Gifted and Talented

Mrs. White's Corner
Hello Information Seekers!!!

I am very excited to have the opportunity to teach the Gifted and Talented students at Cimarron Elementary. This is my 5th year at our school. I love to read books and find resources and information using technology. This summer I read several books, but some of my favorites were: Misty of Chincoteague, Moon Over Manifest, and The Son of Neptune. I like to read using my hands to grasp a real bound book and I also like reading on my Kindle. I keep busy investigating activities and web sites I think students and teachers might like or learn from. In my free time I like to go to movies, go hiking in the mountains or swim. This summer I visited the quaint town of Echo, Minnesota, which is close to the home of Laura Ingles Wilder,one of my favorite children's authors and where my mother grew up.

I am looking forward to a great year!

Happy Reading! Mrs. Pat White

MISSION

The purpose of gifted education in Cherry Creek Schools is to provide an education experience that results in maximizing student achievement.

PHILOSOPHY

The Cherry Creek School District believes that gifted and talented students have unique academic and affective needs. Cherry Creek administrators and teachers support a philosophy that emphasizes the need for a challenging learning environment that focuses on high achievement for every gifted and talented student. Programming for gifted and talented students must be responsive to individual needs and must recognize the multiple talents, challenges, and cultural diversity of the district's population.

The Cherry Creek School District supports research-based strategies that provide opportunities for optimal learning to ensure that gifted and talented students will perform at levels commensurate with their abilities. Gifted and talented students should be provided dynamic, challenging educational programming at every level throughout their school career.

DISTRICT BELIEF STATEMENTS

The Cherry Creek School District recognizes a set of core beliefs regarding gifted and talented students and their education as established in 2002 as part of the Gifted and Talented Strategic Plan. Those beliefs include the following:

While all students have academic strengths, not all students are gifted.
Students may be gifted and talented in one area or in multiple areas.
Gifted and talented students have unique and varied cognitive and affective abilities and needs.
Gifted and talented students appear in all populations.
Gifted and talented students should be provided programming which fosters maximum academic and personal growth and adequate documentation of that growth.
Gifted and talented students should learn in an environment where their gifts and abilities are acknowledged, valued, and nurtured.
Gifted and talented students should be provided appropriate and varied programming options throughout their school career.
Gifted and talented students require adequate support, including direct instruction, to maximize their academic potential.
Gifted and talented students need choice throughout their school career.
Early recognition of and appropriate educational responses to gifted and talented students are essential.
Providing appropriate programming for gifted and talented students is a responsibility shared by classroom teachers, electives teachers, gifted and talented specialists, administrators, and parents.

Gifted and Talented Programming
Definition and Identification

The Cherry Creek School District defines gifted and talented students as:

Children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, and/or environment.
These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative and/or artistic areas, may possess an unusual capacity for leadership, or excel in specific academic fields. These students require services beyond the rich and varied services normally provided by the regular classroom.
Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata and in all areas of human endeavor.

Typically, gifted students fall within the top 3-5% of the general student population. The purpose of formally identifying gifted students is to plan for and monitor services to ensure the appropriate academic growth for each child. The Cherry Creek School District has established guidelines for identifying students eligible for gifted education and advanced learning services. These guidelines support the approach of looking at a variety of information on a student, both quantitative and qualitative, in building a "body of evidence." It is the preponderance of evidence that will determine if a student needs targeted or intensive programming beyond the regular classroom.

The Body of Evidence

In building the body of evidence, information is gathered in four areas: aptitude, achievement, performance and behavior. Data is collected, both quantitative and qualitative, as evidence of intensive academic need and/or exceptional ability. Listed below are each of the four characteristics and the possible data that may be used under each area as possible sources of exceptional ability (Please note: not all of the assessments under each characteristic may be gathered or used):

Aptitude: Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test (N-NAT), other.
Achievement: Colorado State Assessment Plan (CSAP), Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), other.
Performance: portfolios, student products, report cards and grades, performance tasks, other.
Behavior: Kingore Observation Inventory, Parent Survey, Renzulli/Westberg Behavioral Rating Scales, Cherry Creek Screening Checklist, anecdotal notes, other.

Process

Initial referral of students for consideration and screening for identification may come from a teacher, parent, and/or peer. Forms for referral of students by parents are available at each school.
The GT resource teacher in each building is responsible for collecting and compiling data.
Formal identification occurs after the careful examination of the “Body of Evidence” for each referred student. Three possible outcomes are:

There is sufficient data for identification of the student. The student's area of exceptionality is "X". A Personal Learning Plan (PLP) will be developed and shared with the parents and classroom teacher.
The evidence does not support the identification of the student.
Additional information is needed as part of this student's "Body of Evidence," in order to make the best determination of need.

Communication concerning the outcome of the student referral will be mailed directly to the child's parents or guardian.
If a child is identified as gifted, a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) will be developed based on student data, teacher observation and recommendations, student performance, strengths and needs, GT resource teacher input and requests from parents. The PLP should be updated twice annually.