Universal gifted and talented screening is required as part of House Bill 14-1102. The State of Colorado requires “Conducting a universal screening of enrolled students no later than second grade to identify gifted children and a second screening of gifted children in conjunction with the creation of each child’s individual career and academic plan.”
Universal screening is a way to give all students a fair chance to be considered for Gifted and Talented (GT) services.
In Denver Public Schools (DPS), we follow this law by giving a cognitive test to all 1st and 5th-grade students in the fall.
Details of the Process
All students in 1st and 5th grade are tested in their classrooms in the fall.
Opting Out of Testing
Families have the right to opt their child out of testing. Opt outs may be submitted to the Opt Out Form, or in a letter or email to the GT teacher. All opt-outs MUST be in writing.
HGT identified and Magnet Eligible students WILL NOT be included in the Universal Screening process. Students with these designations already have a qualifying cognitive score, making this testing unnecessary since it will not affect a student's current gifted label.
GT identified students will be rostered and tested with their classes. If a GT student scores in the 95th percentile or above, they will become HGT and be eligible to attend an HGT magnet school.
How Are Scores Reported?
Scores are shown as percentile ranks (1 to >99). This shows how your child did compared to other students the same age in relation to a sample representative of the U.S. population:
Examples:
If your child scores at the 90th percentile, they score as well as or better than 90% of students their age.
A 50th percentile score is average for their age.
What Happens After Testing?
The GT teacher will send you your child’s score sheet and a general info letter.
If your child scores at the 95th percentile or higher, you’ll also get a letter from the central GT Department saying they are Magnet Eligible (ME).
What's the Purpose?
The purpose of the universal screening is to provide all students in 1st and 5th grades with the opportunity to take a cognitive assessment. This assessment may result in a qualifying data point toward an overall body of evidence, which could lead to gifted identification, gifted programming, and/or placement at a gifted magnet site. An age-percentile score in the 95th percentile and above is considered a qualifying data point, making the student eligible to attend a gifted magnet school in DPS.
Just so you know, while this cognitive score does result in magnet eligibility for school choice in our district, the state requires additional data to fully be identified as gifted.