ResponsetoIntervention(RtI)

andGiftedandTalented(GT) EducationProgram Plan

“All educators for all students”

SCHOOL DISTRICT OF WILD ROSE

BOE APPROVED (DATE)

Wild Rose School District

Plan for Serving Students with Gifted and Talented Needs Through the Response to Intervention Model

Table of Contents

Page
Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee / 1
Philosophy: The District Mission and Vision of Gifted and Talented
Definition of Giftedness
Identification of Students with Gifted and Talented Needs:
  • Collaborative Teams Needs Identification Process

  • Nomination Forms

Programming for Students with Gifted and Talented Needs:
  • Background of GT Program Model & the RtI Framework
  • Tier 1
  • Strategies for Differentiating Instruction
  • Tier 2
  • Grouping Strategies
  • Tier 3
  • Acceleration Strategies

Monitoring & Accountability
Glossary of RtI and Gifted & Talented Terms
Resources
Bibliography
Appendices:
Appendix A: Nomination Forms (Teacher & Parent)
Appendix B: School District of Your School Continuum of Tier 2 & 3 Services
Appendix C: RtI Learning Plan and Progress Monitoring
Appendix D: Parent Consent form
Addendums:
Addendum 1: Wisconsin Standard (T)
Addendum 2: NAGC Standards
Addendum 3: Wisconsin RtI Framework
Addendum 4: Comparison of RtI and Gifted and Talented
Addendum 5: What It Means To Teach Gifted Learners Well
Addendum 6: Research Support for Acceleration

Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee

The School District of Wild Rose thanks the members of the Response to Intervention & Gifted and Talented Advisory committee who were instrumental in the creation of this plan:

Craig Hayes / Gifted & Talented Coordinator (.125 FTE); Athletic Director, Dean of Students, Classroom Teacher
Cindy Pomplun / School Psychologist
Charles Schuessler / MS/HS Building Principal
Barbara Sobralske / Elementary Building Principal
Jamie Koehler / School Guidance Counselor
School Board Member
Parent
Parent
Craig Hayes / Middle School Classroom Teacher
Elementary Classroom Teacher
Specialist

Mission Statement:

TheSchool District ofWild Rose, in partnership with students, parents, and the community, will provide a challenging education to prepare our students to be knowledgeable, resourceful, resilient, and productive members of our ever changing world.

Vision: The vision of School District of Wild Roseis to create a learning environment where “All children deserve to learn something new every day.”

Philosophy: Gifted children have unique academic and social and emotional needs. If these needs are not met, there is a loss to the individual, to the school, and to society. Two of the most basic needs are the appropriate level of academic challenge and to meet the socio-emotional needs of the gifted and talented student through interaction with other gifted and talented students and appropriate programming. School District of Wild Roseutilizes the Wisconsin Response to Intervention (RtI) model as a systematic approach to serving students with gifted needs.

Research Basis: The School Districtof Wild Roseplan for services for gifted and talented students is based primarily on these documents: Wisconsin Standard (T) legislation, The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), and the Wisconsin's Vision for Response to Intervention, Wisconsin Alignment of Gifted and Talented Programs to RtI (Addendum 1).

Definitions of Students with Gifted and Talented Needs

Definition: From Wisconsin School Law, Chapter 118.35 - “Gifted and talented pupils” means pupils enrolled in public schools who give evidence of high performance capability in intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership or specific academicareas and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilities.

Characteristics of advanced learners can be further defined as:

During a child’s first five or six years some of the most commonly exhibited characteristics are:

  • extraordinary vocabulary at an early age; varying sleep patterns and needs, often beginning in infancy;
  • exceptional understanding of complex or abstract ideas;
  • precocity in math and language tasks – knowledge and behaviors that are not taught or coached, but surface on their own;
  • advanced sense of humor and understanding of jokes and puns;
  • heightened sensitivity to feelings and ideas; and/or
  • amazing curiosity – questioning and touching almost everything (it seems!).

General Intelligence

  • Recalls facts easily
  • Is very well informed about one or more topics
  • Shows keen insight into cause-effect relationships
  • Has exceptional ability to solve problems
  • Has phenomenal memory

Intelligence in a Specific Academic Area

  • Exhibits extended attention in math, science and/or humanities
  • Displays a passion for a topic of interest
  • Makes independent contact with or carries on correspondence with experts in the field
  • Puts extensive efforts into a project - time is of no consequence
  • Manages to change a topic under discussion to the discipline of his/her interest (e.g., a discussion on today’s weather soon becomes focused on meteorology or global warming)

Creativity

  • Possesses strong visual thinking or imaginative skills
  • Transfers ideas and solutions to unique situations
  • Prefers variety and novelty and an individual way of solving problems
  • Asks many and unusual questions
  • Often has several projects going at once
  • Resists external controls, tests and challenges limits

Leadership

  • Relates to and motivates other people
  • Organizes others for activities
  • Demonstrates high levels of self-assurance when making decisions or convincing peers
  • Sees problems from many perspectives
  • Listens to and respects the opinions of others (or listens to, and debates the opinions of others)

Visual/Performing Arts

  • Shows very high ability in the visual arts, i.e., painting, sculpting, and/or arranging media in a unique way
  • Possesses unusual ability to create, perform, or describe music
  • Possesses unusual talent in drama or dance
  • Uses artistic ability to express or evoke feelings
  • Persists with an artistic vision

Identification of Students with Gifted and Talented Needs

The School District of Wild Roseadheres to the Wisconsin Standard (T) requirement stating gifted and talented students shall be identified as required in s. 119.35(1), Stats. This identification shall include multiple criteria that are appropriate for the category of gifted including intelligence, achievement, leadership, creativity, product evaluations, and nominations. A pupil may be identified as gifted or talented in one or more of the categories under s.118.35(1), Stats

The district utilizes a system of balanced assessment from multiple criteria to determine students with gifted and talented needs including pre-assessment/screening data, reading benchmark data, standardized test data, rating scales, classroom assessments/products, portfolios, nominations, and teacher observation.

Nominating—All Students for Additional Services

Parents and teachers may nominate students for additional services for students with gifted and talented needs. These nomination forms are received by thedistrict gifted and talented coordinator. A Student Consultation Team is formed to review the nomination form, along with other student data. The SCT may include teachers, gifted and talented coordinator, parents, school psychologist, building principals, school counselor, and other professionals as deemed necessary. A description of the process at the appropriate grade levels is outlined as follows:

Four and Five Year Old Acceleration Policy

When parent(s)/guardian(s) of four and/or five year old children make the district aware of their child’s accelerated abilities, the district administrator in collaboration with the building principal and school psychologist, will meet with the parent(s)/guardian(s) to determine if the Early Admission procedure should be utilized. The committee’s recommendation is presented to the Board of Education. The purpose of the Early Admission procedure is to identify children who are academically advanced and demonstrate a high degree of readiness for the demands of kindergarten or first grade. (See Board PolicyXXX.X)

Grade 4K-2

A nomination process will begin with the classroom teacher or parent.

Do an initial screening using Fontas & Pinnell Reading Benchmark Assessment System, MAP for primary (when available), IQ, and/or WIAT-II assessments. Results of the assessment will be discussed with the GT coordinator, student consultation team, classroom teacher, and parent(s)/guardian(s) to determine appropriate programming/enrichment.

The Nomination Form is then sent to the GT coordinator and a copy is placed in the student’s cumulative file.

Progress is monitored on a regular basis.

Grades 3-12

Based on student work, samples, portfolio or other evidence, the staff may nominate students by completing the GT nomination form(s) in one or more of the areas of giftedness:

Academic Characteristics

Creativity Characteristics

Leadership Characteristics

Visual Arts Characteristics

Performing Arts Characteristics

When teachers return the completed form to the GT Coordinator, a letter is sent home to notify parent(s)/guardian(s) regarding the specific areas of giftedness for which their child has been nominated. Parent(s)/guardian(s) are asked to participate on a student consultation team to determine appropriate enrichment/programming. A copy of the nomination form(s) and the SCT planare kept on student’s cumulative file, GT coordinator’s office, and the classroom teacher. Progress is monitored on a regular basis.

The GT Coordinator in collaboration with the SCTalso utilizes the WSAS percentile scores (95th percentile and above), MAP, or other district diagnostic data to alert staff to the potential need for additional services for high performing students.

A list of students receiving enrichment/interventions by grade level and area of giftedness is maintained by the district GT coordinator. Each SCT monitors the progress to students with gifted needs to ensure the continual growth of the student.

When necessary, further assessment tools may be utilized. This may include, but are not limited to, the Screening Assessment for Gifted Elementary and Middle School Students (SAGES-2) and the Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS).

Programming for Students with Gifted and Talented Needs

The School District of Wild Roseutilizes the RtI framework for providing services to students with gifted needs as outlined below:

Background Behind RtI

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act was reauthorized in 2004, a powerful new element was added to the law stressing prevention-focused instructional practices to be used in the regular classroom. The School District of Wild Rose is working to meet these requirements and organize a process of informed decision making that meets the needs of all students utilizing a RtI process.

Some educators are also asking, “How does this apply to students who may already know most of what I am planning to teach them or whose ability to learn is so fast that they quickly learn the material?”

The RtI model assumes that each student receives high-quality, research-based, and differentiated instruction from a general educator in a general education setting. The Wisconsin Response to InterventionModel depicted in Fig. 1 has described RtI as a practice of:

  • High Quality Instruction
  • Balanced Assessment
  • Collaboration


Wisconsin’s vision for RtI addresses both academics and behavior, employs culturally responsive practices within each of the three essential elements, and uses a strengths-based model to systematically provide ALL students with the supports they need to succeed. The School District of Wild Rose has adopted the following guiding principles that provide the philosophical underpinning to RtI and also serve as a reflective checkpoint to assess an enacted system:

  • RtI is for ALL children and ALL educators
  • RtI must support and provide value to effective practices
  • Success for RtI lies within the classroom through collaboration
  • RtI applies to both academics and behavior
  • RtI supports and provides value to the use of multiple assessments to inform instructional practices
  • RtI is something you do and not necessarily something you buy
  • RtI emerges from and supports research and evidence-based practice.

There are eight non-negotiable essential components of RtI:

1. Evidence-based curriculum and instruction

2. Ongoing assessment

3. Collaborative teaming

4. Data-based decision-making

5. Fidelity of implementation

6. Ongoing training and professional development

7. Community and family involvement

8. Strong leadership

Each element is part of an interrelated process that should be applied to every student. RtI creates an integrated and seamless continuum of service that encompasses all staff through a multi-tiered service delivery model. It requires effective building leadership and ongoing collaboration among educators with a motto of “all educators for all students.”

RTI and Gifted

The Wild Rose School District is committed to providing optimal learning conditions that support academic achievement for all students. When implemented with fidelity the RtI framework has the potential for meeting this commitment through the implementation of a multi-tiered system of support, which has been the premise of gifted education, based on scientific evidence. The School District of Wild Rose recognizes the importance of local school principals as instructional leaders, the use of data to guide instruction, appropriate interventions or enrichments and practice, parent involvement, and other research-based practices. In the world of gifted education, this refers to implementing and sustaining efforts which ensure our students have access to differentiated curriculum, flexible pacing, cluster grouping, acceleration and other universal interventions available to all students in the regular classroom.

Speaking in an edweek.org chat on RtI and Gifted Education Judy Elliott, Chief Academic Officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, says this about RtI and gifted education:

“Indeed RtI is a framework that works for all students, including gifted. Gifted students, too, have learning and behavior needs. Using the . . . RtI (model), specific interventions can be identified to support highly able students that need an extra scoop (Tier 2) or more specially challenging opportunities at Tier 3.”

EXPLANATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS FOR EACH TIER

Tier 1: ALL: Core Classroom Instruction

All students should receive core classroom instruction utilizing scientifically based curriculum and methods to teach critical elements of a subject (reading, math, written expression ), e.g., 80-90 percent of students will have a sufficient response to instruction by demonstrating subject proficiency with Effective Tier 1 instruction. Students who score at the higher level of Tier 1 should be receiving instruction that will continue to keep them challenged.

Tier 2: SOME: Strategic Targeted Instruction

Some students will receive strategically targeted instruction in addition to core instruction. Strategic instruction addresses the specific needs of students who

do not make sufficient progress (all students must grow) in Tier 1. It is important

to be aware, especially when thinking of advanced learners, that educators need to measure, not what they know, understand and are able to do relative to their age peers, but rather what they have learned during their time in the classroom. Gifted students learn at a much faster pace than other students and should not be expected to wait for their age peers to catch up. They may spend from three to six years of their school lives learning nothing new. (Rogers 2002).

Instruction is generally provided in a small group (3-5 students) format with similarly skilled students. The duration ofthis instruction will vary based on student assessment and progress monitoring data that measures the student’s response to intervention.

Tier 3: FEW: Intensive Targeted Intervention

Intensive targeted instruction is provided to the most at risk (or the students who demonstrate the greatest intellectual need) who have not sufficiently responded to Tier 1 and 2 instruction. It may in some cases replace core instruction. The duration of this intervention is extended over a longer period of time and varies based on student assessment and progress monitoring data.

Student Movement through the Tiers

Student movement through the tiers is a fluid process based on student assessment data and collaborative team decisions about students' response to instruction. It should be noted that students who receive interventions based on their needs for academic challenge are not expected to return to Tier 1 instruction. Our goal for these students is for them to learn and grow at an accelerated pace.

Similarities between RtI and practices in the field of Gifted Education make this the perfect opportunity to allow “all students’” to truly mean all. A diagram depicting the relationship between GT and RtI is found in AddendumXX.

Like RtI, Gifted Education provides a tiered model of programming. Levels of intensity in programming allow for the diversity of individual needs of students who are gifted and talented. Response to Intervention provides support systems for students with exceptional ability or potential. Students who are gifted require special provisions because of their strengths and above-grade instructional level or potential.

The School District of Wild Rosesupports Tier I as the basis of education for gifted students. Like all students it begins in the regular classroom. About 60-80 percent of gifted students will have their needs met within that setting, as long as there is consistent, high quality differentiation. Approximately 15 to 20 percent of the gifted students will need some type of additional services, such as pull-together (sometimes referred to as pull-out) activities or program offerings, academic competitions, special projects, etc. Even with differentiation and additional classroom services, approximately 1 to 10 percent will require some form of opportunity outside the regular classroom, such as grade skipping, subject acceleration, concurrent enrollment, etc.

With its strong expectation of differentiation in the regular classroom, RtI embeds gifted education into the daily focus of quality instruction. Academic, affective and behavioral outcomes become critical targets for students, not solely enrichment targets as was a previous standard.