GIFTED AND TALENTED SCREENING/SELECTION PERIOD BEGINS
1st – 11th Grade
Is Your Child Gifted?
Parents of bright students who perform well in school often wonder if their child may be gifted. Successful students are often high achievers. They make good grades, do very well on criterion-reference testing, and work hard in school. The state of Texas defines “gifted and talented students” as children who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area, excel in a specific academic field, or excel in leadership. Consider the differences between high achievers and gifted learners.
High Achievers | Gifted Learners | High Achievers | Gifted Learners | |
Knows the answers | Asks the questions | “Loves the teacher” | Loves ideas | |
Is interested in learning | Is highly curious | Good memorizer | Good, informed guesser | |
Copies accurately | Creates a new design or way of doing | Answers the questions | Discusses in detail, elaborates | |
Is attentive in class | Is mentally and physically involved | Works hard | Plays around, yet tests well | |
A top group student | Is beyond the group | Completes assignments | Initiates projects | |
Is pleased with his/her own learning | Is highly self-critical | Wants the “rules” of the assignment | “I want to do it my way” | |
Learns with ease | Already knows | Enjoys peers | Prefers older students or adults |
If your child consistently shows characteristics of giftedness rather than characteristics of high achievement, you may want to refer your child for the Mission CISD Gifted and Talented Program.
Anyone may nominate a student to be assessed for Mission CISD’s Gifted and Talented (GT) Program by contacting the child’s teacher. Once a student is nominated for assessment, the child’s teacher will provide a “Parent Permission to Test Form” and “Parent Inventory” to the nominated child’s parents/guardian which must be completed, signed, and submitted to the child’s teacher prior to the designated deadline. Assessment for the Gifted and Talented Program requires written parental permission (signed Parent Permission to Test Form).
The nomination period for first through eleventh grade students is from Monday, February 2, through Friday, February 13, 2015. ALL PARENT FORMS (Parent Permission to Test Form and Parent Inventory) must be completed and submitted to the campus no later than Friday, February 13, 2015. Group testing of referred first through eleventh grade students will take place from March through May. Parents will be notified of the district selection committee decision regarding the identification of referred first through eleventh grade students by the end of June, with GT services being provided beginning with the 2015-2016 school year.
The Gifted and Talented identification process consists of two levels of assessment. In the first level of assessment, the child’s teacher will complete a Teacher Inventory, the parents/guardian will complete a Parent Inventory, and referred students will be administered a nonverbal mental abilities test. Upon evaluating these measures, students meeting two of the three pre-established criteria will continue to the second level of assessment, which consists of being administered norm-referenced achievement tests in math and in reading as well as a test of creativity. To be identified as GT in Mission CISD, students need to meet the pre-established criteria in four out of the six total assessment areas (teacher inventory, parent inventory, mental abilities test, math achievement test, reading achievement test, and creativity test).
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