Here's a logic problem for North Carolina's brightest public school students.

What happens to academically gifted students when the federal government demands that schools focus on getting low-performing children up to grade level?

For advocates of gifted education, it means the top students get shortchanged. Some of them scoff that the federal No Child Left Behind program should be called No Child Allowed Ahead. The program mandates that all students must be at grade level by 2014.

Supporters of gifted education complain that the federal program has made it even harder to get more money or teachers focused on gifted students. Nationally, No Child Left Behind has led school districts and states to redirect resources from gifted students toward boosting the achievement of lower-performing students.

"No Child Left Behind is making teachers teach to the test, so the bottom and the [average student] know the subject, but the gifted child is not being taught well outside magnet schools," said Beverly Hurley, whose son is a gifted student at Leesville Road Middle School in Raleigh.

Melissa Segal, a parent who sits on a Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system committee on gifted education, said monitoring lagging students now gets more attention than challenging the advanced ones.

"They focus so much on testing that they're negatively impacting gifted education," she said.

How to better serve gifted students has recently surfaced as a local and state issue.

Last week, Wake County school administrators said they want to more than triple the local funding for gifted students. But that proposal comes on the heels of a state audit that found that state education officials are not monitoring how school districts support and run their gifted programs. State education officials will report this week on what can done to improve oversight of the programs, which receive $63.3 million in state money.

Statewide, 153,211 students were identified as academically gifted last school year, about 11 percent of public school enrollment. They're usually identified in the third grade by scoring high on national tests.

Once classified as academically gifted, or AG, students are put on a path toward receiving additional classes and services appropriate for children of their higher ability level.

'Pockets of adequacy'

Parents are more satisfied with the services provided to gifted students in high school. That's because these students can pick the advanced classes they want to take.

But in elementary and middle schools, gifted and nongifted children are usually in the same classes.

Teachers are trained to "differentiate" their instruction so that students get different assignments based on their ability level. Carol Horne, coordinator for gifted education for Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, argues that differentiated instruction works.

"We'd all love to have more money, to have greater resources," Horne said. "But our research does show that the majority of our parents believe they receive appropriate differentiated instruction."

Parents of gifted students often complain that differentiation doesn't challenge their children enough.

"You don't have the consistency of service being provided," said Tom Johnson, president of the Wake County Partners for the Advancement of Gifted Education, an advocacy group for gifted students. "There are pockets of adequacy."

Gifted students may attend classes strictly with their gifted peers, but that's not the norm. For instance, the academically gifted teacher at most Wake elementary schools will work with students for only one or two 45-minute classes a week.

"There isn't a person who doesn't want more services," said Patty Carr, who helps train the Wake school system's academically gifted teachers. "But the money isn't there. We try to serve students the best we can."

Time devoted to AG kids varies

Due to a grant program, Cindy Martin, the academically gifted teacher at Aversboro Elementary School in Garner, sees her students as often as four times a week. She's using the extra time for assignments such as having children analyze "Hoot," a novel about how students fight a developer to save endangered owls.

"I want them to think about being globally responsible," Martin said.

Most gifted students in Chapel Hill will see their AG teacher even less. Instead, the district wants AG teachers to spend a higher percentage of their time helping regular classroom teachers plan their assignments.

Triangle school districts do offer a small number of programs in which gifted students can take their required academic courses with their peers. But it's often difficult to get into these programs.

State law leaves it up to school districts how to run their gifted education programs.

But in a report released last month, State Auditor Les Merritt found there's too little state oversight of how districts run their gifted programs and spend the state money they receive for them. He warned that gifted students may not be receiving the services they need.

The State Board of Education will receive an update on Tuesday on how the state Department of Public Instruction is responding to the audit. A committee has been formed and could recommend urging the General Assembly to give state officials more oversight over gifted education programs.

Mary Ruth Coleman, a senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, said a change is needed. She noted that school districts can currently ignore state education officials' recommendations for changing services to the gifted.

"It's time to balance flexibility and autonomy with quality assurance," said Coleman, who has spent her career working on gifted education issues.

State caps funding

Funding for academically gifted programs remains a contentious issue.

For the past 12 years, the legislature has capped state funding for gifted students. Each school district receives a fixed amount per gifted student for up to 4 percent of the district's total enrollment. If a district designates more than 4 percent of its students as gifted, it receives no extra funding from the state. The amount per student is currently set at $1,083.

"The cap needs to be raised ... ," said Elissa Brown, the state Department of Public Instruction's consultant for academically gifted education. "Teacher salaries have risen. So have instructional materials and professional development."

Wake school officials criticized the 4 percent cap last week, noting that 17.5 percent of the district's students this year are classified as academically gifted.

To compensate, Wake school administrators say another $2.6 million would allow them to significantly expand what they offer gifted students. Since last week, parents have been urging school board members to ask the county commissioners for the money.

"We need to do more for our academically gifted students," said Wake school board member Patti Head. "We're doing the best we can with the dollars we're getting from the state, but it's not enough."

Even in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, where local funding provides a majority of the money for gifted students, some parents say it's not enough. Chapel Hill has the highest percentage of students identified as academically gifted in the state.

"Unfortunately, we're at a place as a district where teachers can't do, because of a lack of resources, all the things they have to do," said Melissa Segal, the Chapel Hill parent.

Even with the complaints, Coleman says, Triangle parents are more fortunate than people in rural and less affluent parts of the state.

"Where you child attends school will determine the quality of your education if he's identified as a gifted child," Coleman said.

Wake school board member Lori Millberg is not a fan of No Child Left Behind. But considering how many students still need help to get to grade level, she's not so sure that increasing spending on gifted students is the best way to use limited funding.

"Many of the most successful schools with the highest test scores have high percentages of academically gifted students," Millberg said.

Despite the complaints, some parents are thrilled with the gifted services their children will receive.

"I think she's had a phenomenal experience," said Andrea Pacyna, whose oldest daughter receives advanced instruction in math at North Ridge Elementary School in Raleigh. "She's had teachers that have really challenged her."

(Staff writer Kinea White Epps contributed to this report.)