Think back for a minute, to a time when you were in grade school. Did your school offer AIG programs, and were you in it, or not? Most NC school offers a program called AIG, and acronym for Academically Intelligently Gifted students. To be included in this program a student has to take a performance test and only if they pass will they be accepted. This test can be taken as many times necessary between grades K-5. When I was in elementary school I took the test a total of 9 times, never once did I come close to passing. The test for AIG, I do not think measures the true intellectual strengths some students can posses, for instancethe test favors a certain type of student, and also the program can be taken advantage of and not properly instructed.
The test for AIG acceptance as mentioned before does not consist of math, science, and english like most test in schools do, and do not measure the intelligence of the student accurately. This will affect who gets in and who does not. The students who are honors and AP level are strong in the common core classes and a test that has nothing to do with their strong suits is useless. As stated (State Definition of AIG Students, Article 9B) “Academically or intellectually gifted students exhibit high performance capability in intellectual areas, specific academic fields, or in both the intellectual areas and specific academic fields.” Measuring the intelligence of someone cannot be recorded in one test with a single score. The test for AIG consists of puzzles and shapes and no common core curriculum. The brain works in many different ways but generally the two sides work for different aspects of creativity and intelligence. The left side of the brain is the mathematical and scientific side, which would be where most learning happens in school. The right side, which the AIG test favors, is where all the creative, musical, and artistic information is stored. People generally are stronger on one side, which makes a test made up of puzzles and shapes unfair
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In elementary school, parents were informed that AIG wouldn’t go any farther than middle school but it has continued into high school. At first the program was all about the academics and focused on school subjects and included many projects and field trips, it was a considered a class. “Gifted learners possess the ability to think with more complexity and abstraction and learn at faster rates; therefore, they require challenging, differentiated curriculum and instruction that are developmentally appropriate and will prepare them for the 21st century.” This statement leads those who read it to believe that the academics are very important to those who are the instructors of the program. All the AIG program does once in high school is meet periodically and discuss goals and read. They go on tours to colleges and do not follow any type of curriculum.
Once again the test for AIG, I do not think measures the true intellectual strengths some students can posses, for instancethe test favors a certain type of student, and also the program can be taken advantage of and not properly instructed. The test cannot possibly tell how intellectually gifted a student is my giving them puzzles, it is one sided and favors those who are stronger with the right side subjects of their brain. If the program was used and administered properly then there would not be as much controversy. This reflects on the students and their work just as much as it does those who are not in it.
