Gifted & Talented Program

WHAT ARE the ADVANCED ACADEMICS (AdA) and GIFTED and TALENTED (GT) PROGRAMS?

Advanced Academics includes education for students, K-12, who need to be taught at a faster pace and/or at a more complex level than their peers in order to thrive educationally.

In elementary schools:

• All classrooms address the needs of  advanced learners

• Gifted and Talented (GT) program identifies students who require a teacher with extra training to meet content, instructional, and emotional needs of gifted students.

At middle and high school:

• Students may choose Advanced Placement (Pre-AP and AP) courses.

• GT identified students are served inside of the Pre-AP and AP courses by teachers trained in GT education.

Advanced Academics Program including Gifted and Talented Program Mission Statement

The Advanced Academic Program supports the mission of PISD (to provide a quality education with a commitment to excellence by facilitating learning in a safe and nurturing environment) with its own mission.

The mission of Pflugerville ISD Advanced Academic Program is to identify potential high academic students and provide them with opportunities for:

• Academic rigor, depth, and breadth
• Acceleration
• Independent Research
• College preparation
• Nurturing of healthy social and emotional development so that each student reaches his/her academic potential.

Advanced Academics Program and Gifted and Talented Program Goals

The Advanced Academic Program will:

• Ensure that advanced education services are an integral part of the general education program and address at least 25% of students in PISD
• Identify as Gifted and Talented 5-8% of its student population in similar ethnic and economic distribution patterns as the general student population in the areas of:
  • general intellectual ability
  • high number of gifted characteristics
  • specific academic aptitude
• Provide differentiated instruction to all advanced learners, K-12 including pace (acceleration) and level (depth and complexity)
• Provide services to meet the social and emotional needs of advanced learners
• Facilitate professional development for teachers, counselors and administrators of advanced learners
• Publicize opportunities outside regular school calendar in which gifted and talented students may participate

Definition of Population to be Served

Pflugerville ISD serves students in grades K - 12 in the Advanced Academics Gifted and Talented Program who are identified as possessing general characteristics of an advanced academics student. Students in grades 6 through 12 will also be identified according to their specific subject matter aptitude. An “advanced academic gifted student” means a child or youth who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age and environment (ethnicity, language and/or socio-economic status) by:

1. Exhibiting high verbal, non-verbal or spatial intellectual ability
2. Exhibiting many identified gifted characteristics
3. Excelling in one or more specific academic fields

Campus Advanced Academics Committee

The principal, or his/her designee, on each campus will be responsible for organizing an Advanced Academics Committee composed of three professional district educators schooled in advanced academic education: an administrator, a teacher, and a counselor, psychologist, or diagnostician. Principals are not recommended as members of this committee so that they may decide campus appeals.

The duties of the Advanced Academic Committee are:

1. Identify students to be served by the AdA GT Program based on the data gathered in the screening process
2. Consider and place transfer students
3. Make decisions regarding the furlough, reassessment or exiting of students from the program
4. Insure that completed copies of AdA Identification forms are sent to the AdA coordinator at the end of each identification window
5. Consider student acceleration along with district AdA Coordinator