Gifted And Talented Program Overview

The Somerset School District shall establish a plan and designate a person to coordinate the gifted and talented program.  Gifted and talented students shall be identified as required in s. 118.35 (1).  Per this statute, identification of such students will occur in Kindergarten through grade 12 in one or more of the 6 types of giftedness as recognized by the Wiscosins state standards.  Those categories are: general intelligence, specific academic area, leadership, creativity. and visual and performing arts.

The Somerset School District is committed to providing opportunities which foster the gifts and talents of its students and provide experiences to develop and expand those gifts.

Students recommended as gifted and talented in the areas of general intelligence or specific academic shall be formally identified and given the opportunity to learn at his/her own personal high performance level within the classroom curriculum and/or through the additional challenge of opportunities not ordinarily provided in the regular curriculum as determined by the identification criterion.

A student who is perceived by a teacher to be gifted and talented in the areas of creativity, arts or leadership shall be provided with enrichment activities within the classroom curriculum.

Identification Categories

Students will be identified as gifted and talented in the identification subcategories of general-intellectual and specific-academic:

General-Intellectual: The intellectually gifted are children who exhibit early and rapid development of language ability, strong powers of reasoning and advanced ability in critical thinking and problem solving. They may manipulate information in divergent ways when challenged by complex issues. Typically these children are noted for being several years beyond their peers in cognitive ability.

Specific-Academic: Academically able students are capable of making outstanding progress in one or more of the disciplines taught in school, which include math, science, social studies, reading and language arts.

        Identification Criterion

The School District of Somerset adheres to the Wisconsin Standard (T) requirement stating gifted and talented students shall be identified as required in s. 118.35 (1).   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, and nominations.

Educational Programming

The Somerset School District has adopted and embraced the Wisconsin's Framework for Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Supports (formerly known as RtI) and the Wisconsin Academic Standards for all students.   The Education Programming Standards from the https://nagc.org/ (NAGC) for Gifted & Talented and High Achieving students serve as a guideline for all Gifted and Talented Programming .

Questions

If you have any questions regarding the Gifted and Talented Program please contact the Director of Pupil Services, Abbie Bohatta, at 715-247-4848 ext. 575 abohatta@somerset.k12.wi.us