Huge turnout for Gifted Education Day in Olympia

On February 11, 2011, Gifted Education Day was commemorated on the Capitol campus by students, parents, teachers, and administrators from all around the state. Edmonds School District made an impressive showing with more than 150 people in attendance, most of them from the Challenge program at Terrace Park school. Students from the new middle school highly capable program at Brier Terrace Middle School, as well as students in the high school programs and even the UW’s Robinson Center students attended to voice their support for continued state funding of gifted programming and of full implementation of the state’s Education Reform Act.

Edmonds School District continues to provide appropriate programs for students on all points of the academic spectrum, despite continued reductions in funding from the state. The district recognizes the importance of identifying gifted students from all its service communities in order to provide them with the curricula and school environments that allow them to achieve their potentials.

Research has shown that gifted students who are not provided with curricula that challenges them and classmates who are their academic peers are more likely drop out of school and develop problems requiring a variety of social service interventions. This is a very high-risk population requiring a small investment in a tailored educational experience now that pays off in huge dividends by way of welleducated, competent and confident young adults who pursue the pinnacles of success in all areas of business, research, and humanitarian endeavors. The added costs of meeting the needs of these children in no way approaches what our state and humankind stand to gain from this modest investment.

By attending the annual Gifted Education Day activities at the State Capitol, students learn not only how our state government works, but how they can have a say in that government. And our elected representatives get a unique opportunity to put 150 plus faces on the decisions they are making on the floor of the House and Senate.

For more information about the Challenge Program at Terrace Park School, visit http://www.challengeparents.org/.

Ingrid Fosberg, a fourth grade student in the Challenge Program in Edmonds School District reads a letter to 1 st District Representatives Luis Moscoso (left) and Derek Stanford (right) during Gifted Education Day activities at the State Capitol.
1 st District Senator Rosemary McAuliffe addresses students, parents, teachers, and administrators from the Gifted/Highly-Capable programs of the Edmonds School District on Gifted Education Day, commemorated annually at the State Capitol.
21 st District Senator Paull Shin takes time to meet individual students from the Highly Capable programs in the Edmonds School District following a group meeting on Gifted Education Day in Olympia.
21 st District Senator Paull Shin takes time to meet individual students from the Highly Capable programs in the Edmonds School District following a group meeting on Gifted Education Day in Olympia.

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