Cherrydale School

Gifted and Talented Programs

Procedures for Screening, Referral, and Service to Students

The School District of Greenville County provides programs for Gifted and Talented Students to challenge them with rigorous, complex class work and research. Gifted students may demonstrate high performance ability or potential in academic areas. Administrators, parents, teachers, and students may make referrals for students to be screened. All students who are referred from any source are screened during the first quarter of each school year (or shortly after moving to a school during the school year) to determine their eligibility. Upon meeting the requirements for this program, written parental permission will be obtained.

In November of each year, the State Department of Education provides testing for students in grade two to determine their eligibility for Gifted and Talented Programs. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, an achievement test, and The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), an aptitude test, are administered. As soon as results are available in mid-January, parents are notified of their child’s performance on these tests.

Students may qualify automatically with an extremely high aptitude or IQ score at 96th percentile or higher for their age group. If students do not qualify solely on aptitude, this process will be used for screening:

· In Dimension A - Reasoning Abilities Students must demonstrate high aptitude (93rd national age percentile or above) in one or more of these areas: verbal, nonverbal, quantitative and/or a composite of the three.

· In Dimension B - Academic Achievement Students must demonstrate high achievement (94th national percentile and above or advanced status) in reading and/or math as measured by a nationally normed or South Carolina statewide (PACT) assessment instrument. The most recent scores for each test are considered for meeting criteria in this area. Only fall MAP (Measures of Academic Performance) data will be considered.

· In Dimension C - Intellectual/Academic Performance Rising third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students may be eligible to take the Performance Task Test in March if they have already met the criteria in Dimension A or Dimension B. Students will only take the Primary Form or the Intermediate form of this test once. Beginning with grade 7, students must have a 3.75 GPA on a 4.0 scale to meet the criteria in Dimension C.

Students must meet the criteria in two of these three dimensions in order to participate in the Gifted and Talented Program.

Results of private testing will not be accepted for placing students in the Challenge program.

Students who meet the state criteria and have parental permission will be placed in the academically gifted and talented program beginning in third grade. This program is called "Challenge" in Greenville County. At the elementary level, Challenge is a pull-out program. In third grade, students attend Challenge for at least 125 minutes each week. Students in grades four and five attend Challenge for at least 200 minutes per week. Each school receives a Challenge teacher based upon the number of qualified students in that school. Students are taught in classes with a teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 20 or less.

Second grade students who meet special criteria based on the Cognitive Abilities Test will be invited to attend the Greenville County Gifted Center. For more information about the school and admission requirements, please visit the website at http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/district/support/tandl/gifted2.asp#faq.

At the middle school level, the Challenge program serves students through Language Arts instruction. . Gifted and Talented courses (English GT 6, 7, 8 and English I Honors) are daily scheduled classes with a teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 25 or less.

Honors mathematics and English courses serve identified gifted and talented high school students. These classes meet daily with a teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 25 or less.

If you have questions regarding Gifted and Talented Programs, please contact Jane Snyder at 355-4821 or email her at jsnyder@greenville.k12.sc.us. Please visit our website at http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/district/support/tandl/gifted.asp.

Cherrydale Elementary School