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What Gifted Services are available?
There are many intellectually gifted and talented students enrolled in Scottsdale Unified School District. To ensure that the abilities of these very capable youngsters are developed, parents, educators and legislators have come to recognize the importance of providing special curricula for gifted and talented youth. The goal of Scottsdale Gifted Services is to meet the unique curriculum needs of these able students.
Although delivery may be different at each school, the parameters of the gifted program are as follows:
For information specific to each school, please contact the gifted specialist at that school.
Comprehensive Gifted Program: Scottsdale School District is pleased to offer a Comprehensive (Self Contained) Gifted Program. This program, which offers a complete gifted curriculum, is designed for students in grades 4 and 5 who have the extraordinary academic needs, abilities and intellectual potential found in the top three percent of the population.
Grades 1-2: Clustering (places identified gifted students in the same classroom in groups of 3-5) with professional assistance by the gifted specialist to help the classroom teacher prepare challenging programs for each individual gifted student.
Grades 3-5 (and 6 if at an elementary site):
Services for the quantitatively gifted are provided at a minimum of 3 hours per week per grade level. This replaces math curriculum, meaning that if children have already mastered the math curriculum at their grade level, they will be given curriculum that is commensurate with their ability levels. At some schools this is done within the regular classroom: at other schools this is done as a pull out with the Gifted Specialist.
Services for the verbally gifted are provided at a minimum of 1.5 hours per week per grade level. Services for the non-verbally gifted are provided at a minimum of 1 hour per week per grade level. These are academic enrichment programs that add depth and breadth to grade level competencies. Enrichment is accomplished through extension of the grade level curriculum and development of the following skills:
- logical thinking
- reasoning skills
- critical and creative thinking
- problem solving
For information specific to each school, please contact the gifted specialist at that school.
At the middle school level, students have many academic and extra-curricular options from which to choose. Verbally qualified students are clustered for Humanities/Language Arts in the classroom. Professional assistance is provided by the gifted specialist to help the classroom teacher prepare challenging programs for each individual gifted student.
Quantitatively qualified students have the opportunity to participate in accelerated and/or advanced math classes. Students are given a math assessment to determine appropriate placement. Non-verbally qualified students are offered an exploratory class designed to challenge the creative minds of spatially gifted students. This exploratory, "Independent Investigations," requires students to research and develop projects and products related to topics that interest them. In this class the students use their talent to do research, develop solutions, share ideas, and problem solve while working with their classmates.
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