City Schools' GAL Policy clearly states how students are formally identified in the district.  This document is publicly available and has been widely disseminated.

The City Schools GAL website clearly and publicly states gifted identification procedures and criteria for the district, which our school follows.

City Schools sends an annual letter to all Kindergarten families to inform them of the universal screening and gifted identification process.

After screening all kindergarten students, we send home the student report from Pearson and a standard letter to inform parents if their child is identified as a gifted or advanced learner. They are also sent throughout the year for any new students in grades K-8 or students who retested. 

The RPEMS GAL website is available to all families and students. The link is also under my email signature. The page includes district identification guidelines as well as other questions specific to our school. Opportunities and academic honors are also posted.

All families were notified and invited through our ParentSquare communication system. The presentation included identification procedures and addressed other frequently asked questions. Participants were able to send questions ahead of time and provide feedback on the session. Slides were posted on our GAL Website after for any families who could not attend. 

This brochure started going home with kindergarten and new registers several years ago so parents had the information in their hands ahead of time. We added the matrix and FAQ sheet to make the exact identification labels more understandable at all levels. 

In order to ensure our entire school community is aware of the gifted identification procedures and programming, we clearly state them in our Back to School Night presentation. These slide decks are also shared with families so they can use the links.

This handbook goes to all families in our school. Page 55 highlights specifics for identification and programming. 

RPEMS houses two accelerated programs for grades 6-8. Each program has it's own admissions criteria and students from across the district can apply. We hold parent information sessions about Middle Choice at our school for 4th and 5th grade parents as well as sharing information about Open Houses and the Middle School Choice Fair.

This document outlines the membership of the GAL committee and their roles within the school community, including teachers, administrators, and other professional staff.

In Baltimore City, students must apply for advanced programs. Roland Park houses two of these advanced programs: Ingenuity and Advanced Academics (Honors). This is the most current presentation for our RPEMS 4th and 5th grade parents regarding how placements are made. 

Our leadership team is responsible for class rosters. Our model in grades K-5 is to have mixed-ability classrooms that allow for academic movement. Gifted and advanced students are cluster-grouped within our classrooms to ensure they also have like-ability peers to work with as well. Documents include email instructions from administration and copies of rising 5th and 2nd grade rosters.

This artifact includes the meeting agenda, sign in, and data used to make programmatic decisions.  In this case, we examined our identification data and planned new interventions to increase the number of students we serve in GAL instructional opportunities. We believe heavy intervention in the lower grades will create more capacity for students (and teachers) as they progress each year.

This artifact includes the meeting agenda, attendees, and data used to make programmatic decisions around our Accelerated Math Pathway.  In collaboration with the Ingenuity Project, we analyze student data at the end of each year to determine students who may benefit from skipping Pre-Algebra and moving to Algebra 1 in 7th grade. 

 We This artifact includes emails  between the teacher, Assistant Principal and GAL Lead and data used regarding students who should receive pull-out accelerated math services in 5th grade in the 2023-2024 school year. The teacher was a long-term sub while we were in transition. The second artifact is the data used that was updated as we continued through the year.

In the spring, many meetings about data are held to focus on prepping for the next year. This plan came from anecdotal data on teacher feelings and coaches classroom observations. in hopes it would have positive impact on student learning and teacher affect.

The City Schools GAL Policy clearly states the multiple indicators that are used to identify students including the use of nonverbal ability, achievement scores in math and reading, and creativity.  Our school follows the district policy.

The City Schools GAL Webpage clearly lays out the identification process which includes multiple indicators such as ability (either NNAT or CogAT), achievement in math and reading (nationally normed assessments), motivation, and creativity.

Students in grades PK-2 complete two units each year. All students participate and rating scales (REPI)  of gifted behaviors help to identify students who may not show up on academic testing. 

I work closely with our student support team to make sure our twice-exceptional students are identified. When they receive neuro/psych reports for behavioral or academic concerns, they always share the data or invite me to meetings if the report shows above-average or asynchronous sub-tests.

Our teachers spend more time with their students than anyone.  They know their students best  and sometimes see ability that a test just doesn't.  Our teachers can refer a student for testing or re-testing. This can include anecdotal information or detailed educational data. 

All students do not show their true ability in school or on tests. They also change and grow. For this reason, we accept parent referrals for possible identification. This can include anecdotal information or detailed data. This also helps ensure that new students do not slip through the cracks.

This list shows all current students and whether or not they have met GAL criteria for ability and  math and/or reading. This lets us know which students have not been tested or have met the criteria for reading and math but not ability, This indicates we may want to retest.   As a city school, a portion of our population is transient and we want to make sure no child slips through the cracks. 

Students are assessed three times per year. The DIBELS assessment is given all all students in grades K-5, and i-Ready Reading in grades 6-8. This provides nationally normed reading achievement data for students in all grade levels. This data is used in conjunction with the NNAT3 testing to properly code GAL students. 

The i-Ready math diagnostic is given to students in grades K-8. The diagnostic is given three times per year to determine placement and growth.  The data is nationally-normed and used  is used in conjunction with the NNAT3 testing to properly code GAL students. 

This report shows the assessment data results for all tested students. This report is used to identify students that need further testing (achievement) and to correctly code students in the GAL program. 

Our ILT annually reviews our GAL student data, such as  grades and testing data in order to determine if our services are effective.  In this meeting, we examined disaggregated student data and committed to our own personal goal as well as a group goal to help improve overall student data. See slides 10, 12, 19, and 21 for applicable GAL information.

Every formally identified student receives an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) that incorporates goals for students based on their strengths. All teachers have access to their students' ILPs in Infinite Campus (our SMS) as soon as the child is registered for their class. They are updated annually.  ILPs included from the last 3 school years. 

Annually, we look at our MCAP data such as scores, identification level, and race, GAL students to determine if there is discrepancy between ability and output. We discuss the data in grade level/content meetings to look for trends or find the "why?" I can then hold individual conferences with students of concern. This particular meeting regarded Gifted and Advanced, Looking at Talent Development in next Lead meeting.

Annually, we complete this plan to hold ourselves accountable for properly serving our large gifted and advanced population.  The GAL Lead and Principal review  each year to appropriate completion and possible change for the next year.  Plans from SY 22-23 and 24-25 included.

In examining BOY to MOY math data, we found that many students were not making the growth they should in grade 3. A list of students of concern was compiled, anecdotal notes collected, and small groups planned for the 6 weeks prior to MCAP. Intentional planning of standards and students led to every student (but 1) pulled in one of these groups to earn proficient or advanced level on the Math MCAP. We even received commendation from MSDE for our grade 3 pass rate.

Ingenuity is our grade 6 -8 advanced math and science program. They use their own curriculum based on NGSS, going more in-depth than typical honors. The MAP test results are analyzed each year to ensure students are gaining proficiency from BOY to EOY and determine if anything needs to change. 

In this session K-8 teachers were asked to compare BOY to MOY results and look closer at students who are GAL (and other flags). Are they making progress (they tend to make the least since they start above)? If not, what domain needs work? Then create an action plan to be checked for growth. This was the first time we heard our teachers thankful for a useful PD! We carried it into smaller team/content meetings for the following year.

In our weekly, math, academic planning meetings we discuss student progress and share out how we are meeting the needs of our diverse learners.  In this meeting, as a collaborative team we focused on how we can use the i-Ready platform to meet the needs of learners below level, on-level, and above-level.  The highlighted area shows a recap of our discussion on above-grade-level opportunities for students in math via the i-Ready platform. 

Sometimes, just as important as academic growth are the social emotional needs of our students. This survey demonstrates the students assessing their own learning after skipping Pre-algebra and completing Algebra 1 in 7th grade. 

Students not meeting program requirements are asked to complete an action plan for the following year and or/ determine if the program is still the right fit for them. While we want our gifted students to achieve all that they can, pushing to a point of frustration, especially for our 2E students is not always best. 

The district provides self-paced online modules featuring how students are identified, their characteristics, archetypes, and multiple sessions on culturally and linguistically diverse students.

The GAL Office sends monthly articles that address different characteristics of gifted students, including underserved populations, which our team reads and discusses.  This artifact includes an article about underachievement, along with the meeting agenda and notes from our article discussion with the coaching and administrative team.

Annually, our Ingenuity teachers in grades 6-8, math and science, participate in a special week of training at the end of the schoolyear. These teachers also teach our honors students so all of our gifted and advanced students benefit from the content.  They look at upcoming curricula, analyze data, and make programatic decisions. 

Every year, we train our staff in the procedures and methods used to identify gifted students in our district.  This artifact includes the slides used  and/or email sent to entire staff.

Each month our Equity Lead sends out information to the entire staff through his "Equity Corner." We have thoughtful discussions in content and team meetings. This particular piece was a reminder to teachers of ways to challenge their students and be mindful of cultural sustaining pedagogy. 

The club sponsors for "Open Doors," our LBGTQ+ group, were notified of this opportunity and one was able to attend. They are a teacher of gifted middle school students. The majority of members in Open Doors are also identified as gifted or advanced learners. They said this webinar was helpful and some of the resources have been beneficial this school year. 

Prior to starting monthly newsletters, the GAL Lead would send monthly GAL updates to the entire staff.  This email is an example of an article shared with staff to read and think about with their own students. The Varied Faces of Gifted (Excerpted from Equity in Gifted Education: A State Initiative) gives characteristics of students in different representations of gifted in areas of academics.

The GAL Lead asked the math and literacy coaches to pick an identified student who was not meeting academic markers (Talent Development). They took a deep dive into their data to both help the student and to present to their teachers on how students can be over-looked. This particular student scored very high on Naglieri and is an English Language Learner. Based on overall data and new testing, we have referred her dyslexia and attention difficulties. Our Literacy Lead put this plan together.

Related Service Providers were invited to learn more about 2E. They work 1:1 with students already identified with a handicapping condition and can be the first to  notice gifted behaviors that can be masked by a disability in the classroom.  The GAL Lead teamed with our school psychologist to develop and present. 

Our school annually reviews identification by student groups and completes a thorough data protocol to determine the extent to which there is equitable representation.  This includes data from the 22-23 and 23-24  school year.

This is the presentation by our principal to the community. We are focused on equitable representation and strategies to create success for ALL of our students, including those identified as GAL and underserved populations.

Our school annually reviews identification for our advanced math classes. This spreadsheet demonstrates the many ways we ranked data to be equitable. There is a tab that identifies the final count for offers by race/ethnicity for our rising classes in 22-23.

This is the presentation that is updated by the GAL Lead annually after Universal Screening. I do find teachers doing more each year to expose their youngest learners to analogical and spacial thinking and activities. 

Sixth grade is an adjustment for all students, especially when they come to RPEMS from schools all over the district.  At the end of the year, The GAL Lead and 6th grade team examine data from the year to see which honors students have met with success and who may need more support for 7th grade.  Data is disaggregated for trends and implications.

The staff at RPEMS receives weekly communication from the Principal. Each edition of the Ram's Weekly includes our SPP Goals, and current data disaggregated in many ways. Teachers are asked often to reflect on their own practices to make sure instruction and opportunities are equitable.  For 5/16/24, data begins on pg 8 and for 10/14/24, it begins on pg 6.