GIFTED & TALENTED
The Vision of the Whitnall School District is that every graduate is prepared to realize their full potential and to positively impact local and global communities. Central to this vision is our commitment to embracing our values of advancement, belonging, and courage to support the needs of advanced learners in academically challenging environments to reach their personal learning goals.
Programming “should be viewed as an opportunity to develop gifted behaviors rather than merely to find and certify the individual exhibiting these behaviors” (Renzulli, 2005).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Kathryn Zimpel
District Gifted & Talented Liaison
kzimpel@whitnall.com
Adam Hengel
Director of Curriculum & Instruction
ahengel@whitnall.com
PHILOSOPHY
The Whitnall School District is committed to providing high-quality learning opportunities for all students. With the understanding that students’ needs, interests, and abilities are dynamic, WSD focuses on gifted programming rather than a gifted program. This Gifted Resource Guide is designed to provide educators, administrators, students, and families with information about Gifted Programming in WSD.
The purpose of identification is to locate students who need adjustment to or work beyond the core curriculum, and to determine the types of services required to ensure a minimum of a year’s worth of growth in a one-year timespan. WSD will focus on continuous processes to develop awareness of student capabilities, potential, and needs.
PRINIPLES OF IDENTIFICATION
- Identification of giftedness takes place when we recognize exceptional learner characteristics.
- Identification is not a destination; it is a continuous and systematic process, revisited periodically.
- Educators and parents must be alert and responsive to emerging abilities, needs, and talents.
- Giftedness is found among students from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.
- Effective identification draws upon data from a variety of sources.
PRINCIPLES OF PROGRAMING
- Programming takes place to empower, extend, and enhance gifted student learning.
- Programming takes place within and beyond the school day, in a variety of settings.
- Programming is developed to address the unmet needs of identified gifted learners.
DEFINITIONS
Federal Definition:
The term ‘gifted and talented’, when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities. (No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110 (Title IX, Part A, Definition 22) (2002); 20 USC 7801(22) (2004))
US Department of Education Definition:
“Children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.” (US Department of Education, 1993)
Wisconsin Definition:
“‘Gifted and talented pupils’ means pupils enrolled in public schools who give evidence of high performance capability in intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic areas and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilities.” (Wisconsin Stat. § 118.35)