Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education
Gifted Education Bills currently before the state legislature
Representatives James Kelcourse and Meghan Kilcoyne have co-filed the gifted education bills we have been working on for the 2021-2022 legislative session.
Now is the time for you to contact your state legislators to ask them to support these bills.
We can help you reach out. These legislators have co-sponsored these bills so far: Co-sponsors
UPDATE: H.641, H.642, H645, and H.646 had their public hearing on June 11th, 2021.
THANK YOU to all the public commenters speaking in support of these bills!
2021-2022 legislative session bills
H.641 An Act relative to Academic Acceleration for K-12 Students
H.642 An Act relative to Educator Training on Gifted Children and their Needs
H.644 An Act relative to Equity and Inclusion in Education
H.645 An Act relative to Computer-Adaptive Assessments in K-12 Education
H.1706 An Act prohibiting Age Discrimination within the Public Schools of the Commonwealth
H.646 An Act providing for the Education of gifted and beyond-grade level children in the public schools of the Commonwealth
MA Gifted Study
As a result of successful advocacy work in 2017-2018, funding for a gifted study was appropriated by the Massachusetts legislature and signed by Governor Baker. This study has been released in August 2019, see the full report.
This study report has led to the reinstatement of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Gifted and Talented Education Advisory Council, which started meeting in March 2020.
" ...provided further, that not less than $50,000 shall be expended by the department to study and report on a policy and practice review, along with a needs assessment, regarding education in the public schools, of the children who are capable of achieving beyond the age-based grades and those who are gifted as defined by federal law;.."
From the Conclusions of the report:
"The current approach of Massachusetts, with few gifted programs and not much attention to gifted education, is not serving students well. The Commonwealth can and should take actions to make certain that all students, including advanced and gifted students of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic characteristics, have opportunities to engage in meaningful learning and rise to their potential. Massachusetts will benefit from unleashing the untapped potential of high-achieving students.
As should be clear, Massachusetts is an outlier in the country in its hands-off approach to identifying and serving gifted students."
The report recommends the creation of a statewide task force, which will:
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Define giftedness and measures to assess giftedness;
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Determine the most effective way to collect data on gifted students; and
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Consider best practices of other states and districts.
The report also urges the state to:
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Establish state policy and guidelines on acceleration;
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Track and report on the excellence gap; identify and implement strategies to close it.
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Include instruction on the learning needs of gifted students as part of teacher training for all teachers; and
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Hire staff at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with expertise in gifted students and gifted education.
These findings and recommendations are highly consistent with MAGE's bills in the legislature. All of these recommendations and findings substantiate what MAGE has known for a long time.
Thank you to all of you who sent their input to the study researcher!
Thank you for making your voice heard! Now make sure your legislators know about this study, from you!
Federal Law Highlight
ESSA Creates Opportunities for Parent Advocates
For the first time in history, our main U.S. education law, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in December 2015, now includes provisions that support gifted and talented students.
There are specifically enumerated provisions to support gifted and talented learners in both Title I and Title II of ESSA.
Administrators may not be aware of these provisions yet, your teachers and educators may need to be educated about these new requirements and allowable uses of funds.
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Title I funds may be used to support eligible Title I gifted and talented learners.
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Title II money must be used to help teachers support gifted and talented students.
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For a full explanation of these new provisions, please read this summary.
For general Q&A, as well as specific provisions, please visit these links:
Resources and Data Collections
For full reports, click on titles.
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Report on Excellence Gap "Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities"
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Civil Rights Data Collection: Education Access Data from our Public Schools
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Report on above-grade students: "How can so many students be invisible?"
ADVOCACY
MAGE Gifted Education Advocacy
Because Massachusetts is in the bottom few states in the nation for gifted education, our brightest students need our help.
There are no laws, requirements, recommendations, support, or funding for gifted education from the state.
It is no wonder that less than 3% of our schools have programs for gifted and talented students and many of those are struggling to provide those students with an education that is commensurate with their abilities.
Therefore, MAGE has a very active advocacy committee.
MAGE Advocacy works on the state level by engaging with:
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the Massachusetts legislature
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the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and
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the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE)
We are a team of dedicated volunteers made up of people from all walks of life who care about the education of our state's brightest children. We believe that the state should help these children get an appropriate education.