Philosophy

Learning comes first in Granite District’s schools. This is certainly a realistic goal for all students. Learning means growth over a specified period of time. It is having more knowledge or being more skilled after a course of study is completed than when it began. Learning is also developing individual strengths and talents to higher levels of performance. It requires carefully designed educational experiences with appropriate programs, instructors, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Whether or not learning has occurred can only be understood in comparison with individual student performance at some beginning point in time. When that beginning point is unusually advanced, it is difficult to ensure that learning will occur. Gifted and talented students present a unique and frequently unmet challenge. All too often these students are misunderstood, mishandled, neglected, and overlooked in our classrooms. This situation arises from a number of adverse sources: • the overwhelming myriad of competing expectations on our teachers; • misunderstandings about the characteristics and needs of students; • low-level curriculum with minimum standards; • students who enter a class with 50-90% of the curriculum already mastered; • teachers not trained in strategies appropriate for teaching gifted and talented students; • lack of high level assessments to determine academic need; • educational decisions based on managerial rather than student concerns; • educational practices that conflict with best practices in meeting the needs of gifted and talented students; and • inadequate resources.

Foundational Concepts

Granite's plan to achieve greater success in addressing this challenge with gifted and talented students is predicated on eight foundational concepts. 1. There is a special population of exceptionally high performing students or students who have potential to perform at high levels whose needs cannot be met without specialized programming and/or accommodations. Without appropriate specialized programming, these students are at risk for personal or educational failure. 2. Policies, decisions, and practices for serving gifted and talented students are based on the most current research in the field of gifted and talented education. 3. Identification of these students should be on a continuum of severity of need. An ongoing process must be implemented that will identify students with high ability, students who have already mastered the core curriculum before beginning a course of study, students who are profoundly gifted across disciplines, and other high ability students who need specialized programming. 4. Because there is a continuum of severity of need in the population of gifted and talented students, there should be a continuum of program options designed to match the level of and area of need. 5. Every teacher, administrator, and parent needs to be aware of the unique needs of gifted and talented students, and how those needs can be described on a continuum of severity. The level of this awareness will vary with the level of involvement with gifted and talented students. 6. There should be a smooth transition across all levels, kindergarten through twelfth grade, and consistency among schools in understanding and meeting needs of gifted and talented students from all levels of the educational system. 7. Ongoing communication and evaluation about programs for gifted and talented students is essential. 8. Granite School District's mission is to "prepare every student with the knowledge and skills to achieve lifelong success in a changing world." This mission includes meeting the unique needs of students who are gifted and talented.

Definition

The fact that there is a special population of exceptionally high performing students who need specialized programming has long been recognized across the country. The following is a nationally recognized definition based on the federal Gifted and Talented Education Act: "Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment. These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools. Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor." - National Excellence: A Case for Developing American's Talent, 1993 Clearly, there are many areas in which gifted and talented students can excel. While all of these are potentially important to the individual, limited resources constrict our ability to fully address each of them. The priority use of resources in Granite's Gifted and Talented Program will be assigned to the academic domain. Enrichment opportunities will be made available for encouragement and expression of student gifts and talents in other domains. Currently, Granite has established a more restrictive definition to conform to its limited financial resources. Granite School District Definition for Academically Gifted and Talented Students Academically gifted and talented students are those with outstanding academic ability or those who show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of academic accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or environment, and who need program modifications to receive an appropriate education. The distinction between gifted and talented is individual for each student and is based upon the severity of need. Needs of moderately talented students may well be met through enrichment opportunities within the regular school program. By contrast, the needs of some profoundly gifted students might only be met in a specialized district-wide program. These extremes define a continuum of need between moderately talented and profoundly gifted. Each academically gifted or talented student needs to be placed appropriately on this continuum.

Continuum of Services

The degree to which academic programs need to be modified varies with the severity of need, and must be individually determined for each student. Placement in academic programs is based on relevant student assessment data, such as mastery of the core curriculum, cognitive ability, unusually high academic achievement, and observational data. Prior experience, cultural and/or economic factors, and/or the presence of a disability should not negatively influence placement decisions. The process involves the school and/or district placement team, which includes a gifted and talented endorsed teacher, with input from the parent/guardian. Because there is a continuum of severity of need in the population of academically gifted and talented learners, there should be a continuum of program options designed to match the level of need. The program options or accommodations must range from differentiation within the regular classroom for students who are mildly advanced to partial and full time school programs for moderately gifted students to a district magnet school for students who are profoundly gifted.