Gifted and Talented Program Plan

M.S.A.D. 75

Revised - August 2005

Program Philosophy

MSAD 75 believes all its students should learn and be taught to their highest potential, including those who excel or have the potential to excel beyond their age peers. As required by Chapter 104, we identify this gifted and talented population as roughly 3-5% of overall enrollment, and recognize the special needs of these students for appropriate and varied forms of acceleration, enrichment, and guidance.

MSAD 75's core commitments to our gifted and talented students and their families are:

• Work at an appropriate level of challenge,
• Time to work with intellectual peers, and
• Information and guidance regarding opportunities within and beyond the school day

To honor these commitments and provide the specialized, “in-lieu-of” instruction needed by gifted and talented students as their needs progress from Kindergarten to 12 th grade, our goal as a district is to offer a diverse and dynamic continuum of services which can anticipate and meet these needs. An essential function of our Gifted and Talented staff is to work with students and teachers to identify the central strengths, needs and interests of each child, and to then provide both guidance and advocacy to connect each child with appropriate opportunities.

Program Overview

While the gifted and talented program identifies needs and provides the necessary guidance, advocacy and programming oversight, it is the job of each school and of the district as a whole to provide every reasonable opportunity possible to meet identified needs.

At present, no more than 5% of our students are identified as gifted and talented in the areas of General Intellectual Ability and/or Specific Academic Aptitude. As stated in Chapter 104.04, we recognize that these students require all of the following:

• to move at their own rate, regardless of chronological age or grade placement;
• diverse experiences, including a variety of instructional strategies and materials;
• specialized curricula that are advanced, conceptually complex and carefully differentiated, to be provided in lieu of regular curricula;
• instructional settings appropriate to their changing needs as they progress through the grades; and
• for the highly gifted, additional modifications as appropriate.

Recognizing the need for each school and grade span to address these needs as best fits its nature, we offer the following program matrix (see next page) to summarize programming goals, objectives and activities as they respond to each of these student needs.

In addition to identifying students and providing the necessary guidance and advocacy to ensure that needs are met, the gifted and talented program staff also conducts limited staff development to help regular classroom teachers and others recognize and meet the particular needs of gifted students. At present, consistent direct teaching is provided only in the area of middle school math or in the rare instance where no other resource can be found.

Click here for program matrix

Identification and Placement

Each year, MSAD 75 conducts processes of screening, identification, and/or review of all students to determine eligibility for and placement in the gifted and talented program. Throughout these processes, instruments and procedures are chosen to be as non-discriminatory as possible with respect to race, cultural or economic background, religion, national origin, sex, or handicapping condition.

Following initial screening and identification of the entire student population, screening and identification in subsequent years will be limited to students entering grades 3, 6, and 9. The annual review process outlined below will serve to ensure that the needs of new students and the changing needs of others are served appropriately in the interim.

Screening

For each grade requiring screening, the following methods may be used. As required by Chapter 104, at least three assessment methods are used to screen all students. Of these, at least one is subjective and at least one is objective.

General Intellectual Ability:

• Teacher referrals (general)
• Combined NWEA MAPs scores or Ravens Test of Cognitive Ability
• Combined MEA scaled scores

Specific Academic Aptitude:

• Teacher referrals (specific)
• NWEA MAPs scores in math, or Raven Test of Cognitive Ability
• NWEA MAPs scores in reading
• MEA scaled scores

For Grades K-2, the objective data (tests) are replaced by systematic observations by teachers and G/T staff trained to look for gifted behaviors in the regular classroom. While needs are identified at these levels, students are not.

Student who meet the criteria set for any one of the above assessment methods move to the next level of the process, described below.

Identification

Our Identification Committee meets annually to review all data on screened students, to request additional data as needed, and to identify students eligible for gifted and talented services. The selection team includes a minimum of three qualified professionals, including but not limited to one administrator, one G/T staff member, and one classroom teacher or other professional educator with appropriate expertise.

The responsibilities of this team are to review the information collected on children who have met the screening criteria, to collect additional information as needed, to select children eligible for gifted and talented services, to oversee the annual review of the selection process, and to ensure that the selection process is equitable.

No more than 5% of total enrollment in each grade level is identified in the areas of General Intellectual Ability and/or Specific Academic Aptitudes.

Click here for a sample learning plan

Annual Review

Overseen by the Identification Committee, the gifted and talented program staff of MSAD 75 conducts an annual review of the newest data on each student to evaluate the appropriateness of placement and instruction. Review is based on new referrals as well as updated data from the same instruments used for screening.

As part of the annual review, all newly transferred students are considered as well, regardless of former status in their previous school. MAPs are administered at least twice a year in MSAD 75, and we generally prefer this data. Additional information is gathered from students' transfer records as needed.

For students with limited English proficiency, we administer the Raven Test of Cognitive Ability and consider additional data as available. 

Student Programming

Once students are selected for participation in the program, written notification is provided to the Superintendent and to students' parents. The parent letter includes a program description as well as important contact information, and requests written parental permission to place the child in the gifted and talented program.

Having obtained parental permission, the gifted and talented staff works with regular education staff and with the student and family to prepare an in-lieu-of program for the student in his or her area(s) of need. A copy of our most recent Learning Plan format is included on the next page.

Periodic check-ins and (where needed) revisions of the plan are made over the year to ensure that the student's needs are adequately met. At year end, a review of the plan is conducted to evaluate the appropriateness of each student's placement and instruction. Records are maintained both electronically and on paper.

Wherever possible, our Learning Plan process seeks to build student's ability to lead, to communicate, and to evaluate their own work and choices.

Appeals Process

Requests to review the identification of children for the gifted and talented program may be made by parents or legal guardians as well as by teachers, guidance counselors, or building administrators. Requests should be made in writing to the coordinator of the gifted and talented program, for any of the following reasons:

• To reconsider the eligibility of a child to be selected for inclusion in the gifted and talented program;
• To review the appropriate placement of a child within the program; or
• For removal of a child from the program.

Following the request, program staff will meet with the family and/or professional staff to review the prior decision(s) and hear additional comment. If appropriate, prior decision(s) may be overturned and/or modified.

If the review is unsatisfactory to any party, the relevant decision(s) may then be appealed to the Superintendent of Schools, who will serve as final arbiter.

Professional Development

Professional development in gifted and talented education is provided on an ongoing basis to both gifted and talented and regular education staff. As required by Chapter 125, this training is based on the continuous improvement of each individual as well as of the schools and district as a whole. It is focused on raising the academic performance of students to meet both the guiding principles and content standards of the Learning Results. It is aligned with other goals in the district's Comprehensive Education Plan, and driven by recent research and other information from outside resources.

Supports for gifted and talented staff include, but are not limited to the following:

• New staff welcome packet
• Administrative manual
• Peer review
• Confratute
• Department of Education summer & school year workshops
• Weekly gifted and talented staff meeting
• Participation in Wednesday morning district-wide meetings
• Ongoing coursework in content areas

Supports for regular education staff include, but are not limited to the following:

• Frequent consultation on meeting needs of gifted and talented students
• Three hours' minimum annual training in recognizing and meeting the needs of gifted and talented students
• Implementation assistance for differentiated curriculum materials
• In-class assistance as needed, including planning, reflection and/or coaching
• Aiming for Excellence Teacher Handbook (contains program information, strategies for meeting the needs of gifted learners, articles on gifted education)

In addition, a limited number of interested regular education staff choose to participate in more intensive gifted and talented training, such as the Department of Education summer workshops or the on-site differentiation course offered every few years by USM's Center for Professional Development in collaboration with our gifted and talented staff.

Other off-site professional development opportunities are also funded. The district pays for 6 graduate credits a year, and offers limited monies for other opportunities such as national conferences.

 

Program Staffing and Management

MSAD 75's gifted and talented program is supervised by the Assistant Superintendent and coordinated by a certified teacher with gifted and talented endorsement in the State of Maine. Additional teaching staff are also endorsed by the State in gifted and talented education.

 

Program Evaluation

Annual evaluation is conducted annually by the Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee with the cooperation of the program administrator and coordinator. The Committee will assess the program’s progress toward its explicit commitments to students and parents, and recommend changes to the program as needed.

Wherever possible, the evaluation will incorporate comparative data from previous years. Data will include at least three of the following:

• Teacher, parent, and/or student surveys
• NWEA MAPs results
• MEA results
• Advanced placement, SAT, and/or college placement results
• Local assessment data

This committee shall report its findings annually to the School Board.