The nomination window for spring testing is open!
Isabella Bird Community School is excited to welcome a gifted magnet program beginning in the 2026 - 2027 school year! Historically, Isabella Bird has served an accelerated population of learners since 2016-2017 when we first implemented the School-wide Cluster Grouping Model. We also have a large population of students that are not formally identified as gifted but continue to perform above grade level. The magnet program provides more structured support for these learners by exposing them to higher level thinking strategies, enriching the classroom environment with diverse perspectives, and providing opportunities for collaboration. Our goal is to raise the academic bar for the entire student body and by housing a magnet program, we are honoring our exceptional and creative student body!
School-wide Cluster Grouping Model (SCGM) is an inclusion model that purposefully integrates students with exceptional learning needs into mixed ability classrooms and allows teachers to provide appropriate differentiation opportunities for anyone who needs them. Cluster grouping provides the opportunity for gifted students to interact with their intellectual and same-age peers. Through cluster grouping, the intellectual, social and emotional needs of gifted students can be addressed. In addition, it allows us to meet the needs of our high performing students who haven't been identified yet, with in GT clusters.
At Isabella Bird, all teachers are either certified in gifted education or getting their certification through DPS’s two year gifted certification program. Courses include: Instructional Strategies for Gifted Learners, Programming and Assessment for Gifted Learners, and Curriculum and Practicum for Gifted Learners. Our GT teacher also provides in house professional learning opportunities to the full staff on a variety of topics and coaches teachers in gifted programming and differentiation.
Some of Isabella Bird's highlighted differentiation strategies that can be found within classrooms are depth & complexity, questioning techniques, choice boards, and Socratic Seminars. Other ways in which teachers meet the needs of their gifted learners are through compacting and accelerating curriculum, designing tiered lessons, and promoting creativity within activities so that students are able to naturally take their learning as far as it can go.
There is no one method for meeting the needs of our gifted population. At Isabella Bird, we utilize assessment data, our relationships with students and knowledge of best practices in gifted education to meet their individual needs. We pride ourselves on collaborating across disciplines with all of the experts in our building- special education, multilingual education, and our school psychologist. Our GT teachers take on coaching roles to collaborate with classroom teachers to enrich and extend the core curriculum, co-teach, model lessons using specific gifted differentiation strategies, and provide targeted professional development to build the capacity of our staff. They are also responsible for Colorado’s legally mandated compliance tasks that are ongoing all year long such as identification, testing, and writing and progress monitoring Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs).
Denver Public Schools Choice Process is complex. We are not able to make predictions about who will get in and who will not. It is a complicated process over which we do not have control. Here is the link to DPS Choice and Enrollment, where you can get more information.
CDE Gifted and Talented Website
SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted)