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If you haven’t read James R. Delisle’s article, Differentiation Doesn’t Work in EdWeek go read it when you’re done here. The link is at the bottom of the page.

The first time I heard the term differentiation as it relates to gifted education was when my daughter was still in pre-school. We knew she was gifted because we’d had her tested when she was three and were beginning to think about schooling options.

Differentiation Offers False Hope for Gifted Students

A friend of a friend had a gifted child and she’d been down this path a few years before. We met over coffee (her) and Diet Coke (me) and I heard her story. It’s a familiar one to me now but then it was all so brand new. Gifted child who isn’t having needs met in school. By now we all know the drill.

She’s the one who clued me in on some key terms I should become familiar with as I began my search for an appropriate school.

“Make sure there is differentiation for gifted students in the classroom. That means they’ll meet each student where they are so they’re learning at their own pace.”

It was like being given the secret password to making sure your gifted student is adequately served in a mainstream classroom. Sweet! My hopes of not having to worry about my daughter’s educational needs were on the verge of being fulfilled.

I had bought into the false hope of differentiation.

When my daughter started school I really thought this whole differentiation thing would be THE answer. There would be no need for an expensive private school because the public school principal assured me that all the teachers differentiated the curriculum. The professionals had this all under control.

I can hear you chuckling but I believed.

And then it didn’t happen.

I suspect (know) that we had it easier than many others. I’ve heard the horror stories and this isn’t one of them. Our story is merely disappointing and frustrating. My daughter did benefit from subject acceleration. She was double-promoted (grade skipped). She attends a pull-out gifted program once a week. She’s used GiftedandTalented.com for math, well it was EPGY back then, as subject enrichment. It wasn’t, and still isn’t, enough.

Who’s to Blame?

The thing is, I don’t blame the teachers. I’ve been in charge of a bunch of kids before and it seems I spent the bulk of my time just putting out fires. Figuratively, not literally. But remember, I’m not a professional teacher or child wrangler. So when I hear that teachers can’t develop individual learning plans that fit the wide range of abilities they find in their classrooms, I get it.

I don’t expect teachers who have no training identifying gifted children to realize that the quiet boy in the back row or the girl who can’t still may need a differentiated curriculum. Not all wiggly kids have ADHD and not all straight-A students are gifted. My point is, teachers need more training in knowing what gifted is when they see it.

I don’t expect teachers who have zero training in how to serve gifted children to know how to provide meaningful learning opportunities for them. Once they know who the gifted students are they have to know how to serve them. Those extra worksheets don’t count. They can’t rely on those pull-out gifted programs to provide 100% of what these kids need.

I really don’t expect teachers who have to be concerned about the hungry kids, the ill-cared for kids, the kids in the margins of society and the margins of their classrooms to recognize that maybe that one gifted kid in the class is bored out of her ever-loving skull.

Because, reality.

If all the education theorists and all the classroom teachers can’t figure out how to make differentiation work I’m not sure I can do any better. But, maybe there could be some baby steps…

• Take a chance and group the gifted kids/high-achieving kids together. Doesn’t cost anything and you’d have some pretty happy kids.

• Spend less time raising the bottom of the class and just a little more time letting the top of the class fly. I really believe that all kids will surprise you when expectations are reasonably high. Set the bar higher for those who show high potential. They just might amaze you.

• Use some of those standardized tests to justify moving kids more quickly through the curriculum. If a student is several grade levels beyond everyone else in math or reading/comprehension my guess is that they can absorb information more quickly than the slowest member of the classroom. Keeping them to the same on the same schedule seems grossly unfair.

I know, I know. There are a bazillion factors I’m not considering. I’m just considering what’s best for my child because someone has to.

Go read James Delisle’s article. He’s a bona fide expert and much more eloquent than I am on the false hope of differentiation for gifted students.

Have you had success with differentiation in the schools? Share your experiences in the comments or on Facebook.