely "gaming the system." State testing was spread over a two-week time-frame.

Our children finish their lessons in a ridiculously short time-frame for those subject areas wherein they have no problems understanding the material; allowing them to spend an appropriately longer amount of time on those subject areas wherein they experience difficulties picking-up the concepts. Differentiation is built into the content delivery methods, as I'm certain that you can see from the above.

Back in LBUSD, differentiation is nothing more than an administrative buzz-word, tossed-about by people who needed an in-service to learn how to pronounce the word. They certainly don't understand it in terms of its correct application to the Gifted student. (I so longed to ask Frank Gutierrez if he - supposedly understanding my child better than I presumably do - understood how to evaluate the random student for the purposes of determining the degree of curriculum differentiation necessary to allow the child to learn without impediment. It would have been worth at least a couple of laughs.) All-in-all, the time my children spent in an LBUSD classroom (approximately double the time it takes them to do their work now-a-days) was wasted...often times teaching other children, rather than learning according to their own needs and potentials.

Our children regularly interact with other children of all ages and academic abilities, and even >gasp!< adults. As a result, they possess better social skills, being able to relate to human peers of all ages. They also realize that they will eventually gravitate toward, and affiliate with, intellectual peers. This is as it should be.

Back in LBUSD, children are discouraged from interacting with anyone who cannot be considered an 'age-peer'. [This is the primary objection raised within LBUSD's refusal to provide my (current) fifth-grader with English/Language Arts curriculum commensurate with her abilities (at the time, tested at grade 10.7).] Children are taught that they are held to a standard of the middle of the bell curve for only those children of their same age. Excelling is a bad thing - a very bad thing - because "it makes the other kids feel bad". The LBUSD culture is saturated with the offal of anti-intellectualism, and conformity to the lowest common denominator of the age-peer.

The lower time overhead involved with the CAliVA/K12 curriculum allows my children to engage in long periods of physical activity during the day.

Back in LBUSD, the children might have had as much as 45 minutes to an hour of recess time during the school day. Recess time that was routinely denied as a means of punishment for not pleasing capricious teachers through approved performance during the daily 'by-rote' state test drilling and prep. Hey, SAT-9 testing is more important, isn't it?

Our children use the CAliVA-supplied computers every single day for their school work; with unfettered access to rich curriculum and reference resources - in addtiton to manipulatives, workbooks, textbooks, teacher manuals. Free. (Better than 'free', actually; because CAliVA pays us an Internet access stipend twice an academic year.)

Back in LBUSD, the kids rarely saw, much less touched, a computer; and we had to file a Williams complaint to get a Math textbook for our third-grader. We dared to step out-of line; and were, thereafter, retaliated against.

IEPs are a thing of the past. CAliVA proactively accommodates children with organic or induced learning disabilities - temporary or permanent - usually (according to my limited observations) to the point of overkill. You don't have to ask or fill out request forms, they ask you, and trust you to know what's truly best for your child. They keep their word without equivocation. My children are currently getting something much better than anything LBUSD could envision as a "nirvana" GATE program. I am aware of a parent who has a child which requires (according to their previous school district) 20 minutes of speech therapy. With CAliVA, the child is receiving six-times that amount of speech therapy - in home.

Back in LBUSD, the first response is an authoratarian "NO!" Prepare for a 504 hearing if you're dealing with anything that can be considered to be a learning disability. Your child and you will be blamed first, and LBUSD will try to wiggle and wriggle out of their mandate. On the other side of the bell curve, forget true GATE education for any child on the West-Side. GATE isn't mandated, and is reserved for the East-Side only. As far as LBUSD is concerned, brown-skinned children on the West-Side can't be Gifted - they're nothing more than 'uppity-little' behavioural problems.

The few children that LBUSD can't avoid identifying as Gifted (through a thoroughly capricious and admittedly sabotaged process), will be 'brain-drained' from their neighborhood campuses; shipped over to the East Side to boost the API scores for the schools on the 'good-side of town'; while we, who live on the 'bad-side of town' are supposed to ignore the fact that the money which is supposed to be spent on all students - equally - is given to those who least need it.

EXCEL and GATE/EXCEL are for the West-Side trash; and you will either be misled (or lied-to) into believing that EXCEL, GATE/EXCEL, LBUSD-designated 'gifted' and GATE are virtually the same thing; conferring identical benefits upon the GATE-qualified student. EXCEL and GATE/EXCEL are nothing more than diversionary tactics.

LBUSD will do everything they can to hide the fact that anything EXCEL-oriented is based upon a norm of the student population in the EXCEL host campus. There is NO ABSOLUTE STANDARD for EXCEL program qualification and delivery.

LBUSD will also bend-over-backwards to conceal the fact that GATE/EXCEL really means that there might and there might not actually be GATE-conformed instruction delivered on any given school campus; but the best you can hope for is a so-called GATE class that has atleast 1 GATE-identified child in it - with the rest of the students serving as 'EXCEL-backfill'. It is highly likely that, any GATE-identified child in an EXCEL class will be prevented from attaining his or her potential through the identical mechanisms of negative peer pressure to which a GATE-identified child is subject in the 'normal' (20th to 80th percentile-directed) classroom environment.

CAliVA enrollments have consistently doubled every year since their genesis, and are right on-track for a clean doubling (or more) for the next academic year. Fantastic! Many of those used to be LBUSD students who still live in the area.

Back in LBUSD, they'll be crying over the 17 million dollars they lost this coming academic year, and bemoaning the ever-accelerating enrollment shortfalls; most likely continuing to blame the drop-off on housing prices in LBUSD. (Can anyone keep track of the number of times Steinhauser has tickled his tonsils with his toes?) The district-types can console themselves with the fact that our 18-or-so-grand is being well-spent with CAliVA, and our children are actually receiving something LBUSD staunchly denied them: A Free, Adequate, Public Education.

CAliVA has filled their leadership roles with individuals who can't be called unqualified (http://www.caliva.org/staff/admin-bios.html) and who remain accessible to even a lowly parent such as myself. I recently made a single phone call to a staff member, asking a simple question. I was informed that the Head of Schools, James Konantz, was the best person to answer my question. A message was (evidently) forwarded to Mr. Konantz, and he called me back in an extremely short time-frame, the same day. He also competently answered my initial question, as well as the subsequent questions which had crossed my mind in the interim.

Back in LBUSD, the leadership (if you could call it that) consistently reminded me of a rude description - involving monkeys and footballs - that a past supervisor of mine used to regularly give voice to. Comparatively speaking, LBUSD leadership is - at best - politically stagnated, incompetent, cowardly, dodgey, equivocating and (at times) prone to outright lying. Steinhauser will never call you back, unless you happen to be on the officially sanctioned list of parent brown-nosers.

We're out of the K-9 LBUSD experience...never to look back?

BULL!

When looking back means that you engage in a process of compare and contrast; realizing that where you are now approaches 'how good things can possibly be'; looking back is a productive exercise in counting your blessings.

I find myself wondering why we put up with LBUSD as long as we did. The change has been that positive and that drastic.

Thank you, CAliVA, for giving us public educational blessings to count.

Even though we realize that innumerable children are harmed by LBUSD each year; we feel that it is incumbent upon our family to thank LBUSD for giving us many very good reasons to count our blessings.

Without the KeyStone Cops Troupe we call the LBUSD school board; and their lackadaisical (if not sometimes comical) puppet of a Superintendent; none of this would have been possible, nor desirable.