Local Woman Elected As New President For State Gifted Education Organization
POSTED: May 7, 2008
Audrey Kay Dowling, a local BOCES teacher, has been recently elected to serve a two-year term as the President of the statewide gifted education organization, Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Education in NYS, Inc. (AGATE). Before being elected as the President, Mrs. Dowling spent several years on the Board of AGATE. Mrs. Dowling has many years of experience of teaching gifted students throughout the Chautauqua County region. She has developed and taught gifted programming for 3-11th graders.
Mrs. Dowling has also served as a regional representative to the NYS Education Department Gifted Advisory group (GETS) since the 1980s. During this time Mrs. Dowling was trained and served as a gifted program evaluator, served as a differentiation consultant coach in the Rochester region, and worked as the chairperson to the content advisory committee that developed the Gifted Education Extension exam. All teachers who wish to teach gifted and talented in New York State require the extension exam, along with specialized graduate level coursework.
Mrs. Dowling has presented on issues and curriculum development for gifted education on a statewide and international level.
Currently Mrs. Dowling is an art teacher for Erie 2 Chautauqua Cattaraugus BOCES and will be teaching a graduate level course in Gifted Education this summer at Buffalo State College.
Mrs. Dowling also does private consulting on developing strong gifted programming and individual issues of giftedness.
During her tenure as the President of AGATE, Mrs. Dowling will be advocating for gifted students across the state. One of the missions of AGATE is to work towards making gifted education required for all gifted students across New York State.
New York State is currently one of only eight states that neither requires nor has dedicated funding for gifted education. Whether a gifted student receives appropriate gifted services for their style of learning is completely dependent on what school district they attend in New York State. Students in cities with magnet schools and students in many suburbs across the state receive many education accommodations for their ability levels. New York City now requires that all identified gifted students receive special gifted educational services and appropriate approaches to education. Unfortunately, the same is not true for many rural gifted students.
The AGATE website is www.agateny.com. On this site educators, parents and gifted students will find a great deal of information on gifted education. It also contains links to many gifted education sites and information on ways that a parent can advocate for gifted children in their schools. AGATE also gives support for parent groups to develop and form.
These services include help with organization, insurance coverage available through AGATE for meetings, information on starting up programs, and a speaker’s bureau. Any interested people are encouraged to refer to the website or contact Mrs. Dowling at 716-326-4478 or dowlings@fairpoint.net.
