Collaborating and Advocating With Administrators: The Arkansas Gifted Education Administrators’ Story

Ann Robinson

Imagine this scene. During a stormy February, more than 800 gifted educators met in Hot Springs, AR, at the annual conference of the state gifted association. The attendees were primarily gifted and talented facilitators and classroom teachers, with a sprinkling of parents. Suddenly, a call came in from Little Rock, the state capitol. That morning, a legislator introduced a bill into a committee to change the state definition of giftedness and to prescribe the kinds of programming options possible to districts. The implications of the proposed legislation were significant. School programs, which had been vetted previously by the courts in a desegregation case, were likely to require modification, thus opening the door for years of additional court hearings. Massive changes in the state’s program approval standards would be necessary—particularly at risk were the inclusive identification standards. There was a possibility that the curriculum would be prescribed and evaluated by grade-level achievement tests.

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