Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How are gifted identified in your schools?

"I think Common Core is going to destroy the accelerated math sequence they have in junior high and senior high school!"

I know some people disagree with certain parts of Common Core, but it's not a ceiling--it's a floor.

What is your source for this information?

Even if being the floor is the intention, the implementation in many places have treated as the ceiling. A very unfortunate development.

Also the common core authors claim that the standards are pedagogically neutral. The implementation has been mostly reformist or constructivist. Another very unfortunate development.

I actually don't know how our school district identifies gifted students. I don't know what they would need to see to initiate their own testing. After all we have been through, I'm still not sure anyone there has a clue.

They do a kindergarten screening, MAP testing, STAR testing, DIBELS testing, State assessments, etc., but either none of that counts for anything other than school having a score recorded in their chart or they don't understand if a student is years ahead on every assessment they take maybe the school needs to look into that.

We had both of our daughters privately tested (for different reasons) then presented those results to the school. Luckily, they accepted our testing! Even with the testing and the recommendations stating they both needed additional services, the school still had to show there was a "need" in order to give us a GIEP.

Both girls topped out the kindergarten screening, have always received top scores in school, and have always been well above level on MAP and STAR testing. We repeatedly heard how advanced they were at parent/teacher conferences, but no one ever mentioned anything about the possibility of them being more than just advanced. DD10 showed definite, classic signs of academic boredom in 1st grade that led to school saying she was ADD/ADHD or ODD, which led to us getting her tested to rule out those things. That was how we found out she was gifted. If we hadn't done the testing I know DD10 would never have been identified. DD8 might not have ever been identified either since she is such a pleaser, she doesn't rock the boat, and is very good at blending in socially.

I've said it before - one would think educators would know the signs and be able to at least have a clue about what is going on. In our situations, I don't know what more the school needed to see.

I know that here in my district a gifted child has to be seen by a teacher endorsed with gifted certification at least once a day...or in some circumstances less and then that person consults with the regular teacher. So what they did was say at every grade level you need teachers endorsed gifted and then they cluster the identified gifted kids in that teachers class...if the kids rotate classes (at one elementary school they do that starting in 4th grade) just one teacher on the team has to be.

Well once you get that number of gifted endorsed teachers in one school (at least 6 in a k-5 school). You started having a staff who have a basic understanding about gifted and start nominating those they come into contact with and start helping with differentiating ideas for other teachers and become resources and suggest...hey nominate that child for gifted testing.

I don't think nominating for gifted is top of the teachers priority list and it was a teacher who nominated my older yet I nominated my younger son...so 50/50.

In our district, I know of one K - 8 that reduced from two years possible acceleration to one and another that reduced from one to zero. The rationale in both cases was that the standards are tougher and will require more time and effort to teach and learn. That this implies that for typical schools there should be a similar negative one year hit, indicating that in these school students will end up a year behind, seems to be lost on the administration.

I know that here in my district a gifted child has to be seen by a teacher endorsed with gifted certification at least once a day...or in some circumstances less and then that person consults with the regular teacher. So what they did was say at every grade level you need teachers endorsed gifted and then they cluster the identified gifted kids in that teachers class...if the kids rotate classes (at one elementary school they do that starting in 4th grade) just one teacher on the team has to be.

Well once you get that number of gifted endorsed teachers in one school (at least 6 in a k-5 school). You started having a staff who have a basic understanding about gifted and start nominating those they come into contact with and start helping with differentiating ideas for other teachers and become resources and suggest...hey nominate that child for gifted testing.

I don't think nominating for gifted is top of the teachers priority list and it was a teacher who nominated my older yet I nominated my younger son...so 50/50.

Having herded three kids through the GT program in our school district, I still can't say for sure. On the one hand, there is so much info available; on the other hand, it is as clear as mud. There is also a difference between identified as GT and placement in GT classes. Things have changed this year with implementation of Common Core, but in the past there was one class out of 6 to 7 in each grade starting in 3rd officially designated as GT. It is also possible for a couple of students to be in the GT reading/language arts block but not in the GT math/science block and vice versa. However, unofficially the stand-alone GT classrooms actually start with first grade but there is movement in and out over the next couple of years since some kids who seem ahead at 6 or 7 do not develop as fast as other kids who weren't so obviously ahead at 6 or 7 so the district will not apply the GT label until 3rd grade. It is not truly a "gifted" program as about 10% of elementary children in the district are in at least one GT class(reading/language arts or math/science) with or without the GT label and that number is closer to 15%-18% at our school.

Our county has a rubric that includes testing, which they administer, achievement in school, teacher write up, parent write up, including achievement out of school. So it is pretty thorough.
It does seem to take some wrangling to have a school focus on achievement outside of school, especially if it is info coming from a parent, but they do seem to take all that into account if one is willing to keep bringing it to their attention. The time frame for identification is glacial.

Our district usesCogat- for mental ability, MAP- for achievement, teacher recommendation, test for creativity.

Though our ds scored highly on Wisc, score would not accept score. He did not meet requirement forCogat score (though ds is highly verbal with vision issues), had map and teacher recommendation, not so good in creativity. Somewhat sad about public school refusing to help ds in gt or vision.

Makes my dh ill, I'm but hopeful for new opportunities.

I'll learned that public school (atleast ours) can't accommodate/ help hg+ kids esp ones who are 2 e. our district is really for high achieving/ mg kids with pushy tiger parents. Sad, but reality.