Hi Cap: Lowering the bar | Guest op

BY STACI WHITEHOUSE
For the Kent Reporter

I am a parent of an elementary student in Kent, and as we come to the end of another school year I find myself feeling disappointed to see a new crop of Hi Cap students transfer out of our school.

Off they go to another school because families have come to think that ours cannot accommodate them.

If you are unfamiliar, let me explain.

Hi Cap stands for Highly Capable. The Kent School District tests all students in the second grade as part of districtwide assessments and, in grades 3 through 5, parents can choose to have their child tested. If students score in the top 3 percent in at least one of three areas – verbal, nonverbal or quantitative – they may be selected for the Hi Cap program.

There are seven Hi Cap schools in the school district that 21 other elementary schools feed into. If you test into Hi Cap and your school doesn’t have a Hi Cap program, then you have the option to go to whichever Hi Cap program your school feeds into with transportation provided by the district. And poof, there goes our Highly Capable students, taking their presence and good test scores with them.

This has to frustrate the heck out of the principals of the 21 other schools as they try, each year to hit their mark with test scores. Because it’s all about the test scores, isn’t it? And we handicap them. We expect them to win the game with some of their best players leaving to join another team.

Where I live, there are six schools that feed into our area Hi Cap school. In 2010-2011 the Hi Cap school in our area killed five of the six feeder schools on its Washington State Report Card, outscoring them in nearly every category. One has to wonder if this is because Hi Cap schools skim the cream off the crops of the other schools, leaving them with a “watered down” student body.

I agree with the concept of tiered interventions. This makes sense to me. You group and instruct students based on their ability. Why can we not take it a step further and add a program that accommodates the students who are significantly above grade level, much like the current special ed program for students who are significantly below? Or what happened to skipping a grade if you were really smart?

In a nutshell, I am really bothered that the bar at our school gets lowered each year as a new group of Hi Cap students leave. I know teachers don’t want to hear this. I can just hear the rebuttal now … but come on. You remove competition and possibility.

I know I always run faster with a partner, because I don’t want them to think I’m slow. If we had a system in place that accommodated Highly Capable students so they could stay in their home school, wouldn’t other students rise to a higher challenge, simply because the possibility is there?

I have been nosing around my circle of parent friends trying to see if anyone can convince me that this is a good idea, and all I am getting is that some students need to be “challenged” more.

So educators, can we figure out a way to accommodate Hi Cap kids without yanking them out of their school? This current system just doesn’t make sense to me.