Selection & Placement
Selection Process
An Identification Committee of qualified professionals select children for placement in the Phoenix Program. The committee includes the gifted and talented coordinating teacher, an administrator, a general education/classroom teacher, and the guidance counselor; another individual may join the team who would aid in the selection process, e.g. an artist for selection of students with artistic ability.
The responsibilities of this committee:
Review the information collected on students who have met the screening criteria.
Consider additional screening tools if necessary to gather additional information on the child.
Select students for placement in the program based upon an assessment of the collected information.
Oversee the annual review of the selection process.
Assure that the selection process is equitable.
A combination of strong teacher recommendations based on screening checklist responses, with multiple examples of exceptional student work will be taken into consideration in determining student’s eligibility for the program, when a test score is within 5 points of qualifying. This allows for recognition of the student whose background experiences have not prepared him/her to perform well on standardized tests.
Placement
Selected students are appropriately placed in the Phoenix programming options.
Students informally identified in grades k-3 will be invited to participate in small group, enriched learning options offered over the school year. Parent permission letters are sent home.
Selected students in grades 4-8 are eligible for an individual plan designed to meet their particular academic and/or artistic strengths, interests, and needs.
Parents of selected students in grades 4-8 are notified of their student’s eligibility for Phoenix Program services, along with a description of the programs that will be provided, and written parental permission is obtained to place the student in the program. Individual plan design involves input from teachers, parents, and student. If a student chooses not to have an individual plan for whatever reason, the gifted and talented specialist will collaborate with regular classroom teachers on meeting the student’s needs without a formal plan in place.
An annual review of each student’s program is conducted to evaluate appropriateness of placement and instruction.
Placement process assures collaboration between regular classroom teacher(s) and the gifted and talented specialist to develop programming provided for selected students.
The superintendent and curriculum coordinator are notified of the students selected for the gifted and talented program and provided with a description of the program(s) that will be provided.
Records are maintained on each child’s participation in the Phoenix Program.