Gifted Education

MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the Montoursville Area School District is to provide comprehensive programs that emphasize the Pennsylvania and National Academic Standards.  This will empower all students to use their individual abilities and capabilities to be lifelong learners and successful contributors to a global society.

Montoursville Area School District expresses a commitment to provide educational services appropriate for mentally gifted students that are consistent with each student’s individual gifted needs.  In order to provide appropriate services to the gifted students, learning opportunities that go beyond the regular education curriculum will be made available.  These opportunities can include a continuum of differentiated curricular options, instructional approaches, and resource materials.

SCREENING PROCEDURES:

Screening: To occur annually during second grade

Determination Qualifications:

  • Report Card review that indicates the student is excelling within the curriculum
  • Advanced on both Math and Reading PSSAs
  • Parent or Teacher Referrals

PROCEDURE:

  • Principal sends notice home to parent and request permission to administer the Otis-Lennon
  • Otis-Lennon is administered and scored by Montoursville Staff (i.e., Counselors and Principals)
  • Evaluation results of IQ 130 or higher: student is referred to school psychologist (Lower than 130: no referral)

Psychologist Procedure:

  • Parental Permission and Input
  • Teacher input as to the child’s rate of acquisition and retention, leadership, etc.
  • Individual Achievement and Cognitive Assessments
  • 60 days timeframe between receiving Parental Permission and Meeting with the team to discuss the results

EVALUATION PROCESS

Parental consent must be acquired before any formal evaluation can begin. The school district will form a gifted multidisciplinary team to conduct the evaluation. The evaluation consists of multiple criteria that include but are not limited to:

  • Psychological evaluation
  • IQ of 130 or higher (if lower than 130, then multiple criteria must be met)
  • Achievement Scores
  • A year or more above grade achievement level for the normal age group in one or more subjects measured by nationally normed and validated achievement tests able to accurately reflect gifted performance.
  • Acquisition and retention rates
  • Example: the gifted student with approximately one to three repetitions of new knowledge/skills is able to achieve mastery at a faster rate that a student who requires four to eight repetitions.
  • Demonstrated achievement, performance or expertise in one or more academic areas
  • Noteworthy achievements
  • Class work examples
  • Curriculum based assessments
  • Individualized Standard Achievement Assessments
  • Evidence that intervening factors are masking gifted abilities

Once the evaluation has been completed, the team will generate a report that includes data, findings, and recommendations about the student. Parents are to be included as members of the team. It is important that parents are encouraged to provide relevant information as it relates to their child’s abilities.

The team will prepare recommendations regarding the child’s educational program. This information is to be outlined in a Comprehensive Evaluation report (CER) and will be given to the Gifted Individualized Education Program Team (GIEP).

GIEP: The Gifted Individualized Educational Plan should include the following:

There are four (4) parts to the Gifted IEP. They are:

  1. Present Levels of Educational Performance,
  2. Goals,
  3. Short Term Learning Outcomes, and
  4. Specially Designed Instruction.

** Responsibility for development and implementation of each GIEP is shared between regular education teachers, gifted education support teacher and administrators.

PROGRAM OPTIONS

The gifted program at Montoursville Area School District is designed to meet Pennsylvania’s Guiding Principles of Gifted Education. These are:

  • The local school district is primarily responsible for identifying all exceptional children and developing educational programs to meet their needs.
  • Pennsylvania School Law includes gifted students as “children with exceptionalities” who need specially designed instruction.
  • Appropriate, specially designed instruction should be based on the gifted student’s strengths.
  • The GIEP should be based on information obtained from formal and informal comprehensive assessments, including input from parents.
  • The placement of a gifted student should ensure that the student is able to benefit meaningfully from the rate, level and manner of instruction.
  • The placement of a gifted student should provide learning opportunities that go beyond the program that the student would receive as part of regular education.
  • Gifted education programming must be an integral part of the instructional school day.
  • Gifted students benefit from being grouped with their intellectual peers, when appropriate, during the instructional day.