Mrs. Duckworth - Gifted and Talented Education Facilitator and Program Director

Quotes on Gifted Education

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. – Linus Pauling

The wisest mind has something yet to learn. – George Santayana

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Nomination and Identification Process:

The nomination for evaluation of giftedness is a lengthy process.  It begins with a piece of evidence that a student demonstrates that stands out from the rest.  This could be a high data score, (90th percentile or above) teacher and/or parent observations and anecdotal notes.  After gathering preliminary information, the student's name will be discussed at S.I.T. and a decision to nominate, or not nominate will be reached.  If they become nominated, parent consent will be attained.  Then the evaluation process may begin.  To qualify for gifted services, a student must have: One quantitative score in the 95th percentile or above on a nationally normed Achievement or Ability test. (Examples: Cogats and Maps)  Then they must have 2 of the 4 categories of qualitative data.  The 4 possible categories include: Student Performance (example: CSAP and reading level) Motivation, Observable Student behaviors and Student Interest.  Students who qualify are classified by their strength area.  A student will be categorized in one of the following strength areas:  Math gifted.  Language Arts gifted.  Both math and language arts gifted.  Other type of giftedness  include non-verbal, leadership, creativity, spatial, visual or performing arts gifted.  Parents, teachers, administrators and students work closely with Mrs. Duckworth to attain a body of evidence to fully support these categories and come to a placement or non-placement decision.

Services:

Once a student has been identified as gifted we can incorporate a variety of program service options and strategies that are matched to the identified academic needs of that student.  Here at East we use Flexible Grouping, Differentiation, Pull Out Services, and Acceleration. 

All staff members, parents and students will be working as a cohesive team striving for the same goal for each child - to focus on the whole child development and to plan for the creative, social-emotional, and intellectual growth of each gifted and talented student. 

I am looking forward to getting to know all the students here at East.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Diane Duckworth

Gifted and Talented Coordinator

E-mail: dduckworth@lps.k12.co.us