The Speyer School

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Note: this article is about two distinct but related schools for gifted education in New York City, USA: the Speyer Legacy School (founded 2009, ongoing), and the Speyer School (1935-1941). The present-day school is named after the earlier one, and takes its inspiration from the approach to gifted education that was developed there.

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The Speyer School (1935-1941)

The Speyer School (1935-1941) was started in a building at Columbia's Teachers College and named after financier James Speyer. It became well known between 1935-39 when it was used a "laboratory" to study how children perform when separated by educational ability. There were seven classrooms with 175 students, who had an IQ range on the Stanford Binet test of between 75-90 and two classrooms with students that tested at the level of 130+ on the same IQ test. [1]

The experiment was led by Leta Stetter Hollingworth, an American psychologist who specialized in education and who is credited with writing the first textbook on gifted children. [2] [3] The results of the several studies conducted by Hollingworth dispelled many myths about exceptional children and suggested that many exceptionally gifted children suffer adjustment problems due to two factors: inept treatment by adults and lack of intellectual challenge. Her work also made "emotional education" an important part of the original Speyer School curriculum. [4]

The Speyer Legacy School (2009-present)

The Speyer Legacy School
Address
925 9th Ave

New York City
,
10019
Information
Type Independent school
Established2009
FoundersMalena Belafonte, Jennifer Dima, Jacqueline Haberfeld, Kelly Posner, Jennifer Selendy
HeadteacherLawrence Donovan
GradesK-8
Enrollment317 (as of Aug. 2022) [5]
Website www.speyerlegacyschool.org

The Speyer Legacy School is an independent (i.e. private) K-8 school in Manhattan, specializing in the education of gifted children. It was founded in 2009 [6] and named after the original Speyer School. [7] It is located in the West side of midtown Manhattan, at 925 9th Ave.

The school describes itself as the only K-8 independent school for gifted learners in NYC. [8] In the public sector, K-8 schools in NYC specializing in gifted and talented education include the Anderson School and the Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars. A different private school, the Lang School, provides K-7 education for "twice exceptional" children, i.e. gifted children with special needs such as ADHD or autism. [9]

In 2022, the school was listed as having an annual revenue of 19 million dollars [10] and as having 317 children enrolled. [11]

Academics

The school has received recognition in the areas of chess and debating. Its practice of teaching debating from Kindergarten onwards was the focus of an article in the Wall Street Journal. [12] In chess, Brewington Hardaway, then a seventh grader at the school, tied for first place in the 2022 National Middle School (K-8) Chess Championship, [13] and its Kindergarten and 2nd-grade teams won their grade-level sections in the 2021 National K-12 Grade Championships. [14] An 11-year-old student at the school published two books about chess [15] and has been featured in the international press [16] and on Good Morning America. [17] Grandmaster John Fedorowicz is one of the chess coaches at the school. [18]

Related Research Articles

Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average and is also known as high potential. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. These consequences sometimes include stigmatizing and social exclusion. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population—that is, IQs above 130. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures.

Gifted education is a sort of education used for children who have been identified as gifted or talented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Terman</span> American educational psychologist, academic, and eugenicist (1877–1956)

Lewis Madison Terman was an American psychologist, academic, and proponent of eugenics. He was noted as a pioneer in educational psychology in the early 20th century at the Stanford School of Education. Terman is best known for his revision of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales and for initiating the longitudinal study of children with high IQs called the Genetic Studies of Genius. As a prominent eugenicist, he was a member of the Human Betterment Foundation, the American Eugenics Society, and the Eugenics Research Association. He also served as president of the American Psychological Association. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Terman as the 72nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with G. Stanley Hall.

New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, abbreviated NEST+M, is a top public school located on the Lower East Side of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, and is under the supervision of the New York City Department of Education, serving grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westmount Charter School</span> Gifted education K-12 charter school in Calgary, Canada

Westmount Charter School is a charter school for gifted learners based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which educates students from kindergarten to grade 12. It was founded in 1996 as ABC Charter Public School by the Action for Bright Children Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Anderson School PS 334</span> School

The Anderson School PS 334 is a New York City school for children in grades kindergarten through 8 from the city's five boroughs. It was founded thirty-seven years ago as The Anderson Program under the stewardship of PS 9. The New York City Department of Education (DOE) spun off Anderson in July 2005 as a stand-alone school — PS 334.

The Gifted Rating Scale (GRS) is a scholastic assessment for school children. It is used mostly for Gifted & Talented admissions. It is administered by a teacher who knows the child well. The teacher rates specific gifted behaviors that they have observed over time.

The Otis–Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT), published by the successor of Harcourt Assessment—Pearson Education, Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC—is, according to the publisher, a test of abstract thinking and reasoning ability of children pre-K to 18. The Otis-Lennon is group-administered, multiple choice, taken with pencil and paper, measures verbal, quantitative, and spatial reasoning ability. The test yields verbal and nonverbal scores, from which a total score is derived, called a School Ability Index (SAI). The SAI is a normalized standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16. With the exception of pre-K, the test is administered in groups.

Grade skipping is a form of academic acceleration, often used for academically talented students, that enables the student to skip entirely the curriculum of one or more years of school. Grade skipping allows students to learn at an appropriate level for their cognitive abilities, and is normally seen in schools that group students primarily according to their chronological age, rather than by their individual developmental levels. Grade skipping is usually done when a student is sufficiently advanced in all school subjects, so that they can move forward in all subjects or graduate, rather than in only one or two areas. There are alternatives to grade skipping.

Long Island School for the Gifted (LISG) is a private school for gifted children located in Huntington Station, New York in Suffolk County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leta Stetter Hollingworth</span> American psychologist (1886–1939)

Leta Stetter Hollingworth was an American psychologist, educator, and feminist. She made contributions in psychology of women, clinical psychology, and educational psychology. She is best known for her work with gifted children.

The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) is a nonverbal measure of general ability designed by Jack A. Naglieri and published by Pearson Education. The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Individual Form was first published in 1998. Two versions were published in 2007 and 2008, respectively. This includes the group administered Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Second Edition and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - Online version. The most current version is NNAT3. Like all nonverbal ability tests, the NNAT is intended to assess cognitive ability independently of linguistic and cultural background.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twice exceptional</span> Term used for a gifted student who also possesses at least one disability

The term twice-exceptional or 2e refers to individuals acknowledged as gifted and neurodivergent. On literal sense, it means a person, is at the same time, very strong or gifted at some task, and very weak or unable in some other task. Due to this duality of their cognitive profile, the strengths as well as weaknesses and struggles may remain unnoticed or unsupported. Also conditions like hyperlexia or precocious development in some aspects, while having difficulties in common or day-to day tasks, these people may frequently face contradictory situations which lead to disbelief, judgements, alienation, and other forms of epistemic injustice. Some related terms are "performace discrepancy", "cognitive discrepancy", "uneven cognitive profile", and "spikey profile". Due to simultaneous combination of abilities and inabilities, these people do not often fit into an age-appropriate or socially-appropriate niche. An extreme form of twice-exceptionalism is Savant syndrome. The individuals often identify with the description of twice-exceptional due to their unique combination of exceptional abilities and neurodivergent traits. The term twice-exceptional first appeared in Dr. James J. Gallagher's 1988 article titled National Agenda for Educating Gifted Students: Statement of Priorities. Twice-exceptional individuals embody two distinct forms of exceptionalism: one being giftedness and the other including at least one aspect of neurodivergence. Giftedness is often defined in various ways and is influenced by entities ranging from local educational boards to national governments; however, one constant among every definition is that a gifted individual has high ability compared to their age-level neurotypical peers. The term neurodivergent describes an individual whose cognitive processes differ from those considered neurotypical and who possesses strengths that exceed beyond the neurotypical population. Therefore, the non-clinical designation of twice-exceptional identifies a gifted person with at least one neurodivergent trait.

The Rocklin Unified School District is a California education district serving the Rocklin area. It consists of twelve elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, and the Rocklin Alternative Education Center.

Malena Belafonte is a former international fashion model turned singer, performer, producer, entrepreneur and creative director. She is the daughter-in-law of singer Harry Belafonte and married to his only son, David Belafonte. Her sister-in-law is actress Shari Belafonte.

Gifted students are outstanding learners who are not usually considered at risk of academic failure or problems. However, gifted students can still underachieve. There are risks related to the student's giftedness. This concept was formally set forth in 1972 in the U.S. in the Marland Report:

Gifted and talented children are, in fact, deprived and can suffer psychological damage and permanent impairment of their abilities to function well which is equal to or greater than the similar deprivation suffered by any other population with special needs served by the Office of Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lang School</span> School in New York, New York, United States

The Lang School is a private, nonprofit, K-12 school marketing itself as serving the needs of twice exceptional (2e) students located in New York City's Financial District. It was the first K-12 school to specialize in educating twice-exceptional (2e) students, though it later came to include a wider range of gifted students.

The Gifted Education Research Resource Institute (GERI) was founded by John F. Feldhusen in 1977 and is situated in the College of Education, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. GERI runs enrichment programs for talented youth, graduate programs for future scholars and leaders, professional development and coursework for educators, and ongoing research on the psychology of giftedness, creativity, and talent development. GERI faculty and staff work with P-12 educators in developing and improving services for gifted, creative, and talented children, as well as training school teachers and administrators in gifted education. In addition, GERI has developed several programs for talented youth. The Super Saturday program, a six-week enrichment program, was created in the spring of 1976. In 1977, GERI began Summer Residential Camps, aimed at providing a preview of college life to talented students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Gerstenhaber</span> American mathematician (1927–2024)

Murray Gerstenhaber was an American mathematician, physicist, and lawyer. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, best known for his contributions to theoretical physics with his discovery of Gerstenhaber algebra. He was also a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

References

  1. ↑ America's First Gifted Program.
  2. ↑ "NAGC - History of g/t". people.uncw.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  3. ↑ Hollingworth, Leta S. (1938). "An Enrichment Curriculum for Rapid Learners at Public School 500: Speyer School". Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education. 39 (4): 1–7. doi:10.1177/016146813803900405. S2CID   248420572 . Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  4. ↑ Silverman, L. K. (1990). Social and emotional education of the gifted: The discoveries of Leta Hollingworth. Roeper Review, 12(3), 171-178. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02783199009553265?journalCode=uror20
  5. ↑ "The Speyer Legacy School in New York - U.S. News Education". Archived from the original on 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  6. ↑ "School for the Gifted, and Only the Gifted (Published 2009)". 2009-10-19. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  7. ↑ "Speyer's History and Mission". SPEYER SCHOOL. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  8. ↑ "SPEYER SCHOOL". SPEYER SCHOOL.
  9. ↑ "Lang | Mission & Philosophy". The Lang Schools.
  10. ↑ Roberts, Ken Schwencke, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei, Alec Glassford, Andrea Suozzo, Brandon (May 9, 2013). "Speyer Legacy School - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "The Speyer Legacy School" . Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  12. ↑ Hollander, Sophia (2014-07-09). "Teaching Young Students the Fine Art of Arguing". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-08-11.
  13. ↑ "Five-Way Tie at 2022 National Middle School (K-8) Chess Championship". May 2022.
  14. ↑ "2021 K-12 Grade Championships Results". 5 December 2021.
  15. ↑ "Oliver Boydell". Amazon.
  16. ↑ "Small Wonder: How a 11-year-old Oliver is taking the chess world by storm | Chess News - Times of India". The Times of India .
  17. ↑ "Child chess prodigy shares tips in new book".
  18. ↑ "Speyer Chess Wows at the New York City Championships!".
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