Assessment

Rules and regulations dealing with assessment are approved by the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education. These rules and regulations, called "due process," have been established for the protection and privacy of individuals.

There are three steps in the process of identifying and placing gifted students: referral, evaluation and eligibility.

1. Referral  The referral process is the first step for entrance into the gifted program. A referral may come from teachers, parents, peers, or as the result of system-wide testing scores. Referrals are reviewed by each school's local gifted referral team. This team determines which students will be evaluated for gifted education placement.
2. Evaluation  Following parental consent, the local school evaluates the student's mental ability, achievement, creativity and motivation through the use of nationally normed group tests, performance assessments, and survey checklists.
3. Eligibility  An eligibility team composed of at least three people (a local school administrator, a teacher, a counselor and/or the gifted program teacher) reviews the evaluation information about the referred student. The team follows guidelines set by the State Department of Education when making a decision about the student's placement in the gifted program. The local school notifies parents as to the team's decision.

A student must qualify in the following areas to be placed in the gifted program:

• Mental Ability 96th %ile
• Achievement 90th %ile
• Creativity    90th %ile or 90%
• Motivation 90% (K-5) / 92% (6-12)

Gifted education students are responsible for mastery of GCPS’ Academic Knowledge and Skills. However, due to the unique nature of the elementary gifted resource program and the additional workload the students are expected to carry, they will, in most cases, be excused from daily and related homework assignments given while attending classes.