Madison United for Academic Excellence

Research - Summaries of research on topics related to gifted education, including ability grouping, identification, and the social and emotional needs of academically advanced students

In the News - Articles from the popular press on issues related to the educational needs of high ability students.

Legal Issues - Ongoing issues with the state regarding student identification and services for talented and gifted students.

School Information System - A Madison community blog that comments on education both locally and nationally

Curriculum - Discussion of MMSD curriculum issues including math, middle school redesign, small learning communities and AP course offerings

MMSD Budget - Current budget issues as well as links to prior years' budget items, controversies and hot topics

Links - A listing of local, regional, and national resources such as WCATY, WATG, and NAGC

What's New

Note: The window for filing applications to enroll your student(s) in a different MMSD school or a different school district entirely begins this week. (Note: the District is now paying close attention to the number of transfer applications it receives.) If you do not think your student's educational needs are being met and you see no prospect of change, you might want to consider it. Learn more here:
- Policy 423 (intra-district transfer): http://oldweb.madison.k12.wi.us/policies/4023.htm
- Policy 425 (out-of-district transfer): http://boeweb.madison.k12.wi.us/policies/4025
- http://infosvcweb.madison.k12.wi.us/enrollment
- http://dpi.wi.gov/sms/psctoc.html
- http://infosvcweb.madison.k12.wi.us/node/955

The most recent issue of Gifted Child Quarterly provides an update on the myths about gifted education."The Myths of Gifted Education: A Contemporary View" a special issue of Gifted Child Quarterly (published by SAGE) is available free for a limited time. A podcast interview with the editor about the differences (or not) in the myths since 1982 is also available.

Current News

17 November 2009 - More than 150 people attended Tuesday night's community meeting to introduce the new MMSD Talented and Gifted Plan!

For an overview of the plan and more information, visit our information page.

On August 17, 2009, the Board of Education approved the District's proposed TAG Plan. We have more information here.

17 March 2009 - The National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) has approved a formal position statement on grouping.

Old News

15 December 2008 - MMSD is recruiting community members to serve on a TAG advisory group. More information is available here.

12 December 2008 - Our December meeting featured a presentation from Jackie Drummer on Advocacy. Jackie was kind enough to share her slides, and these two handouts: Advocating for your child and the Principal's Differentiation Rubric.

The December issue of Parenting for High Potential is devoted to the issue of parent advocacy. One article Advocating for Our Future is available online.

1 October 2008 - With help from the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, WCATY will provide test fee waivers for all free and reduced lunch students who are eligible to participate in the Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS).

To register your school for this opportunity. Please contact Carole.Trone@wcaty.org

30 June 2008 - It is with great sadness that we report the loss of MMSD TAG resource teacher Ted Widerski.

28 February 2008 - We are trying something new with our collection of news articles. We are using del.icio.us to track and organize published news stories from across the web.

28 January 2008 - Dr. Daniel Nerad chosen as next MMSD superintendent.
- For those interested, you can read the letter we sent in August 2008 to our new Superintendent.
Growing Up Online - PBS Frontline Series about kids and the internet can be viewed online.

We have updated our Math in the Madison schools pages in the aftermath of the release of the report by the district's Math Task Force.

We now have a graphic that shows what has happened to TAG spending in the District over the last five years along with total District spending.

If you are interested in examining WKCE raw scores and percentile scores, you can check out this document that compares scores from 2004/05 and 2005/06. You should realize that because the major purpose of the test is to discriminate between basic and proficient levels of ability, the test scores are less reliable at either end of the distribution, i.e., the standard errors of measurement are larger (2-3x larger).

(more old news)

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