Does Your Child Need More Academic Challenge at School This Fall?

Our Assessment and Counseling Clinic can help you learn more about your child and their academic needs.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

Our clinic offers individual educational assessments to help you better understand your child’s cognitive and academic strengths. These evaluations can assist with academic planning by helping determine whether your child is ready for advanced learning opportunities such as acceleration and enrichment programming. You can use the results to better advocate for your student’s advanced learning needs at school. When shared with your child’s educators, the results may inform team decisions about identification for enrichment and/or accelerated programming.

These assessments involve tests of intellectual and academic skills, including above-level skills, as well as a screening of psychosocial factors that may be relevant to academic planning decisions.

If you’re interested in learning more about educational assessments and other clinic services, visit our website. To request information about pursuing an educational assessment for your child, click here.

Apply for the Belin-Blank Fellowship in Gifted Education

This summer, the 41^st Belin-Blank Fellowship Program in Gifted Education will be a virtual event.  Launched in 1981, the Fellowship is one of the oldest professional leadership programs in the United States, and the Belin-Blank Center welcomes teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and administrators to apply.  Because the Fellowship is virtual, educators who would find travel to Iowa difficult can dedicate the time for this program from their home computers.

More than ever, all educators need to know more about the unique needs of gifted and talented students—and about how to meet those needs—because of today’s ever greater challenges.  This professional learning opportunity facilitates professional understanding about best practices in serving advanced learners, including those who traditionally have been overlooked for gifted programs. Participants will interact virtually with others who have a commitment to understanding more about research-based strategies that promote authentic talent development among your school’s most capable students.   

Participants will need to be fully present throughout the week because the presentations, activities, and extended discussions will inspire your thoughtful engagement with new ideas and approaches.  For an overview of the program, please download a brochure (safe to open). Educators should review the program at belinblank.org/fellowship and apply online.  Selection of the 12 Belin-Blank Fellows will be based on a review of applications, as well as a review of the statements of support from administrators (also completed online).  

This unique Fellowship was originally designed for the general education teacher—the individual who spends the greatest amount of classroom time with gifted and talented learners. In recent years, we also have welcomed teacher leaders, school counselors, school psychologists, and administrators, knowing they work closely with teachers to ensure best practices for all students. 

An endowment covers the cost of opportunities to interact with nationally recognized experts in gifted education; it will also cover other costs associated with the program, including access to the online University library and a 50% tuition scholarship for two semester hours of credit (if credit hours would be useful for you). This year, when the program is a virtual one, we are waiving the request that the district support its participant(s) through a payment of a $250 resource fee.  You will leave the program with extensive resources that will enrich you and your district.

Please share this information about the Fellowship with those in your building. Encourage general education teachers, school counselors and psychologists, and administrators to apply online. Each applicant is responsible for completing the application process by April 15; must ask for a brief statement of support from you, the Superintendent, or another district administrator, also submitted online by April 15.

All of us at the Belin-Blank Center are confident this summer will continue a tradition that prompted one participant to relate:

“This is a game changer for me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

If you have any questions about the Fellowship or the application process, please contact Dr. Laurie Croft, Associate Director for Professional Development at educators@belinblank.org or 319-335-6148. We look forward to having an educator you know join us this summer!

Gifted Education Awareness Month: Services at the ACC – Educational Assessment

In Iowa, October has been declared Gifted Education Awareness Month! To celebrate, we’ll be revisiting some of your favorite posts from the blog all month long. We get a variety of questions about what our Assessment and Counseling Clinic does and how to know if a particular service is right for a given child. Today, we’re focusing on educational assessments.

---

Services at the ACC: Educational Assessment

Dr. Alissa Doobay, Licensed Psychologist, Supervisor of Psychological Services

Individualized educational assessments are conducted to assist with academic planning.  They involve individual assessment of intellectual and academic skills, including above-level skills, as well as a screening of psychosocial factors that may be relevant in academic planning decisions.  These assessments are not diagnostic in nature; therefore, they cannot be submitted to insurance for reimbursement.

Following the assessment, parents are provided with a comprehensive report detailing the test results and our recommendations. The cost depends on the number of hours spent, but a typical educational assessment includes approximately 6 hours of testing and costs $730.

Some initial reasons to consider an individualized educational assessment include:

• You’re considering whole grade acceleration and would like to get the bulk of the information needed all at once.
• The student is in 3rd grade or younger, and therefore too young for most other assessments.
• The student has behavioral/cognitive factors that result in individualized assessment being more accurate than group-administered (e.g., 2e students who don’t “test” as well as expected based on knowledge).

We also offer twice-exceptional assessments, which include intellectual and academic testing in addition to a diagnostic assessment to determine whether the child meets criteria for a particular psychological diagnosis (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Specific Learning Disorder, anxiety or depression, etc.). These evaluations are conducted by a licensed psychologist and may be submitted to insurance depending on your insurance provider. There is a currently a waitlist for twice-exceptional assessments.

Could an educational assessment help your child?  You can request an appointment through our online intake form.

Originally posted on January 12, 2017

Gifted Education Awareness Month: Academic Acceleration

This month, we’re bringing back some of our most popular blog posts to celebrate Gifted Education Awareness Month! Today, Dr. Ann Shoplik, Administrator for the Acceleration Institute, explains why it’s so important to advocate for academic acceleration! “Acceleration” can be an intimidating word for some, but did you know that there are at least 20 different forms of academic acceleration?

The word “acceleration” actually refers to over twenty different educational interventions! (Source: A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students*)

 

---

Why am I an Advocate for Academic Acceleration?

The short answer to this question is that I am tired of gifted students being under-challenged in school. They need the intellectual stimulation that comes from rigorous courses taught at a reasonably advanced level, and acceleration can provide that stimulation. The longer answer is, I am familiar with the research. No educational option for gifted students has the research support that academic acceleration has. In other words, the research is clear and unambiguous: Acceleration works. Gifted students benefit from acceleration. Gifted students are not negatively impacted socially if they are moved up a grade or advanced in a particular subject. Gifted students who accelerate turn out to be higher-achieving, higher-paid adults. In other words, the effects of acceleration are positive, short-term, and long-term.  So why wouldn’t I be an advocate for academic acceleration?

Now that we have the information that is summarized so clearly and succinctly in the comprehensive 2015 publication, A Nation Empowered, it’s time to put that information to work.  There are at least 20 different types of acceleration, including grade-skipping, subject matter acceleration, distance learning, and dual enrollment in high school and college. There are many forms of acceleration, and that means that we can tailor accelerative opportunities to the needs of individual gifted students. Acceleration means allowing gifted students to move ahead in school, at a pace appropriate to their needs. Acceleration can be implemented individually, in small groups, and in large groups.  Each type of acceleration can be used to match the level, complexity, and pace of the curriculum to the readiness and motivation of the student.

Educators and parents do not have to be afraid of implementing acceleration. Tools are available to help them make well-informed decisions. These tools include the book already mentioned, A Nation Empowered, and they also include the Iowa Acceleration Scale (developed to help the team consider all aspects of acceleration, including academic development, social development, physical development, and school and parental support for the decision), IDEAL Solutions (developed to assist educators and parents as they consider subject matter acceleration in STEM subjects), and university-based talent search programs, which help identify students and give them challenging courses they can take in the summer or via online learning opportunities.

If you are interested in advocating for acceleration for an individual student or you’re attempting to change policies in your school or district, consider starting with the information found at the Acceleration Institute website. It includes the tools already mentioned in this article, and many more. Don’t miss the PowerPoint presentation on acceleration, which you can download and share with other educators and families.

We have the research and we have the tools to help us make good decisions about implementing acceleration for academically talented students. Now, we need the courage to act.

Originally posted by Ann Lupkowski Shoplik on March 22, 2016

*Southern, W.T. and Jones, E.D. (2015) Types of Acceleration: Dimensions and Issues. In S.A. Assouline, N. Colangelo, J. VanTassel-Baska, and A. Lupkowski-Shoplik (Eds.), A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students (pp. 9-18). Cedar Rapids, IA: Colorweb Printing

Gifted Education Awareness Month: We’re Sharing the Best-Kept Secret!

In Iowa, October has been declared Gifted Education Awareness Month! To celebrate, we’ll be sharing some of your favorite posts from the blog all month long. Today, we’re sharing the time our own Dr. Ann Shoplik spilled the beans about the best-kept secret in gifted education!

(Spoiler: It’s above-level testing, and we can help with that.)

---

The Best-Kept Secret in Gifted Education: Above-Level Testing

The secret of above-level testing is really not much of a secret. It’s used extensively at universities that have centers for gifted education.  Unfortunately, it’s not used much by schools. This secret is hiding in plain sight!

What is above-level testing and how can it be used?  Let’s answer the second question first. Above-level testing is useful for decisions about:

1. Identifying a student for a gifted program
2. Determining what a student is ready to learn next
3. Deciding whether or not a student is ready for subject-matter acceleration
4. Deciding whether or not a student is ready to skip a grade

“Above-level testing” is exactly what it sounds like:  Give a younger student a test that was developed for older students.  This idea was pioneered over one hundred years ago by Dr. Leta Hollingworth, sometimes called the “mother” of gifted education.  This concept was fully developed by Dr. Julian Stanley in the 1970s when he devised the “Talent Search” in which 7^th and 8^th graders took the college admissions exam, the SAT.  Fast forward to the present day, and above-level testing is used extensively in outside-of-school programs for gifted students. In fact, hundreds of thousands of students around the world take above-level tests each year as part of university-based talent searches, such as the one offered by the Belin-Blank Center.  Some of these tests used are the SAT, ACT, Explore (recently discontinued), and I-Excel. Unfortunately, above-level tests are not used extensively in typical school gifted programs; we would like to change that!

Academically talented students tend to perform extremely well on tests developed for their own age group. They do so well that they get everything (or almost everything) right, and we don’t really know what the extent of their talents might be.  Psychologists call this “hitting the ceiling” of the test. Think of it like a yardstick: The grade-level “yardstick” measures only 36 inches. If the student is 40 inches tall, we can’t measure that accurately using only the grade-level yardstick. What we need is a longer yardstick, and a harder test. An above-level test, one that is developed for older students, provides that longer yardstick and successfully raises the ceiling for that talented student.

The advantages of above-level testing include differentiating between “talented” and “exceptionally talented” students. In the figure above, the bell curve on the left shows a typical group of students. A few students earn very high scores (at the 95^th percentile or above when compared to their age-mates). These are the students who “hit the ceiling” of the grade-level test.  If we give that group of students a harder test, an above-level test that was developed for older students, voila! we see a new bell curve (the one on the right). The harder test spreads out the scores of the talented students and helps us to differentiate the talented from the exceptionally talented students.

What does this matter? Knowing how students performed on an above-level test helps us to give the students, their families and their educators better advice about the kinds of educational options the students might need. For example, does this student need educational enrichment? Would that student benefit from moving up a grade level or two in math? Would another student benefit from grade-skipping? Organizations such as the Belin-Blank Center who have used above-level testing for years have developed rubrics to help educators and parents understand the student’s above-level test scores and relate them to appropriately challenging educational options. In just one or two hours of testing, we are able to get important information about the student’s aptitudes, which allows us to make good recommendations about the types of educational challenges the student needs.

We at the Belin-Blank Center are thrilled to be able to provide educators with specific information about your students via the in-school testing option for I-Excel, an above-level test for talented 4^th – 6^th graders. For more information about how this could work in your school, see www.i-excel.org and www.belinblank.org/talent-search, or contact assessment@belinblank.org.

Students in 7th – 9th grade also have an opportunity for above-level testing by taking the ACT through the Belin-Blank Center. We encourage educators to let their students know about this unique opportunity.  For more information, visit www.belinblank.org/talent-search.

Originally posted by Dr. Ann Lupkowski Shoplik on October 6, 2016

The Best-Kept Secret in Gifted Education: Above-Level Testing

The secret of above-level testing is really not much of a secret. It’s used extensively at universities that have centers for gifted education.  Unfortunately, it’s not used much by schools. This secret is hiding in plain sight!

What is above-level testing and how can it be used?  Let’s answer the second question first. Above-level testing is useful for decisions about:

1. Identifying a student for a gifted program
2. Determining what a student is ready to learn next
3. Deciding whether or not a student is ready for subject-matter acceleration
4. Deciding whether or not a student is ready to skip a grade

“Above-level testing” is exactly what it sounds like:  Give a younger student a test that was developed for older students.  This idea was pioneered over one hundred years ago by Dr. Leta Hollingworth, sometimes called the “mother” of gifted education.  This concept was fully developed by Dr. Julian Stanley in the 1970s when he devised the “Talent Search” in which 7^th and 8^th graders took the college admissions exam, the SAT.  Fast forward to the present day, and above-level testing is used extensively in outside-of-school programs for gifted students. In fact, hundreds of thousands of students around the world take above-level tests each year as part of university-based talent searches, such as the one offered by the Belin-Blank Center.  Some of these tests used are the SAT, ACT, Explore (recently discontinued), and I-Excel. Unfortunately, above-level tests are not used extensively in typical school gifted programs; we would like to change that!

Academically talented students tend to perform extremely well on tests developed for their own age group. They do so well that they get everything (or almost everything) right, and we don’t really know what the extent of their talents might be.  Psychologists call this “hitting the ceiling” of the test. Think of it like a yardstick: The grade-level “yardstick” measures only 36 inches. If the student is 40 inches tall, we can’t measure that accurately using only the grade-level yardstick. What we need is a longer yardstick, and a harder test. An above-level test, one that is developed for older students, provides that longer yardstick and successfully raises the ceiling for that talented student.

The advantages of above-level testing include differentiating between “talented” and “exceptionally talented” students. In the figure above, the bell curve on the left shows a typical group of students. A few students earn very high scores (at the 95^th percentile or above when compared to their age-mates). These are the students who “hit the ceiling” of the grade-level test.  If we give that group of students a harder test, an above-level test that was developed for older students, voila! we see a new bell curve (the one on the right). The harder test spreads out the scores of the talented students and helps us to differentiate the talented from the exceptionally talented students.

What does this matter? Knowing how students performed on an above-level test helps us to give the students, their families and their educators better advice about the kinds of educational options the students might need. For example, does this student need educational enrichment? Would that student benefit from moving up a grade level or two in math? Would another student benefit from grade-skipping? Organizations such as the Belin-Blank Center who have used above-level testing for years have developed rubrics to help educators and parents understand the student’s above-level test scores and relate them to appropriately challenging educational options. In just one or two hours of testing, we are able to get important information about the student’s aptitudes, which allows us to make good recommendations about the types of educational challenges the student needs.

We at the Belin-Blank Center are thrilled to be able to provide educators with specific information about your students via the in-school testing option for I-Excel, an above-level test for talented 4^th – 6^th graders. For more information about how this could work in your school, see www.i-excel.org and www.belinblank.org/talent-search, or contact assessment@belinblank.org.

Students in 7th – 9th grade also have an opportunity for above-level testing by taking the ACT through the Belin-Blank Center. We encourage educators to let their students know about this unique opportunity.  For more information, visit www.belinblank.org/talent-search.

A One-Day Training Session on Using the Iowa Acceleration Scale

How do educators and parents make objective, well-thought-out decisions about academic acceleration?  On Sunday, July 24th, you can attend a pre-institute explaining just how to do that!  Learn how to maximize the value of the Iowa Acceleration Scale (3^rd edition), a tool designed to help educators and parents make data-driven decisions about academic acceleration. This session will be provided from 2-5 p.m., July 24, on the University of Iowa campus.  Cost = $75.

The Iowa Acceleration Scale is a tool designed to help educators and parents make informed decisions about a grade skip. It helps to move the conversation away from a selective biased recall of specific acceleration stories to a focus on each aspect of students’ development that should be considered. The focus is on:

• Student ability, aptitude, and achievement
• School and Academic factors
• Developmental factors
• Interpersonal skills

All of these areas receive consideration in the discussion. The Iowa Acceleration Scale is not a test – it is a tool that guides the conversation of the child study team around the topic.

Using an instrument such as the IAS when making this decision helps us to:

• Separate the people from the problem,
• Focus on interests, not positions,
• Generate possibilities before making decisions, and
• Base results upon objective criteria.

Pre-institute participants are invited to attend the Belin-Blank Advanced Leadership Institute Speakers Reception, Sunday evening, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Starting the next day, the Belin-Blank Center will provide a two-day Institute (July 25 and 26) focused on the new publication on academic acceleration research and practice, A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students.

For more information and to register for these events, visit:  www.belinblank.org/bbali.

Message from the Director: What’s Wrong With Being Confident?

An appealing refrain plus a catchy tune find their way into our heads and often stick.  This is exactly what happened to me during a recent Zumba class when the refrain, “What’s wrong with being confident” from Demi Lovato’s song “Confident” started. During Zumba, my thoughts are typically absorbed with upcoming Belin-Blank Center programs or events, the director’s message, or a research project.  These thoughts often flit from one to the next and back and forth like a moth in a room with lights on opposite sides of the space.  It’s no big surprise that these simple words, with the subtle, yet profound message, infiltrated my mind.

First I thought about two special events hosted in March.  The month started with the highly successful, Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), at which 13 high school students confidently presented their research findings to an audience of nearly 200 teachers and students from around Iowa and 5 were selected to attend the National JSHS.  We finished March with the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Recognition Ceremony, where Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mentions from Iowa were recognized for their creativity.

How wonderful to meet these young, talented, creative, and confident students and – for both programs — to have the support from the national offices of these long-running, prestigious recognition programs.

Everything that we do at the Belin-Blank Center is designed to nurture potential and inspire excellence and thereby support the development of self-confidence. We live up to our tagline through well-established programs and service as well as through new, innovative programming:

• The Melva and Martin Bucksbaum Academy for Early Entrance in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics
• I-Excel, a new above-level test provided through an online platform
• The Belin-Blank Advanced Leadership Institute (B-BALI) for educators (featuring A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students)
• The Iowa Online Advanced Placement Academy (IOAPA), which offers online Advanced Placement classes to rural schools, as well as advanced coursework for middle school students.
• Invent Iowa, a comprehensive, statewide program developed to support educators in promoting the invention process as part of their regular kindergarten through high school curriculum.

“Confidence” is a longish song, one reason it’s good for a Zumba warm up!  My thoughts jumped to a current research project, based upon previous Belin-Blank Center research findings that investigated the differences in the attributions boys make for success in math or science compared to girls.

The answer to the research question “What attributions do gifted boys and girls make for success – and failure—in math and science?” was juxtaposed with Lovato’s words and appealing tune: “What’s wrong with being confident?”

The respondents in the study were asked to choose among ability, effort, luck, or task difficulty as attributions for success and failure. Ability and effort were overwhelmingly the two categories selected (these two attributional choices accounted for 75% or more of the responses for success in math or science). However, the two choices with the highest percentages for ability for both math and science varied significantly for boys and girls: 44% of the boys chose ability as their reason for their success in math and 42.5% made the same choice for their success in science. The next highest choice for boys was effort, 32% and 37%, respectively. Girls’ choices, however, varied significantly from boys: 26% of girls chose ability as the attribution for their success in math and 23% chose ability as their attribution for success in science. Nearly twice as many girls (50%) chose effort as their attribution for success in math and more than twice as many (55%) chose effort as their attribution for success in science.

Attributional research is but one facet of the complex topic known broadly as motivation, an area that is extremely important to our understanding of patterns that could impact, positively or negatively, the performance of students. Attribution theory represents a well-researched cognitive model. However, despite its relevance to our understanding of gifted students, attributional research specifically investigating the beliefs that gifted students have for their academic successes and failures has not been thoroughly researched.  Results from the study mentioned above are much more extensive than reported here; however, they are the foundation for a new investigation of attributional choice regarding success and failure from a current generation of students.

For educators and psychologists to be effective in designing curricular or counseling interventions, it is important to know an individual’s motivational mindset. It is also important for society to recognize these mindsets. As we concluded a decade ago, “We see potential negatives for girls [or boys] who do not accurately recognize their academic abilities. They may be more tentative about undertaking challenges or putting themselves in competitive situations” (Assouline et al., 2006, p. 293).

These findings, along with our new research, lead back to the question: What’s wrong with being confident?

Did You Miss Our 2E Webinar?

It’s not too late to see one of our most popular webinars yet. Nurturing the Potential of Twice-Exceptional Students: Practical Guidelines for Understanding and Supporting 2e Students is available to order on DVD.

 

Information on relevant legislation, research, clinical findings, and recommendations/resources regarding twice-exceptional students was discussed. Specific information was provided about high-ability students with ADHD, learning disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and anxiety/depression.  DVDs of the webinar can be used by schools, area education agencies, psychologists, and parents to gain additional information about the needs of twice-exceptional students.

We also have a free online publication, The Paradox of Twice-Exceptionality: Packet of Information for Professionals (PIP-2), that provides recommendations for addressing the classroom needs of twice-exceptional students.

IOAPA Coordinators: Start the AP Exam Conversation

As spring semester gets underway, students (in conjunction with their teachers and IOAPA mentors) must decide whether or not to take AP exams for their courses. As we’ve discussed in past posts, we encourage mentors and site coordinators to discuss taking the AP exam with students. March 25 is the priority deadline, and April 15 is the final deadline. For details, visit https://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/coordinate/order/deadlines. Each school, including IOAPA partners, must order their own exams directly through the College Board.

Why encourage students to take the AP exam? We often hear concerns that the exam is too stressful, or that students are worried about not passing. These are students who identify with being very smart. Sometimes less-than-perfect grades can feel threatening to that identity. It’s important to emphasize there are benefits to taking an AP exam, even if a student does not earn a score that qualifies for college credit. In addition, IOAPA provides free AP Exam Reviews to IOAPA students at no cost (be on the lookout for more information later in the spring).

Students who take the AP exam and receive at least a score of 2 have higher college GPAs and are more likely to graduate from college within 4 years than students who take concurrent enrollment courses. (See here and here.) Even if students do not “pass” the exam, it is still a valuable learning experience. If nothing else, they will gain practice studying for and taking a comprehensive college-level exam, and learn the course material more fully along the way – all in a supported, low-risk environment. Their exam score has no effect on their course grades, so their GPAs will remain intact, regardless of their exam performance. And, of course, they definitely won’t earn college credit if they don’t even take the exam!

For more information on AP exams, AP Coordinators can find additional resources here and here.

 

 

Response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Tragedy

The Belin-Blank Center joins the countless professionals in schools and the mental health community in expressing our deep sorrow for the families of the students and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. This loss of human life is devastating, confusing, and terrifying for us, as well as for our children and students. Several national organizations have provided resources to help parents, teachers, and other professionals address the questions and concerns of children.

• From the National Association of School Psychologists, Sandy Hook Media Statement  and “A National Tragedy: Helping Children Cope.” More resources are available at http://www.nasponline.org/.
• From the American Psychological Association, “Helping Your Children Manage Distress in the Aftermath of a Shooting” and “Reacting to the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting.”
• From the Autism Rights Watch, http://www.autismrightswatch.com/2012/12/arw-grieves-for-the-families-after-newtown-ct-shootings.
• From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Tips for Talking to Children and Youth after Traumatic Events.”
• From National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Talking to Children about the Shooting

We hope that you find these resources helpful. If you have concerns about a child’s response to these events, please contact an appropriate mental health professional, either through the child’s school or in the community, for support and guidance.

The Intersection of Research and Practice

Belin-Blank Center graduate research assistant Clark Kopelman published an article in the Winter 2011 issue of The Iowa Psychologist, which is published by the Iowa Psychological Association.  The article, “Letting Research Inform Practice,” is on page 3.  Great job, Clark!

B-BC Well-Represented in Journal of Applied School Psychology

The October-December 2011 Journal of Applied School Psychology was a special issue focusing on school psychologists who work with gifted students.  The issue was co-edited by the Belin-Blank Center’s Megan Foley Nicpon (who also co-authored the introduction to the issue).  Also in the special issue is an article on twice-exceptionality and its implications for school psychologists by the Center’s Susan Assouline and Claire Whiteman.