Gifted And Talented Program Overview

Gifted and talented children are those students whose abilities, talents and potential for accomplishment are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs. Gifted and talented children include those with disabilities (i.e., twice exceptional) and students with exceptional abilities or potential from all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of any or a combination of these ​areas of giftedness​:

• General or specific intellectual ability
• Specific academic aptitude
• Specific talent aptitude

MISSION

The purpose of gifted education in Pueblo School District 70 is to educate each student to achieve his or her full academic potential.

PHILOSOPHY

District 70 believes that gifted and talented students have unique academic and affective needs. Our administrators and teachers support a philosophy that emphasizes the need for a challenging learning environment that focuses on high achievement for every gifted student. Programming for gifted students must be responsive to individual needs and must recognize the multiple talents, challenges, and cultural diversity of the district's population.

District 70 supports research-based strategies that provide opportunities for optimal learning to ensure that gifted and talented students will perform at levels commensurate with their abilities. Gifted and talented students should be provided dynamic, challenging educational programming at every level throughout their school career.

DISTRICT BELIEF STATEMENTS

District 70 recognizes a set of core beliefs regarding gifted and talented students and their education. Those beliefs include the following:

• While all students have academic strengths, not all students are gifted.

• Students may be gifted in one area or in multiple areas.
• Gifted and talented students have unique and varied cognitive and affective abilities and needs.
• Gifted and talented students appear in all populations.
• Gifted and talented students should be provided programming which fosters maximum academic and personal growth and adequate documentation of that growth.
• Gifted and talented students should learn in an environment where their gifts and abilities are acknowledged, valued, and nurtured.
• Gifted and talented students should be provided appropriate and varied programming options throughout their school career.
• Gifted and talented students require adequate support, including direct instruction, to maximize their academic potential.
• Gifted and talented students need choice throughout their school career.
• Providing appropriate programming for gifted and talented students is a responsibility shared by classroom teachers, electives teachers, gifted and talented specialists, administrators, and parents.
• Gifted and talented students must be active participants in and share responsibility for their own learning.