Becoming An Advocate for Your Gifted Student:
An Interview with Carol Morreale

CTD interviewed Ms. Morreale to learn about her recommendations for parents who want to advocate for their gifted child.

When parents ask about advocacy, how do you help them frame it in terms of their child?

Advocacy is influencing decision-makers. You can advocate for your child on many levels –where the decision-maker is a teacher, a school board that is making policy decisions, or the state or federal government making decisions about children. As an IDC (Illinois Development Council) advocate, I do not lobby. We have to be careful not to lobby without a license or funds, but we try to communicate, put out information, and influence.

The best advocacy is when parents explain their child’s needs, helping decision-makers to understand who their child is and how they operate. The school may know their curriculum, textbooks, bench marks and so forth, but they are never going to know the child like the parent does. This is the beginning of advocacy.

How can parents help the school understand their child besides talking to the teacher?

Many parents have told me that every other year, their child gets a teacher who challenges him, and when that happens, their child’s work is better. The following year, the child gets an easy teacher, so he coasts and gets sloppy. I recommend that parents save the child’s work from the challenging teacher because it can speak volumes. A portfolio can show the quality and level of work their child could reach when a teacher may expect less.

What else can parents do to help them advocate for their child?
My relative has a very unusual child who doesn't perform on demand. I advised her to videotape examples of his capabilities, because he does the most astounding things, says the most outrageous things, when unprompted. Many times the child doesn't show abilities to the teacher for a variety of reasons, so a tape could help demonstrate what the child knows and help the teacher with their planning.

If parents are unhappy with the school, what possibilities should they consider?
Begin with the classroom teacher, and if you get no results there, go to the principal. If the principal does not respond, go to the superintendent, then to the board president. I advise parent groups to invite a board member over and establish a relationship, because they have power. They hire the superintendent and set the stage for what happens in that district – how the money is prioritized, etc. People are not aware that the local school board is extremely powerful. Beyond that, state-level decision-makers wield a lot of power, but all Midwestern states are hurting as far as budgets. Fortunately, there is nothing costly about using curriculum differentiation other than teacher training. Parents ought to find books on differentiation and educate themselves about it.

Besides knowing about differentiation, what else do parents need to know?

Parents should know everything they can about the school’s gifted program, because although we often think about “gifted” from a very broad perspective, each district’s program is very narrow, and it has to be. Parents need to know the definition of the gifted program in the district. If the program is looking for a high IQ and you have a very creative child, there is no match here.

It is important for parents to know not only how the program identifies gifted students, but also how the program’s procedures work. Programs’ requirements need to be made public. To avoid problems with test scores, ask personnel in your school district to recommend a tester they trust, so the scores will be meaningful. Finding somebody on your own to test your child can be dangerous, as test results may not match the description of the program—which might have nothing to do with IQ, and everything to do with achievement and performance. It is more important that your child's needs be met than that your child be identified for a gifted program. Parents must realize this.

Do you believe getting the school to meet my child’s needs should be top priority?

Yes, and parents need to help the school identify their child’s needs. However, some parents may think the only way their child's needs are going to be met is through the school’s program, which is not necessarily true. Meeting the child’s needs may be achievable through the program, or maybe even in the classroom. I think parents are getting smarter about matching the child’s needs to the proposed experience.

How can parents avoid getting in adversarial relationships with the school?

When I teach advocacy, I advise parents to use tact and avoid saying things like, “My child is bored in your class.” That is a real putdown for the teacher. What does “bored” mean? Perhaps the child is disengaged because the material is too hard. Parents also make the mistake of telling the school board that the school must serve these children because “they are going to be our leaders of tomorrow,” or because they are the “special children.” Statements like these create enemies. I give presentations to help parents understand that one of the big problems is equity, and what we really want is an equal opportunity for our children to struggle in school: “I don't want more work for my child, just harder work. I want him to sweat and struggle a little to understand the work, and that is not happening. He is coasting.” Because jobs don’t exist in our world where you’re allowed to coast, students need to learn how to work. While everyone pays taxes so their children can learn and work at school, our gifted children go to class and rest their brains. That seems so inequitable to me.

How can parents remain respectful of the school?

You always start with the classroom teacher. If the child appears to be under-challenged, one of the best questions to ask is, “Do you ever see my child struggle with anything in school? I do not see it at home but maybe you see it, because I know you see a different child than I do at school. It appears that everything is kind of easy for him and I am worried about that.” If you package your concern like that, the teacher becomes alert to your values, and will start to observe how the child behaves.

Parents need to get the teacher to see their perception of their child, as well as see the teacher’s point of view to try to create a partnership. Parents shouldn't be going to the classroom and telling teachers how to teach. It is very offensive when parents bring in material for the child to do and suggest activities. To engage the teacher in problem solving, the approach needs to be, “How do we work together to make learning happen?”

How should parents broaden the scope of their advocacy efforts to include gifted education?

Parents should attend school board meetings, which are open to the public, and look at: the budget, how the district is spending their money, and priorities. Effective education for gifted students doesn't have to be that expensive. One of the huge obstacles to serving our gifted students has been that schools have adopted an anti-grouping model. Instead, teachers are told to differentiate instruction for all levels within their heterogeneous classroom groups. But this is asking for something pretty unreasonable from teachers with 25 to 30 kids, and a wide range of abilities. Teachers need more help, and grouping helps concentrate staff and effort to make teachers’ work more efficient. Many schools use flexible grouping models, in which children are re-grouped for one or two subjects (such as math) in an effort to really challenge them. In most cases, teachers will still need to differentiate instruction within these subject groupings, but this is a more manageable task.

What do you think about parent groups?
Organized parent groups are critically important. They need to collaborate and work with the district while acting as watchdogs. Part of their role should be to always attend board meetings and to know what is going on. They should also educate the public, and bring in speakers. There are lots of valuable things parent groups can do, and if the district views them as valuable, you have a partnership. You can’t go wrong with a strong partnership.

Would you share an advocacy success story?
A number of years ago, Galesburg, IL was about to lose its gifted programming, so parents got organized and brought in guest speakers to begin talking about the needs of gifted children. Their efforts swayed the board to reconsider their decision and reestablish the gifted program. Educating and influencing decision-makers, helping them understand the impact of their decisions, is key. However, parents need not wait until programs are gone before they begin to organize and exert influence and demonstrate the program’s success.

Demonstrating program success is hard. In many cases, we have no accountability for gifted children because no test data exists. If parents asked their school district to show them that their gifted child learned something last year, the school would have difficulty because the tests are inadequate. Most tests only show that the gifted students performed “above level” both before and after the school year; we don't know if they learned anything. It is a crime in that we have a group of children who are unaccounted for. Groups such as the Illinois Association for Gifted Children have requested using talent searches (off-level testing) to measure growth and effectiveness.

Any other comments?
This is a very difficult time for gifted education. We have worked really hard at advocacy in Illinois for a long time, and now with budget cuts, there is no line item for gifted. I don’t know what it is going to take, parents marching in Springfield? I just hope that after they lose the program people will wake up and recognize we lost an important thing and want to do something about it. Advocacy is needed. Unfortunately, people don’t understand the need for advocacy until they know a child with unmet needs. One of the best advocacy tricks is to send your kid home with a board member, because if he lives with them for a weekend, they will understand.

Carol Morreale is currently a consultant in gifted education. She recently retired from Lake Forest School District, where she was Director of Instruction and responsible for administering their gifted education program. Carol has been intensely involved in gifted education for over thirty years. She has taught graduate classes in gifted and has presented nationally as well as frequently in Illinois. Carol believes that many of the educational needs of gifted and talented children can be met in the classroom if teachers are given the tools and support they need to differentiate the curriculum. She has served the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC) as one of their past presidents, a member of the Standards Task Force, and provided leadership to the Advocacy Committee for many years. As an advocate, she has supported parent groups throughout the state helping them become more effective partners with their children’s schools.