GATE is Good for All Students
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GATE Is Good For All Students
Hemant K. Bhargava
Jerome and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management
Associate Dean, Graduate School of Management
University of California Davis
March 7, 2013
Our public schools must meet the educational needs of all our children. The self-contained GATE program in
Davis, which places gifted and talented children into separate classrooms, actually helps all students both GATE
and non-GATE. By reducing within-classroom disparities in both GATE and non-GATE classes, self-contained
GATE makes it easier to configure instruction to individual students’ needs. That makes teaching more effective.
By taking out the students at the top extreme of a classroom, GATE helps creates stars in every classroom.
I derived this conclusion by analyzing STAR test scores available from the California Department of Education.
I compared the Davis school district against Lafayette, which essentially eliminated self-contained GATE in 2009,
mixing GATE and non-GATE children into the same classroom. To broaden the analysis, I also evaluated additional
districts in Northern California: Rocklin, like Davis, has a self-contained GATE program, while Buckeye, Fremont
and Palo Alto resemble Lafayette’s mixed classroom approach.
I looked at STAR data for ELA (English Language and Arts) and Math, between Grades 2 and 6. The results
are striking and consistent. From 2nd to 6th grade, Davis and Rocklin move a much greater percentage of students
into the highest tier of students who are rated as Advanced. See Chart 1. To be sure, Lafayette, Buckeye, Fremont
and Palo Alto started the race ahead, with greater percentage of 2nd graders in the Advanced tier than Davis and
Rocklin. But this metric merely reflects their richer natural endowment of elementary school children. Second
graders are what the districts are given, not what their educational approach has shaped. The greater progress
that Davis and Rocklin make between Grade 2 and Grade 6 is clear evidence that their self-contained GATE is
more effective at enhancing students’ learning and academic achievement.
Davis and Rocklin’s Statewide rank (among nearly 900 districts, based on the ELA Percentage Advanced
category) leapt up 134 and 129 points, respectively, between Grades 2 and 6. Compare this with 50, minus 9, 12,
and minus 5 for the mixed-classroom districts (see Chart 2). The self-contained GATE districts are unambiguously
more effective. The results are similar for Math. The comparative performance is even better in 2010 and 2011.
Finally, these gains do not come at any cost at the lowest levels. All 6 districts placed only 0-1% of children into
the Far Below Basic tier by Grade 6, after starting Grade 2 at about 4-5% (for Davis and Rocklin) and 2% (for
the rest).
What does this tell us about the relative impact of self-contained vs mixed classroom models? Chart 3
visualizes the answer. Since GATE is highly selective (it picks students in the top 2 to 6 percentile of their
nationwide peers), GATE students are already in the Advanced bracket in 2nd grade, which comprises roughly
28% of all California children. Therefore, the increase in percentage of Advanced scorers at Grade 6 comes from
1
p.2 of 3
Fre
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% Increase in Advanced Scorers (ELA)
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25 mixed teaching self−contained
Figure 1: Percentage of Students Propelled into Advanced Tier between Grades 2 and 6 in 2012
Fre
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Jump in Statewide Rank (ELA Advanced)
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140 mixed teaching self−contained
Figure 2: Improvement in Districts’ Statewide Rank between Grades 2 and 6
GATE Is Good For All Students March 7, 2013
p.3 of 3
GATE, and Advanced
non-GATE, andAdvanced
additionalstudents
moved intoAdvanced
Grade 2STAR scores
Grade 6STAR scores
allstudents
Advanced
Figure 3: Improvement between Grades 2 and 6
one source: children not in GATE. What my findings show is that districts with self-contained GATE propel a
greater percentage of children into the Advanced tier by Grade 6, than districts where all children learn in a mixed
environment.
Lafa
yette
Palo
Alto
Dav
is
% Increase in Advanced (ELA, 2003)
0
5
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15
20self−contained self−contained
Lafa
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% Increase in Advanced (ELA, 2012)
0
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25 mixed teaching self−contained
Figure 4: Improvement between Grades 2 and 6: 2003 vs. 2012.
This striking improvement in test results in our neighborhood schools in Davis calls into question the notion
that GATE students mixed into a regular classroom necessarily raise the academic achievements of other non-GATE
students. But even stronger evidence on this front comes from Lafayette’s (and Palo Alto’s) own performance
back in 2003, when both districts employed self-contained GATE. Davis’s 2nd grade scores, then, were nearly
identical to Lafayette and Palo Alto’s. And the same at Grade 6. With a similar natural endowment and a similar
educational model, they all achieved comparable progress! Chart 4, compared against Chart 1, tells a remarkable
story: Lafayette and Palo Alto were performing better under a self-contained GATE approach. The performance
drop in 2012 is on account of their switch away from self-contained GATE.
Equal education for all children is a worthy objective. But one-size-fits-all education implies neither equal
opportunity nor equal outcome. We should be wary of changing our self-contained GATE program without proof
that alternatives will produce the same or better results.
GATE Is Good For All Students March 7, 2013