Yikes. He's big on differentiation... a grandiose philosophy that is big on rhetoric, easy to fake, and incredibly light on accountability. Bummer.

I really don't like that the onus of providing gifted education is placed on teachers through differentiation. There are techniques such as ability grouping, cluster grouping, and magnet classrooms that can help with diverse ability levels but these are rarely used in RCS. The curriculum compacting he mentioned is a valid gifted education technique and one I hope he would bring to this district, but it still places the burden on the teacher. We need to look at what can the district do on a district level to support gifted students, not just putting it all on teachers and providing some training.

That is why it is important to me that we have a superintendent whose response goes beyond differentiation. It seems inane to go to a teacher and ask for 5 minutes a day spent on my daughter who already knows 80% of the math curriculum but needs some help with math she typically would cover next year when the boy next to her is far behind and really could use 5 extra minutes. But there are techniques at the school and district level that could be used instead of telling teachers "Differentiate harder!" When these techniques are rarely used, what message does that send to our teachers about a commitment to every student growing?

There is a good article about this at http://llwcontemplations.blogspot.com/2012/05/teachers-cant-do-it-all.html