Enrichment Committees

At school~ there seems to be a committee for everything.
Improvement~ remediation~ reading~ leadership~ and the list goes on.
What you dont often find at schools~ however~ is a team of people that are focused on enrichment for children.
I think its safe to say that the major focus in recent years is helping to improve test scores and performance among the lower achieving students. While~ of course~ thats a very worthy goal~ there also needs to be a focus on providing enrichment and academic challenge to the top quartile.
Thats where an enrichment committee plays an important role.
The enrichment committee~ a group of stakeholders at your school~ becomes a force in motion that establishes programs and activities for the gifted and talented and ensures those mechanisms are in place. This group places an emphasis on finding time in the school day for students to pursue their interests and goals and to further develop their talents through challenging and exciting extracurricular activities.
Before I list the steps for forming an enrichment committee~ let me provide some questions that can serve as talking points during committee meetings.
1. Are we meeting the needs of our gifted and talented students?
2. Could we find ways to offer enrichment activities~ such as Enrichment Clusters~ to all students on campus?
3. Are we thoroughly screening and recruiting gifted students from the general population?
4. Is the school offering a variety of challenging and interesting clubs and extracurricular activities?
5. Could we utilize the community more effectively to provide enrichment such as guest speakers~ demonstrations~ and mentoring?

STEPS TO CREATING AN ENRICHMENT COMMITTEE:
1. Decide how often and how long you want the committee to meet. Perhaps once a month~ for an hour~ would be adequate.
2. Decide where to hold the meeting and reserve that space.
3. Decide who will serve on the committee. You want to consider asking administrators~ teachers~ parents~ community members~ and possibly students.
4. Contact potential members and ask them if they would be willing to serve.
5. Create an agenda for the meeting. Place your most important items on top. Also~ it helps to write your goals in terms of outcomes. For example~ rather than state discuss adding Enrichment Clusters to school day you would state Create a plan to incorporate a weekly Enrichment Cluster at the school.
6. Notify committee members of the time and place of the meeting. It also helps to provide them with an agenda in advance.
7. Conduct meeting.
For more information on starting an Enrichment Committee or to post your comments on this topic~ please visit http://community.educationworld.comcontent/enrichment-committees-0?gid=NTEyMQ==