Use Your Voice And Get Involved!
Advocate
NEW! Follow Hot Topics and Stay Informed - Go Here!
Now is not the time to throw up our hands and forget about thinking strategically. The pandemic may have upended education, but it has also provided an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine our schools. Now is actually the best time to get involved, speak up, and push for reforms that will improve public education for our children.
The best way to support gifted education is to be informed and to participate. Here are key links to information about San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) and the GATE program, plus some ways you can take action.
Opportunities to Help GATE - What Things Can YOU Do?
- Elections have consequences so do your research and vote wisely! Get to know your BoE trustees (including the 2 new student trustees for this year who are both Seminar). While the number of GATE-identified students has fallen steadily, there are currently about 11,500 GATE-identified students in grades 3-12 in our District, which is not a small constituency. We need candidates with extensive GATE experience, and who understand & support GATE!
- Participate in the school district GATE District Advisory Committee (ask your Principal who your school representative is and volunteer if there isn't one). Step up and volunteer to be on the executive team of the GATE DAC to organize our meetings and work with District staff.
- Get involved in the LCAP. The current three-year LCAP (2021-22 through 2023-24) is ending and a brand new 3-year plan will be developed this year. Parent involvement is a requirement in this process so you will have opportunities to advocate for GATE.
- Get involved in the development of the new SDUSD Vision 2030 - the District's update of its next 10-year vision. [COVID Update: This process was delayed due to the pandemic but is resuming]. Consider how GATE fits into the 9 Building Blocks common to world-class education systems (the District has chosen those building blocks as the foundation of the new Vision). Email your questions, comments, or concerns to gate@sandi.net
- Get to know the new Circular Model that the District is using under our new leadership - Superintendent Dr. Lamont Jackson and Deputy Superintendent Fabiola Bagula. There are plenty of entry points and talking points available to GATE advocates within the new plan and values statements. Use their language and show how the new Values/Vision/Model can be used to support gifted/2e students. Keep them accountable for meeting the needs of ALL students.
- Join an advocacy organization and help fund their important work e.g., California Association for the Gifted (CAG) or National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) or Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG). More resources here.
- Participate in the CA School Parent Survey (CSPS) as part of CalSCHLS - the California School Climate, Social-Emotional & Mental Health, and Learning Supports & Engagement process. Ask your Principal for details and read more about it below.
- Attend local or national GATE conferences to learn more about GATE (they usually have special programming just for parents). Check out CAG or SENG or NAGC conferences or the District’s GATE Distinguished Lecture.
- Get together and network with other GATE parents – we are stronger together! Join the SDGATE Facebook group.
Board of Education (BoE)
Where you live determines who your SDUSD BoE member is. There are 5 Districts (A-E). You can attend BoE meetings and provide public testimony. Board presentations and handouts are archived on the BoardDocs tab on the BoE webpage. Find out more here.
San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE)
With an annual operating budget of nearly $600 million, the San Diego County Office of Education offers support services — in the way of budget oversight, curriculum development and teacher training — to the region’s districts. The office also operates schools for foster youth, severely disabled students, the homeless and those in juvenile hall.
Area Superintendents
In 2023 SDUSD did a reorganization and hired new Area Superintendents. There are now 5 who are responsible for the schools and issues in their designated Area plus one specifically for middle schools and one for high schools. They are in charge of the Principals, so now that Principals have all the power to decide what GATE classes are provided in schools, the Area Supers are key people who should understand the importance of gifted education. Go to your Cluster meetings and talk to them about GATE. There are 5 Areas that are based on the high school "clusters". Find out more about the Area Superintendents here. The school district administration is explained here.
High School Clusters
SDUSD schools are organized into 16 "clusters". Each one consists of a high school and all the middle and elementary schools that feed into it. Some clusters even have foundations associated with them that you can become involved with. Attending your cluster meetings is very informative and your Principal, BoE member and Area Superintendent often participate so it is a good opportunity to interact with them and find out what is happening in your neighborhood schools. Find out more here.
GATE Program & Policies
The SDUSD GATE program website is here. In grade 2 all students are universally screened using the short CogAT screening form (not the full version) and other factors to determine eligibility (unless parents opt out). Gifted students may be identified as either "GATE Cluster" or "Seminar". depending on how they score. Appeals are handled by the Principal at your child's school.
Identified students must attend the GATE program offered at their own neighborhood school (unless there isn't one) or use the School Choice application during the open enrollment in October to request to change schools. GATE classes are taught by GATE-certified teachers who differentiate the depth, complexity, and rigor of the curriculum to suit the needs of the GATE-identified students in their class.
The BoE approved administrative procedures (policies) that guide the GATE program can be found here (scroll down to Series 6000 Instruction and find the link to BP6172 and AR6172).
As of 2023, the GATE program falls into the new Equity, Access & Opportunity department and is the responsibility of the Senior Director of Humanities (Maria Montgomery). Since 2017 there is no longer any central GATE office or GATE Manager due to budget cuts. The District subsequently moved to a "site-based model" for GATE, where each Principal is in charge of their own GATE program.
Questions/concerns should first be directed to your school Principal, before contacting the central administration at gate@sandi.net or calling them at 619-725-7242
LCAP - Local Control and Accountability Plan
California changed the way that public school districts are funded when it passed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) legislation in 2013 (for more detail, see an LCFF Guide here). That ended the categorical funding "buckets" - including the one that earmarked money to support GATE programming - and it also repealed the Education Code pertaining to GATE (see the history of these changes here). Now it is up to each local school district to decide how to spend its own funding, and whether or not to fund GATE. Districts do this via their LCAP, which is a 3-year planning document that outlines the District's priorities and plans for funding them. The CAPTA (California State PTA) has a very informative webpage for parents about LCAP here.
School year 2023-24 is the last year of SD Unified's current LCAP so development of the next 3-year plan (that begins next school year) underway. This is the most critical way for GATE parents to advocate for gifted programs. If the District does not include strong protections to support GATE in the LCAP then it will cease to exist. Get involved in the GATE DAC and actively participate in LCAP planning/development to help protect GATE. See this handout prepared by CAG that explains LCFF and suggests questions you can ask the District about how it is including GATE in meeting California's 8 State Priorities. Use this information to help you formulate feedback on the District's proposed 2020-23 LCAP.
SDUSD Reports and Data - You can access data by school or by cluster by selecting "District Reports" on the Research and Evaluation Department website. It compiles, processes, analyzes, and reports student, school, and district achievement, assessment, demographic, and other data. District "Fast Facts" are here. The tables of demographics from 2014 to the present show the trend towards a decreasing number of GATE Cluster and Seminar students in District-managed schools. Those tables can be found in our Downoads section found here. Here is a quick summary for 2022-23:
Grades K to 12 Fall Enrollment Data
School Year 2022-23
DISTRICT-MANAGED SCHOOLS SUMMARY
(GATE Data are for Grades 3-12)
Student Group, N, (% of total)
Gifted-Identified, Seminar 3,097 (4.5%)
Gifted-Identified, Cluster 8,472 (12.3%)
Not Gifted-Identified 57,460 (83.2%)
California School Dashboard - Now you can search on any school using the new California Department of Education Dashboard and call up reports describing how districts, schools (including charter schools and alternative schools), and student groups are performing across state and local measures. Note that GATE students are not broken out as a student group in these reports but CAG is now working with legislators to get that changed. State measures include chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate, and academic (which includes performance in English language arts/literacy and mathematics). Future state measures will include performance on the new California Science Test (CAST). Local measures are reported by school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools based on data available only at the local level. These measures include clean and safe buildings, school climate, parent engagement, and access to a broad course of study.
California School Climate, Health, and Learning Survey (CalSCHLS) - A tool supported by the California Department of Education to help districts meet LCAP priorities to improve school climate, pupil engagement, parent involvement, and academic achievement. Provides school districts and their partner communities with quality local data which can be used to improve student academic performance and social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health of all youth. Includes 3 different surveys: CA Healthy Kid Survey; CA School Staff Survey; CA School Parent Survey. The reports available here include the School Climate Report Cards and results of the CSPS.
Relevant to GATE parents is the California School Parent Survey (CSPS) which is an annual online survey for every parent/guardian of students in grades TK-12. CSPS identifies the high priority needs and concerns of parents that schools should address in promoting greater involvement. The short survey provides a means to confidentially obtain:
- parent perceptions about the school's learning environment
- school climate (e.g., safety, bullying, substance abuse, meaningful participation, etc.)
- student supports
- parent outreach and involvement efforts (e.g., how welcoming, communicative)
Every GATE parent needs to fill out this CSPS survey each year! This will ensure that GATE issues are part of the conversation at your school site and in the District (e.g., how are supplemental and concentrations funds being spent to support GATE? Did your school have 2 GATE Parent Meetings per year as required? How well is the school communicating with GATE parents? Are GATE parents being given opportunities to provide meaningful feedback on the GATE program at your school? Does your school site have a parent representative actively participating in the GATE DAC? Is the GATE Program Summary that describes the GATE program at your school up-to-date? Is it being followed?)
Parent participation in the CSPS survey is very poor (only 31%) and GATE parents in particular have not been using this important opportunity to make their voices heard. Ask your Principal about when this year's CSPS survey will be coming out - and participate!