Ms. Meredith Casper Nomination Letter for 2018 GT Award

In 2013, when Ms. Casper became the director of the Division of Accelerated and Enriched instruction, she was the fourth director in eight years; the office had seen considerable turnover in both leadership and staffing.

Previous directors had been unable or unwilling to withstand increasing hostility to the needs of gifted students from within the school system.

Ms. Casper has been a breath of fresh air in terms of her goals for programs supporting gifted students; her resolve in advocating for their needs; and her willingness to take risks and speak truthfully to people who disagree with her. Under her leadership, gifted magnet programs have seen an increase in capacity for the first time in years, and equally if not more importantly, curriculum for advanced and accelerated students has been introduced to local school programs for the first time in over a decade.

In the many years we have been interacting with AEI, its budget and staff have been cut in response to budgetary pressures, hostility to the office mission, and lackluster leadership. Ms. Casper has revitalized AEI’s role in curriculum development, maximized the resources she inherited through creative and strategic deployment, and successfully advocated for new resources. As but two examples:
(1) When the new math curriculum was rolled out, she pushed for the deployment of central office math teachers to support the implementation of compacted/accelerated math curriculum in elementary schools that did not have enough advanced students to make up an entire classroom.

In multiple schools, when principals implemented the math curriculum in a one-size-fits-all style hurting both gifted and other students, Ms. Casper worked courageously with the community as well as the center office leadership to successfully overturn the ill implementations.

(2) In response to a consultant report critical of the demographic enrollment in magnet programs, she successfully advocated for expansion of the magnet curriculum into additional schools, creating capacity for inclusion of more students, rather than merely adjusting the admission criteria for already-oversubscribed programs.

At the time Ms. Casper became the AEI director, parents had become discouraged from interacting with AEI when advocating for the needs of gifted students. Individual parents had been discouraged by anemic support for their children’s needs, and stakeholder group representatives had been put off by indifferent and/or misleading responses to their concerns and input.

Now, AEI once again has a robust and active community feedback group providing stakeholder input to AEI’s activities. Ms. Casper has facilitated interaction between parents/stakeholder representatives and other offices within MCPS, and has made herself fully and regularly available for consultation for both individual students’ needs and larger countywide concerns. This in turn has supported the growth of parent advocacy for the needs of gifted students in many of MCPS’s 202 schools.

Perhaps most importantly, she is a trusted partner to parent and community advocates who have come to trust that even if the answer isn’t what we would like to hear, she will tell us the truth.

Ms. Li Ma Nomination Letter for 2018 Maryland GT Award

Ms. Ma is Lakewood ES PTA VP and parent GT liaison. She started these positions from 2015-16 school year. She remains on the same posts till now. She has been the parent champion for GT education within her school community.

She has been patiently and tirelessly supporting GT education through
- Bringing up issues on homework, mistakes in teaching materials, etc to teachers;
- Organizing PTA events on GT education issues;
- Bridging conversations between the community and the school;

Here is where she truly shines!

In MCPS elementary schools, there are 2 different math programs for 4th graders. Math 4 is for on grade level students and Math 4/5 is for highly able students. Math 4/5 is a program for students to complete full Math 4 and half of Math 5 programs in one year.

While Lakewood ES has a large group of highly able students, there are a large number of students still in need of on grade math. However, in Feb 2016, the previous principal of Lakewood ES made an astonishing decision to put all rising Lakewood ES 4th graders in Math 4/5 program.

Knowing Lakewood ES PARCC score / MAP-M numbers, Ms. Ma had solid evidence that the one-size- fits-all decision was inappropriate. She started from getting parents together to persuade the principal to take better decisions. It did not work out. Parents’ suggestions were pushed back.

In MCPS, it does need tremendous courage for any parent to advocate for GT education. Although Ms. Ma is worried, she did not hesitate to reach out to high level MCPS administrators. In the next 4 months, she had called/met numerous times with
- MCPS elementary integrated curriculum supervisor who overseeing both Math 4 and Math 4/5 programs;
- MCPS office of school support and improvement director who overseeing the school principal;
- MCPS AEI director who overseeing GT education matters in general;
- MCPS associate superintendent who heading the office of curriculum and instructional programs.

She had done superb preparations / studies for those meetings/calls. Even though she is not a native English speaker, she utilized her resource well and had successfully convinced MCPS leaders and gained their support.

Thanks for her courage and persistence, in 2016-2017 school year, Lakewood ES had two Math 4 classes and two Math 4/5 classes.

This is the first principal’s decision on such matters being reversed that I’ve ever known within MCPS.

Having chairing Gifted Child Committee of Montgomery County Council of PTAs for the last few years, I know what a saga it was for Ms. Ma to overcome the hurdles on her way. Ms. Ma has my highest degree of respect. I strongly support her nomination for this recognition. And I believe that this award will benefit MCPS since it could potentially help MCPS parents to work with schools proactively and smoothly.

Mrs. Sellitti Nomination Letter for 2018 Maryland GT Award

Mrs. Sellitti is the 5 th grade English and social science teacher in MCPS Cold Spring ES Center for Enriched Study, used to be called Highly Gifted Center.

In the last ~30 years, her extraordinary experience, knowledge, and passion has shaped more than a generation of gifted students from the local community.

This nomination has been urged by many parents of her students.

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It is a human nature that we admire a wonder when it first appears in front of us and when it is there for years, we would probably ignore it. Mrs. Sellitti is such a wonder, an undoubted leader in GT education. 

In this decade, it is quite unpopular to advocate for GT education. Instead, one-size-fits- all and watering down are the main theme for various curricula in order to artificially close the achievement gap. Such a practice does have negative consequences on GT education. One of these negative consequences is that within MCPS, majority of gifted students entering the gifted program have not been properly trained in writing  even though their math and reading are advanced.

Mrs. Sellitti understands the great importance of addressing the writing deficiency and has taken initiatives in the center. One initiative is to graded students’ writing based on individual’s writing level. The goal is to get a student to see his/her own progress early and then, they can be motivated to make further progress. To me, it is clear that her initiatives are effective. One of the students benefit greatly from Mrs. Sellitti’s initiatives is my daughter who proudly earned her first “A+” in writing last month. Hopefully, some of Mrs. Sellitti’s initiatives can be formally taken into MCPS curriculum.

There is no doubt that the climax of Mrs. Sellitti’s leadership in GT education / community outreach is her infamous annual 5 th grade Shakespeare play, which is slightly abridged / adapted version of the original Shakespeare play.

Each year, the preparation of the play is a month long excitement among students. Parents are extremely supportive. Mrs. Sellitti is the conductor of this big orchestra, ~60 5 th grade center students and parent volunteers. She has been overseeing great number of matters from play script, costume, to many details in multiple rehearsals.

The play is only ~2 hour long. But, it lasts much longer in the memory of students and parents.

In the last decade, the play has been a feast for the community and a great show case of GT education.

20180116 Testimony for MCPS Operating Budget Hearing

Testimony of Lang Lin

Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Association, Gifted Child Committee (MCCPTA, GCC)

January 16, 2018

Good Evening, Dr. Smith, President Durso, and Members of the Board.  I am Lang Lin, sitting chair of Montgomery County Council of PTAs Gifted Child Committee.  15 months ago, I testified before you on behalf of our Committee, parents that we represent, and students that we advocate for, in support of MCPS’s response plan to the Choice Study. 

The students in our community include ~3% county wide in Center/Magnet/IB programs, ~15% county wide in the accelerated Math pathway, ~35% county wide labelled as gifted in the SIPPI process, and whoever is interested in pursuing academic excellence in their 13 years in MCPS.  They are White, Asian, African American, and Hispanic / Latino from all social economic backgrounds.  We have hearts for all students. 

Our community is aware of the budget situation.  In this decade, the total operating budget has been shrunk noticeably at the per student level counting inflation and there has been a constant influx of new students, some of whom are in deep need of help.  Instead of asking for any zero-sum solution, we voiced for inclusion and for transforming MCPS into an effective and efficient public education institution in our last testimony.  

This holiday season, our community was shocked to hear that in the proposed budget, the Division of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction (AEI) was halved and its director position was eliminated.  We have been confused by short PR messages.  Moreover, we are deeply deeply concerned.  

We fear that MCPS leadership does not realize how valuable this small AEI office is for the community and how crucial it is for our students.  So, please allow me to elaborate here from 3 aspects. 

1. The Division of AEI has been the bridge between MCPS and our community. 

Within MCPS, there are numerous programs and pathways serving the needs of the diverse students in our community.  The in-depth information on various programs and pathways sometimes is either not available or not reaching the target students/parents. 

The Division of AEI is the most accessible MCPS office for our community.  Regardless of whether students are in a special program or in an on-grade level classroom, parents can reach out to the AEI office through emails, phone calls, and personal meetings.  AEI personnel including the director have always made themselves available for responding promptly and many times, even for making school visits when both parents and schools need support. 

Overall, our students have diverse needs and program/pathway implementations are always imperfect.  The easy accessibility and high availability of AEI as a bridge is critical for our school system to achieve high level operational performance.  Both our community and MCPS cannot afford to lose the bridge and more importantly, to lose the office which provides a great level of the transparency from various programs and pathways.

2. Interventions from the Division of AEI have been crucial for efficacy and efficiency.  For years, AEI has been working on critically important issues well beyond admission tests and process management as well as small curriculum tweaks.  We have many examples to share.  Here are a few. 

Math 4 and Math 4/5 are two distinct math curricula serving the diverse needs of on grade and advanced students. 

In Spring 2016, MCPS Elementary School #1, which has a large number of students in need of on grade level Math 4 and a similarly large number of students in need of Math 4/5, announced a plan to put all rising 4^th graders into Math 4/5.  Parents were concerned both that on-grade level students might not be ready for the program and that advanced students might be faced with a watered-down program as a result.

In Fall 2017, MCPS Elementary School #2 divided its 23 Math 4/5 students evenly among the 4 fourth grade classrooms, rather that regrouping them together for the math block.  This decision would artificially overload classroom teachers since they must prepare for 2 set of distinct contents/materials each and every day.  And the outcome wouldn’t be desirable.

Both cases have been reported to us by local parents and PTAs in our community.  AEI subject matter experts’ opinions and their interventions through communications and coordination have been vitally important in resolving both situations.  For School #1, in Fall 2016, it has two Math 4 classes and two Math 4/5 classes.  And for School #2, in Spring 2018, it has three Math 4 classes and one dedicated Math 4/5 class.  

These cases manifest how crucial the Division of AEI is.  In the two elementary schools alone (neither of which is an elementary magnet), hundreds of students including on-grade and advanced students get their needs met and teachers won’t be overloaded. 

Besides, there are situations in secondary schools (and not just in the middle school and high school magnets) where AEI has responded to student and parent concerns.  The involvement of AEI was decisive to resolve concerns because of their expertise and because parents knew exactly who to contact for assistance.

Both our community and MCPS need this office of dedicated personnel, who dare to take the leadership and to make the right call at crisis moments, to continue their duty.

                                        

3. Abandoning the Division of AEI, which is a successful model, and to take an unproven pathway at this time, imposes great risks. 

The Division of AEI consists of a group of multi-disciplinary subject matter experts.  Their knowledge, experience, and dedication are precious resources.  With their deep ties to our community, together with the team environment, the Division of AEI has always been able to assess situations raised by families and to provide the right advice and actions.  

Cutting half of AEI’s personnel, embedding them into other top level branches, and quickly splitting their responsibilities among multiple offices are a questionable strategic level decision:

• The loss of multi-disciplinary subject matter expert resource will be irreversible.  It is crystal clear that after being reallocated to other offices, former AEI personnel will not be able to focus on the same issues to the same degree.  
• This change is taking place in the middle of the response plan implementation of the Metis’ Choice Study.  The Division of AEI is at the center of sensitive and critical changes in home elementary and secondary schools as well as in special programs.  AEI’s multi-disciplinary expertise and support experience in professional development and ongoing support are irreplaceable assets directly affecting the outcome.
• Issues that used to be handled by the Division of AEI will be likely handled inefficiently and ineffectively among multiple offices.  Immediately, any school visit that used to be from the Division of AEI will now have to involve people from multiple offices.  

If there is a need for increasing support due to recent program expansions, why not let the AEI office train personnel from other offices?  Why not expand the successful model of the AEI office and make the overall support structure more effective?

We embrace the Superintendent’s vision for expanding programs including those in the response plan of the Choice Study, Career and Technology Education (CTE), STEM subjects, and Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS).  

We are in full support of Dr. Smith and our Board’s vision for pursuing efficacy and efficiency demonstrated in the 5 questions in FY2019 operating budget:

• Are our children learning?
• Are they learning enough to move ahead to the next grade level and be college and career ready?
• How do we know they are learning?
• If they are not learning, why are they not learning?
• What are we going to do about it?

Even though there are great challenges ahead, we strongly believe that pursuing efficacy and efficiency based on the principle of inclusion is a viable path for serving the needs of MCPS’s diverse and growing student body.

We strongly recommend that Dr. Smith and the Board take an extensive look into the successful model of the Division of AEI to fully appreciate how it has, and must continue to, benefit MCPS students.  

Thank you,

Lang Lin, Ph.D.

Chair, MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee

GT Liaison and Delegate, Cold Spring ES PTA