WKU News

Thanks to a generous gift from Sue and Brown Badgett, the J. Rogers Badgett, Sr. Foundation, and the James Graham Brown Foundation, The Center for Gifted Studies at WKU is able to offer professional learning opportunities to two cohorts of elementary and middle school principals. The learning sessions, meals, and hotel accommodations are all free to qualifying principals.

To register or learn more, visit https://www.wku.edu/gifted/equitycohort/.

About the Cohorts

The recent global pandemic has highlighted racial and economic inequities in many areas of schooling, including opportunities for advanced learning. Inequity in gifted education suggests that we are missing a large percentage of students whose potential may remain untapped and whose contributions may never be realized.

The Center is currently inviting elementary and middle school principals who are committed to learning more about finding and serving students with high potential from racially, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically different populations to join this Cohort. Participants will engage in lively discussions with national experts and other passionate elementary principals focused on cultivating equity and access to advanced learning.

Who Should Attend?

School principals who want to take intentional and deliberate actions to address equity and access to advanced learning in their schools should join this Cohort. The Cohort provides school leaders with a safe, collaborative and action-oriented learning space for courageous conversations about these very important issues.

Topics Explored

Participants will have the opportunity to engage with gifted education experts focusing on issues of equity and access.

Topics that will be explored:

• What do the data show about the percentage of students from minority and low-income backgrounds who perform at advanced levels?

• What are barriers to equity in identification and services for students with high ability?

• What promising practices can be implemented that will increase the number of students from minority and low-income backgrounds who are identified and provided with opportunities for advanced learning?

• How can schools ensure that high ability minority and low-income students are prepared for, have access to, and feel comfortable in advanced programs?

Dates and Details

Cohort members will participate in two face-to–face meetings at the Augenstein Alumni Center in Bowling Green, KY.

Elementary Principals

September 15-16 and October 20-21, 2021. Sessions begin at 1:30 p.m. CT on day one and end at 11:30 a.m. CT on day two.

Middle School Principals

September 16-17 and October 21-22, 2021. Sessions begin at 1:30 p.m. CT on day one and end at 11:30 a.m. CT on day two.

Featured Consultant – April Wells

April Wells is a national educational consultant, conference presenter, and author whose message centers around the equity imperative. She is the Gifted Coordinator in Illinois School District U-46, where she facilitated the redesign of the District’s gifted program. Her work has served as inspiration for other organizations highlighting universal screening, talent development and the use of local norms for gifted programming. Her interests focus on equity pedagogy, underrepresented learners, developing gifted continuum of services and providing instructional supports that allow students to maximize their pursuits. She received one of the 2018 Gifted Coordinator Awards from the National Association for Gifted Children.

Her first book, Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping Potential was published in January 2020. Copies will be provided for all participants.

Contact: Jesse Knifley, jesse.knifley@wku.edu or 270-745-3014