Gifted and Talented

Chester School District Policy 6171.2 states, “Gifted and talented students” shall mean those exceptionally able students who possess or demonstrate higher levels of ability in one or more content areas, when compared to their chronological peers in the local district and who require modifications of their educational program if they are to achieve in accordance with their capabilities.”

To be enrolled in GIST, students must obtain a 96% or higher on the CogAT, which is given to students in grades 2 and 5. From there, Any child who scored at the 96th percentile or higher, is invited to take the SAGES2 Non-Verbal Reasoning subtest. These four scores (CogAT Verbal, Quantitative, NonVerbal and the SAGES2 subtest) are placed on a matrix, along with the results of a teacher evaluation tool called GATES. A committee of administrators then looks at this matrix blindly (without names) and identifies children who meet a minimum of three of these five criteria. At Bragg School, students who have been accepted into the G&T (or GIST) program attend classes with Ms Kelly Tompkins weekly during their RA class time. This class is an extension of learning and the program is designed specifically for those exceptional students.