How are students identified for gifted services?

DCSD follows State of Colorado guidelines for the identification of gifted students. New rules have been implemented in 2015, and all districts must meet certain portability criteria. This makes it possible for students who move between Colorado districts to resume services in a timely manner, rather than waiting for a lengthy identification review process. Parents of transfer students should contact their building Site Coordinator, upon enrollment.

Identification
  1. Nomination - Students may come to our attention through multiple paths. They may be nominated by a parent, teacher, peer, or even self-nominate. DCSD conducts annual Universal Screening using the CogAT for all second grade students. The goal is to find students with great potential, who may go un-noticed. The Response to Intervention (RtI) process, in which students are given differentiated and more challenging material, is another way we may be alerted to a child's advanced learning needs.
  1. Body of Evidence - Once a child is "on the radar", the school Site Coordinator will begin to build a body of evidence (BOE). This folio will contain evidence of academic achievement, cognitive potential and behaviors common to gifted individuals. Behavioral checklists will be solicited from home, as well as school personnel. A student may exhibit great talent in the arts, in which case a performance rubric would be included. The State of Colorado has defined a qualifying indicator as a criterion-referenced score of Advanced or a normed score of 95th percentile or above.
  1. Identification - Within 30 days of referral, a team of educators (including at least one gifted specialist) will meet to review the data and make a placement recommendation. If the child has at least 3 qualifying indicators from 2 or more categories, the team may identify the child for special support services. The team may find insufficient data to make a formal identification, and may elect to postpone identification until more evidence is available. The student may be served through "talent pool", receive differentiated instruction, as appropriate, and RtI progress monitoring takes place.
  1. Programming - Once a child has been identified for GT services, they will meet with educators to set learning goals targeted to create appropriate learning challenges and aligned to their area of giftedness. These goals are recorded in an Advanced Learning Plan (ALP), along with the evidence collected in the BOE. All teachers share responsibility for assisting the student in achieving their learning goals. The student will also be "coded" GT in the PowerSchool student database.

The ALP and BOE are subject to Colorado GT portability rules, and must be able to follow the student to any school in the state.