[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 130 (Monday, September 22, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11754-S11756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Cochran):
  S. 1638. A bill to amend title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965 
to increase teacher familiarity with the educational needs of gifted 
and talented students, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to help 
prepare new teachers to recognize and meet the needs of gifted and 
talented students. As many of my colleagues are aware, I have been 
working for some time to advance a comprehensive approach aimed at 
improving access to gifted and talented educational services in every 
State. My proposal has been introduced in this Congress as S. 501. 
While I will continue to work to enact this needed legislation, the 
bill I am introducing today addresses the different but related need to 
raise awareness among all teachers about the unique educational needs 
of gifted and talented students.
  Unfortunately, many misconceptions persist about the needs of gifted 
children in both the educational community and in public policy 
circles. There is often a tendency to think of gifted kids as those 
kids who will succeed with or without help. This is simply not the case 
and reflects a misunderstanding of giftedness. What makes a child 
gifted and talented is not how well the child does in school, but how 
he or she learns. A student may get straight A's and not be a gifted 
learner, while a gifted and talented student might do poorly on his or 
her schoolwork. Gifted and talented children actually have a different 
way of looking at the world. They tend to have distinct approaches to 
learning and interacting socially, and they frequently learn at a 
different pace, and to different depths, than others their age. The 
bottom line is that gifted and talented children have unique learning 
needs that need to be met in order for them to succeed in school.
  Earlier this year, when I re-introduced my bill to expand the 
availability of gifted education services, I told the Senate about a 
third grade student from Iowa City names Jose. I would like to remind 
the Senate about Jose's experience because I think it illustrates some 
important points about gifted students and their needs. Jose wasn't 
completing his assignments and his grades were suffering. He had 
trouble paying attention and would act up in class. He got along with 
his classmates, but didn't have much social interaction with others. 
Jose's teacher tried to get him to pay attention and do his work like 
the other kids, but was left frustrated. Still, Jose's parents 
recognized in him a real hunger for learning and had his IQ tested over 
the summer. It turns out that, while Jose's teacher saw him as a 
problem student, the problems she noticed were really symptoms of a 
gifted student who was bored because he was not being properly 
challenged. Jose now leaves his regular classroom a couple of times a 
week for what Iowa City schools call the ``extended learning program.'' 
As a result of the added stimulation he now receives, Jose enjoys 
school more, has made friends

[[Page S11755]]

with his gifted peers, and is doing great with his regular school work.
  Jose's experience is more than just a success story showing how 
quality gifted education services can make a real difference for a 
child. It also illustrates that gifted students have real needs that 
can all too easily go unrecognized and unmet. Moreover, Jose' 
experience highlights the need for teachers to understand the 
characteristics of gifted kids. In Jose's case, he had parents who were 
able to recognize his gifts and have him assessed privately. Jose's 
parents were then able to take these findings to the gifted education 
teacher at Jose's school and have him identified to receive gifted 
education services. Had his former teacher been able to recognize the 
indications of giftedness, she could have referred him for services 
earlier and she would have been better able to help him succeed in the 
regular classroom.

  I would like to cite another real-life example; this time of a 12-
year-old girl from Shenandoah, IA named Leah. Leah has two parents with 
a high school education who work hard to provide for her, but they 
don't have much discretionary income. Her parents want her to be 
successful, but they rely on the public school system to meet her 
educational needs. Leah came to school able to read, but was a very 
quiet child so no one noticed anything exceptional about her. A year 
later, the first grade teacher caught Leah reading in the coat closet 
and realized that she could read exceptionally well. Leah's teacher 
referred her to the gifted and talented teacher and she has thrived in 
the gifted and talented program ever since. Leah's experiences have 
been limited by her circumstances. She lives in a small town in rural 
south-west Iowa and has not traveled farther than Des Moines or Omaha. 
Leah hasn't grown up with every advantage, yet she is lucky to have had 
an astute classroom teacher who recognized her abilities. Leah now has 
access to a quality gifted education program of services that includes 
a specially trained teacher available to help Leah develop her gifts.
  While Leah is another success story, it is easy to see the important 
role that teachers played in her experience. It is important to 
remember that gifted and talented students come from all backgrounds 
and can be found in any community. A gifted student could be the child 
of a single mom working three jobs, the child of recent immigrants, or 
a foster child. I've even heard stories of a gifted child in Iowa who 
missed school because her parents had her begging for money on the 
streets. Not all gifted children have parents who are equipped to 
recognize their child's gifts or have the resources and ability to see 
that their child gets the services he or she needs to be successful. 
That is why it is so important that classroom teachers have some 
understanding of how to identify gifted kids and how to meet their 
needs while they are in the regular classroom. It is impossible to know 
how many gifted students are overlooked because their teachers do not 
know how to recognize the signs of giftedness or are unprepared to deal 
with the unique needs that gifted kids have. While Iowa requires school 
districts to provide gifted and talented services, a great many school 
districts in many States have little or no programs for gifted kids. 
Moreover, according to the federally funded National Research Center on 
the Gifted and Talented, the large majority of gifted and talented 
students spend at least 80 percent of their time in a regular education 
classroom. As a result, it is vital that all teachers have at least 
basic knowledge and skills to address gifted students' learning needs. 
However, a national survey of third and fourth grade teachers by the 
National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented found that 61 
percent had no training whatsoever in teaching highly able students.
  Ultimately, all teachers should have at least some exposure to the 
characteristics of gifted and talented students and strategies to 
address their needs. Yet, only one State currently requires regular 
classroom teachers to have coursework in gifted education. Some of the 
techniques used in classrooms to accommodate gifted kids include 
differentiated curriculum, cluster grouping, and accelerated learning. 
The time to make sure teachers have the necessary knowledge is when 
prospective teachers are in their pre-service training programs. If 
teachers aren't exposed to information about the needs of gifted 
students in their pre-service training, they may never acquire the 
necessary knowledge. Title II of the Higher Education Act already 
contains grants designed to enhance the quality of teacher preparation 
programs. My bill would simply add allowable uses to these existing 
grants to provide an incentive for States and teacher training programs 
to incorporate the needs of gifted and talented students into teacher 
preparation and licensure requirements.
  Under current law, Title II State grants are awarded directly to 
States and are to be used to reform State teacher preparation 
requirements. The law lists seven potential reforms under the allowable 
uses for grant funds. The first three allowable uses include: 
strengthening State requirements for teacher preparation programs to 
ensure teachers are highly competent in their respective academic 
content areas, reforming certification and licensure requirements with 
respect to competency in content areas, and providing alternatives to 
traditional teacher preparation programs. My legislation would add 
another allowable use, referencing these three reforms, to encourage 
States to incorporate a focus on the learning needs of gifted ant 
talented students into reforms of State requirements for teacher 
preparation programs, reforms of State certification and licensure 
requirements, or new alternative teacher preparation programs. In 
addition, my bill would add a new allowable use so that States could 
use grant funds to create or expand new-teacher mentoring programs on 
the needs of gifted and talented students. This way, new teachers could 
learn from veteran teachers about how to identify classroom indicators 
of giftedness and provide appropriate instruction to gifted students.
  My bill would also add language to the Partnership Grants, which 
provide funds to partnerships among teacher preparation institutions, 
school of arts and sciences, and high-need school districts to 
strengthen new teacher education. These grants come with three required 
uses, including reforming teacher preparation programs to ensure 
teachers are highly competent in academic content areas, providing pre-
service clinical experience, and creating opportunities for enhanced 
and ongoing professional development. One allowable use for which a 
partnership may use funds is preparing teachers to work with diverse 
populations, including individuals with disabilities and limited 
English proficient individuals. To this section, my legislation would 
add gifted and talented students. Recognizing that every teacher will 
have gifted students in his or her classroom, my bill would also add a 
new allowable use so that teacher preparation programs could use the 
funds to infuse teacher coursework with units on the characteristics of 
high-ability learners. In other words, the idea is not to require 
additional courses, but rather to discuss how to accommodate for the 
needs of gifted students throughout the teacher preparation curriculum 
when new teachers are learning how to present lessons.
  My bill does not create a new grant program or require new funds. It 
simply provides an incentive through existing grant programs that will 
encourage States and teacher preparation programs to improve the 
knowledge of new teachers about the unique needs of gifted and talented 
students. New teachers will encounter gifted and talented students. It 
is important they know how to recognize them and how to help them 
succeed. As we have seen with Jose and Leah, having a teacher that 
understands a child's needs can make a huge difference. In fact, it can 
mean the difference between a child hating school and a child loving 
school; a child falling behind, and a child succeeding beyond all 
expectations. When a gifted child is left behind, the loss of human 
potential is tragic. We may not know what we are missing, but it is 
more than we can afford to lose. The legislation I have proposed today 
is a relatively modest step that could have a tremendous impact. I urge 
my colleagues to join me in this effort.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.

[[Page S11756]]

  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1638

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. AMENDMENT TO TITLE II OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT 
                   OF 1965.

       (a) State Grants.--Section 202(d) of the Higher Education 
     Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1022(d)) is amended by adding at the 
     end the following:
       ``(8) Gifted and talented students.--Incorporating the 
     learning needs of gifted and talented students into the 
     activity described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) in order to 
     ensure that new teachers possess basic knowledge and skills 
     necessary to meet the educational needs of gifted and 
     talented students.
       ``(9) New-teacher mentoring on the needs of gifted and 
     talented students.--Establishing or expanding new-teacher 
     mentoring and assessment programs (including induction and 
     evaluation programs) that are a part of the licensure process 
     that includes the development of a portfolio produced by the 
     new teacher, under the supervision and guidance of a veteran 
     teacher mentor, which is designed to demonstrate that the new 
     teacher possesses basic knowledge of the classroom indicators 
     of giftedness, is able to identify student learning 
     differences among gifted students, and is able to provide 
     instruction to accommodate such differences.''.
       (b) Partnership Grants.--Section 203(e) of the Higher 
     Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1023(e)) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and limited English 
     proficient individuals'' and inserting ``, limited English 
     proficient individuals, and gifted and talented students''; 
     and
       (2) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(5) Gifted and talented students.--Increasing the 
     knowledge and skills of preservice teachers participating in 
     activities under subsection (d) in the educational and 
     related needs of gifted and talented students by, among other 
     strategies, infusing teacher coursework with units on the 
     characteristics of high-ability learners, using assessments 
     to identify preexisting knowledge and skills among students, 
     and developing teaching strategies that are driven by the 
     learner's progress.''.
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