Providing ‘Dual Differentiation’ for Twice-Exceptional Students
By Ed Finkel
Some students are academically gifted. Some students need special education interventions. Twice-exceptional (or 2e) students are both—and while that can be tricky for school systems and states to navigate properly, it’s essential for these students’ educational success.
It’s challenging to define the term “twice-exceptional,” says Sheyanne Smith, high ability learning specialist in the Office of Teaching, Learning & Assessment, at the Nebraska Department of Education. Traditionally, school systems define “gifted” through a standardized test, but that excludes a lot of students, especially those in the 2e category because they might not test well, she says, adding that she favors the definition from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Association for the Gifted, which revolves around the whole-child interaction.
“Instead of one plus one is two, gifted plus disability equals 2e,” she says. “It talks a lot more about how they interact with each other, and that asynchronous, uneven development that a student experiences. When we think about a twice-exceptional individual, I like to think about defining them holistically, and not just by their two parts.”
Compensation and Masking
Definitions are difficult to avoid in education because school systems use them to monitor students and fund programming, Smith says. But for 2e students, their giftedness lifts their achievement to a level where they don’t qualify for special education as defined by law, despite the struggles they experience from their disability.
“That idea of compensation and masking is pervasive,” she says. “Maybe they have something that’s in the 90th percentile, they have a real strength; and then they have a disability mitigating that, and so they look average, in that 50th percentile. And so they’re working enormously hard just to be on grade level.”
But this doesn’t account for how short a 2e student might be falling of their own potential, rather than a grade level average, Smith says. “A lot of times we don’t provide that special education service because they look fine,” she says. Thus, they land between two gatekeeping programs: “You can’t pass into special ed, you can’t pass into gifted.”
Because there is no federal mandate for gifted education, that’s up to the states—and a lot of states leave it up to districts, which means there’s an element of chance involved, Smith says. “Does the school psychologist understand twice-exceptionality? Do you have a teacher that advocated for additional testing?” she says. “As adults … we need to be able to see those patterns and help identify those needs.”
“Instead of one plus one is two, gifted plus disability equals 2e. It talks a lot more about how they interact with each other, and that asynchronous, uneven development that a student experiences. When we think about a twice-exceptional individual, I like to think about defining them holistically, and not just by their two parts.”
-Sheyanne Smith
Usefulness of MTSS
The systemic improvement framework known as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is a useful way to frame the needs of twice-exceptional students, Smith believes. MTSS has been underutilized in gifted education and often associated with special ed, but when implemented well, it can be a powerful tool for both gifted and 2e students, she says. “Because it shifts away from what is wrong with this student, and it shifts to, ‘What are [as educators] we not doing?’ ”
In that way, MTSS can blend that gifted integration with the model already used in special ed, Smith says. “We can say, ‘You do need tier two intervention in reading because you are not decoding very well,” she says. “But we also know that you need this differentiation in math because you are two grade levels ahead in math.’ ”
MTSS uses data teams and protocols that probe questions like, “Who’s not responding [to interventions]? Who needs additional [supports]? Who needs less?” Smith says. “Being able to be responsive to the student, and not the label, is something really powerful about MTSS. … Providing that dual-differentiation is really important. And MTSS really allows for that, to look at that whole child approach.”
But schools need to revisit MTSS data and be flexible about student placement over time; the level might need to be raised, lowered or just changed within the same tier, Smith says. And schools need to be open to split schedules toggling between interventions for both disability and high ability. “One day, they go to reading intervention to work on decoding, and maybe the next day during intervention time, they go to the … gifted teacher,” she says. “Those tiers being flexible is what matters, versus where the students are living in them.”
Getting Into the Same Room
To effectively support 2e learners in this manner, gifted and special education teachers need to get into the same room to make sure they’re on the same page as a student support team—but separate departments, supervisors, offices and funding streams can mitigate against that happening, Smith says. Even though it’s the special ed teacher’s job to write a student’s IEP and make sure their goals are manageable, the gifted teacher can add their viewpoints regarding a students’ strengths and what they need to further their higher abilities.
“And then the gen ed teacher also has to be there because they are the one ultimately responsible for implementing most of this,” she says, with both populations often in the classroom 90% of more of the time. “One day, a disability may take precedent; one day, their high ability may take precedent. But we have to be flexible and work together and coordinate that. … We get into this, ‘Well, that’s your student,’ or, ‘This is my student.’ They’re all our students, we’re all responsible for their IEP goals or their advanced goals. MTSS is that connective tissue.”
Uniting School and Home
Parents and families of 2e students who have concerns should start questioning and advocating with their classroom teacher, since that’s who they likely have the closest relationship with, even though the classroom teacher is less specialized in gifted or special ed, Smith says. That teacher can then bring in others with greater knowledge and authority to address the student’s needs. “We don’t want them to become defensive,” she says. “Approaching that classroom teacher with the mindset of, ‘We’re both trying to help our student,’ is really important.”
“Because not only is it confusing to the student—who may feel as if, ‘I’m supposed to be the smart kid, how I can I have a disability?’’, or, ‘I have a disability, there’s no way I’m a smart kid.’ The parents might equally have confusion about how that’s possible. Naming [those terms] provides support.” -Sheyanne Smith
If the classroom teacher does not seem inclined to bring in colleagues, Smith suggests that parents next turn to the special education or gifted coordinator to work in conjunction with the classroom teacher. “From there, we all have to make a team decision … if there needs to be additional evaluation, if there need to be additional supports provided,” she says.
Once decisions have been made, the conclusions should be put in writing, emailed to all parties and a follow-up timeline established, with intervention provided by an agreed-upon date, Smith says. “Having all that written down for everybody so that it doesn’t slip off our radars is really important,” she says.
Educators should not only notify parents but have a conversation with them about what “gifted” and especially “twice-exceptional” mean, and how the school will be providing support, Smith says. “Because not only is it confusing to the student—who may feel as if, ‘I’m supposed to be the smart kid, how I can I have a disability?’’, or, ‘I have a disability, there’s no way I’m a smart kid.’ The parents might equally have confusion about how that’s possible,” she says. “Naming [those terms] provides support.”
If parents reject the special education piece of the diagnosis, unfortunately the district cannot provide the services, Smith says. On the other hand, schools do not need to seek permission to identify and place students in gifted programming; but since a student with both qualities might not quite qualify as either, the parent perspective can be invaluable, Smith says.
She suggests starting a conversation by saying: “This is what we’re seeing from your student. We think they should qualify for gifted. We also think maybe they should qualify for special education. Could we do an evaluation?” She adds, “If we’re starting to have these conversations, especially about twice-exceptionality, a lot of results can be confusing. We send home test scores, and parents may not always understand what that means. … Walking parents through what that data actually means, and what that data actually say, is important.”
Doing so helps the parent get an accurate picture of how both gifted and special ed issues are present in their 2e child, Smith says. “With special education, once we have the identification, we have to have the IEP meeting, which lays out the supports,” she says. “We can do that in gifted ed. A lot of places don’t. We don’t require it, generally, as states, because a lot of states are very local control, with what we do in education.”
Being transparent with parents about the school’s responsibilities and requirements is important, Smith says. “Because again, parents see a perspective of a student that we don’t,” she says. “Regardless of what the law requires, we should be having a standard communication with parents regarding their child’s profile, whether they are special education, or whether they are gifted, or twice exceptional. We want them to feel like they’re partnering in our interventions.”