I mentioned in my story on Seminar today that there are a remarkably high number of kids who are identified for the class, which is supposed to serve the top hundredth of a percentile of students, in San Diego Unified. Now what does that mean?
This is a phenomenon that my predecessor, Vlad Kogan, did some great reporting on before I got here. And it isn’t limited to students being identified for Seminar. Studies of San Diego Unified in recent years found that the district generally dubs more students gifted than other California districts, and that its pool of gifted students underperforms compared to their peers elsewhere.
What that means is hotly debated: Is San Diego Unified over-identifying students as gifted? Or are its gifted students getting an inadequate education? Check out Kogan’s story for more on the issue and what the data might reveal.