There are two main entryways to identifying a student as gifted in the Weld RE-4 School District: nominations / referrals and universal screeners.
Nominations / Referrals
A student, parents / guardians, school staff, peers, and community members may nominate a student for gifted evaluation by using our Nomination Form (Spanish). Students can be identified as gifted and talented in the following areas:
- General Intellectual Ability
- Specific Academic Aptitude
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- World Languages
- Creative or Productive Thinking
- Leadership Ability
- Specific Talent Aptitude
- Visual Arts
- Performing Arts
- Musical
- Dance
- Psychomotor Abilities
Universal Screeners
We currently provide all students the opportunity to assess potential giftedness through the universal screeners CogAT in second grade and NNAT2 in sixth grade. Students who score in the upper 80th and lower 90th percentile range are examined further for possible inclusion in the talent pool and / or for future identification in an area of giftedness.
At the middle school, the universal screen includes the cognitive test for non-identified students, and may also include an achievement test for students already identified in one or more areas of giftedness. This assists in developing the student’s individual career and academic plan (ICAP).
Qualification
To qualify a student as gifted, we collect a body of evidence in line with Colorado Department of Education guidelines. Students may need additional tests for information about achievement, performance, and / or behavioral characteristics for building a body of evidence. A body of evidence is developed for identification determinations, and includes criteria for identification and information about a student's strength to support these criteria.
Generally students are identified as gifted and talented beginning in third grade, because of the availability of data needed to qualify students.
Categories of Achievement
There are four categories of achievement that can indicate giftedness: intellectual ability, behavior, and special talent / performance. A student must have three indicators in at least two separate categories in their strength area to be identified as gifted and talented in that area.
Indicators of Achievement
An indicator of achievement can include standardized assessments or behavior rating scales (i.e., 95% or above on CMAS assessments). For non-academic areas, we rely heavily on checklists of characteristics of gifted students (i.e., the Scales for Identifying Gifted Students – SIGS) and examples of advanced performance in the area as measured by a rubric.
For example, to qualify as gifted in science a student could have a CogAT score of 96%, a distinguished score on science CMAS, and a 97% on the SIGS in science. Another example could be a student who won first place in a state art competition, has "advanced" on an art portfolio scored by an art teacher, and is in the 95th percentile on the Performing and Visual Arts GES-3.
We may elect to consider outside testing in some situations. In these instances, the test must include, at minimum, the following elements: name of test, name and signature of proctor, student profile, test date, and, if applicable, proctor comments.
Talent Pool
The talent pool is a group of students who demonstrate advanced potential but do not yet qualify as gifted. Intelligence and ability are flexible, so it is important to provide advanced students opportunities to think with depth and complexity so they may hone their skills and develop to their full potential. Students who display characteristics of giftedness may be included in the talent pool to provide them with rigorous and enriching instruction that may lead to gifted identification in the future. Talent pool students are checked at regular intervals to determine whether continued talent pool status, gifted identification, or exiting the pool is appropriate.