HiCap Parents Council Meeting
via Zoom
Apr. 5, 2021
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
1. Amity Updates on Parent education & discussion - Chapter 1 from Misdiagnosis & Dual Diagnosis
a. Council: Some think this book fits their kids. Some think some chapters are more helpful than whole book overwhelming reading.
b. Council: This book is a general one. It does not provide more guidance details to more gifted kids.
2. Amity Updates on Parent education & discussion - Suggested reading for next meeting?
a. Austina: book list resource: nwgca.org/books.html
b. Council: hard to know where to start because of overwhelming. The key is to find a way on where to start. We might need to bubble recent research, ask the trained person for checking and so on.
c. Council and Amity agree with social development topic for next meeting.
3. Amity Updates on Testing
a. Super successful in grade 5, 6 and 7.
b. Almost complete in grade 4.
c. Wednesday, 21 in April after spring break for grade 2 and 3.
d. Austina: what about 1st grade plan?
e. Amity: planning to have them take a test in buildings from first 5 schools. We have detailed plans, like day A or day B, 8 – 10 students a test room, 30 minutes, parents pick up and so on.
f. Amity: for kids missing a test for any reason, they can come back to retake the test in this summer.
g. Austina: no space in the summer?
h. Amity: the available number is estimated from that last year.
4. Amity Updates on EAP services remote & hybrid
a. pleased with flexibility wired up with teachers. We share students crossing buildings.
b. We have conversations discussing on different strategies for varied buildings. For instance, some building cannot create remote and hybrid at the same time; some building has overflow issue.
c. We have solutions on how to apply ingenuity and services to solve remote & hybrid models.
5. Brainstorm: Possible priorities for NSD HiCap improvements
a. Continue the work on math trajectory across the district, middle and high levels, consistent across the district
b. High school common course catalog that is clear what student is doing in each class, depth, breadth, consistent across the district. How many books/plays reading, which classes are offering help with college essays, etc.
c. Elementary access to challenging coursework for inschool hicap services
d. Math acceleration for 2nd & 3rd grade for inschool hicap services
e. English qualifiers for inschool hicap services
f. HiCap library support for Reading qualifiers in elementary
g. In addition to access to more challenging materials, but also learn to digest those materials, not just reading solo
h. HiCap specific curricula in middle schools
i. Training for MS & HS counselors
j. Training for teachers, including both EAP/AAP as well as inschool elementary and high school
k. Great list of books for elementary & middle classroom libraries for hicap kids
l. Alignment across middle school and high school course trajectories
m. Parent support for single subject qualifiers – finding each other, building community, parents support each other. There is no class list for single qualifiers.
n. Stronger writing support in elementary & middle school. We need a structured writing curriculum. Kids not prepared for rigor in writing in high school. Need focus on scientific writing. Not purely a hicap issue.
o. Mentors for teachers
p. EAP math curriculum. Beast Academy?
q. Transition/coordination between 5th grade and middle school. Springboard workbook used in both 5th grade and 6th grade…
r. Expectations of 8th grader vs. a 9th grader. Big jump in expectations.
6. Amity Update on High school course description updates
a. Amity updated the progress: each district provides content area, course description for all schools. And we compared, went through them together.
b. Council question: do you have any update history for review?
c. Answer from Amity: I can ask. I can see the history on changes.
d. Council answer: Maybe there is a good reason we do not see.
e. Feedback from council: Some ask science to align, we need to respond.
f. Feedback from council: AP courses are not called AP courses anymore. This is problematic. We need specific title like AP or CHS.
g. Feedback from council: We need to know which college gives the course credit exactly. A wide range credit variable among different college even from the same CHS class in different school. They should be as consistent as possible.
h. Amity agreed that CHS credit needs to be consistent.
i. Council feedback on course catalog: Course description and catalog are the same in some school. English classes have students working on their college essays in class, but others do not. This should be clearly stated in the course catalog.
j. Council feedback on course description: we may want to take different senior English classes to prepare College.
7. COUNCIL QUESTIONS/UPDATES - Any updates on the advanced math course option discussion?
a. Amity: no chance to make progress, mainly on bridge work.
b. Council: important to have catalog for next year.
c. Amity: this has to be done in this summer, it might happen if we push down.
d. Council: the deadline is Dec. All need time to digest info by then.
e. Council: next step, Amity might need to make decision and talk to somebody, i.e. superintendent.
8. Parents only Meeting - Treasurer’s report on fundraising & donations
a. Lauren: we got about $1,400, we do not need worry about money any more. we are doing okay. this year is fine.
9. Parents only Meeting - Elections for next year
a. Need a volunteer to be Elections Commissioner (a continuing council member who is NOT up for election this year. Austina is not eligible): Jasmine volunteered.
b. 2 year positions need to confirm that they will continue another year
c. Appointments or 1 year positions will be up for election, along with any other vacancies. You are welcome to run again. No term limits 😊
d. If you’re not sure whether you’re up for election this year, look here:
e. https://hcparents.blogspot.com/p/about-council.html
