TAGAC Letter to District and School Board

To: PPS Board Members and Superintendent Armstrong

From: The Talented And Gifted Advisory Council

Sept 8th, 2025

The Talented and Gifted Advisory Council (TAGAC) is a volunteer body of parents who serve as representatives of the TAG community. TAGAC was convened by PPS in 2005 to advise and inform the Superintendent, the TAG administrator, and the Board regarding TAG services, as well as students' educational experiences and needs within PPS schools. TAGAC’s focus is on supporting the needs of diverse learners, and the members of TAGAC believe that, by doing so, all students will benefit. 

TAGAC holds a long and deep institutional knowledge of TAG and PPS history. We write with true unease that a group of parents has petitioned PPS to close ACCESS Academy. Setting aside for the moment that it is reprehensible for any group of parents to attack another school and that any discussion with district staff or elected board members without representation from that school community is wholly inappropriate, the proposal is inherently flawed and does nothing to address service or funding inequities within PPS. Moreover, the petition is seated in a fundamental misunderstanding of what ACCESS is and who it serves, and perpetuates harmful misinformation about the program. It is irresponsible to, by lack of response, tacitly encourage such divisiveness and infighting between school communities. PPS should have addressed this publicly as soon as it came to their attention, and made clear that such an attack is unacceptable and does not represent PPS.

Closing ACCESS would not alleviate any neighborhood school funding issues, would not put any more money towards TAG students across PPS, and would not increase equitable availability of any kind of services for underserved communities. Closing ACCESS would simply cause harm to students.

That this petition has gained any traction is, in part, due to PPS consistently failing to clearly inform families, teachers, and staff about both general TAG services and structures and about the ACCESS program and who it supports. It is essential to recall that ACCESS Academy is not a Focus Option, it is a school of need. ACCESS is an Alternative Program that provides both accelerated instruction and social-emotional support. It was established to serve a subset of the TAG population, namely those TAG students whose needs are least likely to be met via differentiation in the general education classroom. The demographics of ACCESS are in the ballpark of multiple PPS neighborhood schools, despite the limitations of PPS TAG identification and minimal district outreach. Just like far too few Historically Underserved students are TAG-identified, too few Historically Underserved students score in the 99th percentile by the time they participate in standardized testing, which we consider a failure to properly foster the potential of these children in the early years1,2. This under-identification makes it exceptionally difficult to determine and meet these students' learning needs. The ACCESS community has worked to increase and maintain inclusion by prioritizing Direct Certified students in its lottery, negotiating with the district for busing, conducting direct outreach to underrepresented groups, and working to keep focus on equitable practices and education.

Another flaw at the heart of the petition is the general belief that gifted and talented students do not need or deserve tailored instruction. This has been proven wrong by decades of educational research, and it contradicts Oregon legal requirements established in 1990. PPS has been out of compliance with Division 22 TAG requirements3 since the 1997 appeal to ODE. ACCESS was created in 2003 as one part of a plan to address this lack of compliance. PPS TAG services outside of ACCESS have not fundamentally improved since then. PPS is currently under a multi-year plan of Corrective Action from ODE in the areas of identification of TAG students, communication with parents regarding TAG, and meeting students' assessed rate and level of learning. (Talented and Gifted / Conciliation Progress Reports)

We recommend that staff and board members spend time at ACCESS to gain a better understanding of the program and its students' needs. We also encourage staff and board members to meet with TAGAC, either at our monthly meeting or individually. Many of our members have parented TAG students in varied educational settings, and also have spent many years working with multiple PPS administrators advocating for the establishment and expansion of services to PPS students. Our experiences, knowledge, and individual backgrounds give us a unique and valuable perspective on the wide spectrum of students and student needs both within and beyond the TAG designation.

Thank you for your time,

Jessica Colby, Co-chair TAGAC

Jenny Staab, Co-chair TAGAC

1. Ohio's Lost Einsteins: The inequitable outcomes of early high achievers 

2. Increasing the Representation of African American Males in Gifted and Talented Programs 

3. PPS was found deficient in 2023 under OAR 581-022-2325(2)(e), OAR 581-022-2330, and OAR 581-022-2500(4) according to ODE’s final order in response to the 2019 TAG appeal.