Gifted and Talented Education (PERC)

Standards For Gifted and Talented

The following standards are from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). These standards provide a framework in which to develop opportunities for gifted and talented students.
Standard 1: Learning and Development
Description: Educators, recognizing the learning and developmental differences of students with gifts and talents, promote ongoing self-understanding, awareness of their needs, and cognitive and affective growth of these students in school, home, and community settings to ensure specific student outcomes.
 

Standard 2: Assessment
Description: Assessments provide information about identification, learning progress and outcomes, and evaluation of programming for students with gifts and talents in all domains.
 

Standard 3: Curriculum & Instruction
Description: Educators apply the theory and research-based models of curriculum and instruction related to students with gifts and talents and respond to their needs by planning, selecting, adapting, and creating culturally relevant curriculum and by using a repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies to ensure specific student outcomes.
 

Standard 4: Learning Environments
Description: Learning environments foster personal and social responsibility, multicultural competence, and interpersonal and technical communication skills for leadership in the 21st century to ensure specific student outcomes.
 

Standard 5: Programming
Description: Educators are aware of empirical evidence regarding (a) the cognitive, creative, and affective development of learners with gifts and talents, and (b) programming that meets their concomitant needs. Educators use this expertise systematically and collaboratively to develop, implement, and effectively manage comprehensive services for students with a variety of gifts and talents to ensure specific student outcomes.
 

Standard 6: Professional Development
Description: All educators (administrators, teachers, counselors, and other instructional support staff) build their knowledge and skills using the NAGC/CEC Teacher Standards for Gifted and Talented Education and the National Staff Development Standards. They formally assess professional development needs related to the standards, develop and monitor plans, systematically engage in training to meet the identified needs, and demonstrate mastery of standard. They access resources to provide for release time, funding for continuing education, and substitute support. These practices are judged through the assessment of relevant student outcomes.

What is giftedness?

Although interpretations of the word “gifted” seem limitless, there are a handful of foundational definitions that may be categorized from conservative (related to demonstrated high IQ) to liberal (a broadened conception that includes multiple criteria that might not be measured through an IQ test).

National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting, dance, sports).

Federal Definition
This definition is taken from the Javits Act, which provides grants for education programs serving bright children from low-income families:
“The term ‘gifted and talented student’ means children and youths who give evidence of higher performance capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools in order to develop such capabilities fully.”

U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) (1993)
In the report titled National Excellence and Developing Talent, the term “gifted” was dropped. Their definition uses the term “outstanding talent” and concludes with the sentence:
“Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.”

State Definitions of Gifted and Talented
Each state has its own definition of gifted and talented.  

    • The New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1) definition of gifted and talented students states the following: “Those students who possess or demonstrate high levels of ability, in one or more content areas, when compared to their chronological peers in the local school district and who require modifications of their educational program if they are to achieve in accordance with their capabilities.”  
    • Code N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1(a)5ii requires all district boards of education to provide appropriate K-12 educational services for gifted and talented students. 
    • Gifted and talented students are those who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance and are identified by qualified teachers. These are students who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society.

Policies, Procedures, and Continuum of Services

Tabernacle’s Gifted and Talented Program
Tablenacle’s Gifted and Talented Program is referred to as PERC.  PERC stands for the Program for Enrichment, Reasoning, and Creativity.  Below describes policies, procedures, and continuum of services for the gifted and talented program for grade levels kindergarten through eight.
 

Policies and Procedures 

K-4th Grade PERC:  

  • Tabernacle School District’s Program for Enrichment, Reasoning & Creativity (PERC) in Grades K-4 uses materials from the Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, specifically the Engineering Adventures units. These comprehensive units are integrated, infusing content from several subject areas in ways that will best challenge the growing minds of gifted learners.  Engineering is Elementary uses multiple cycles of research, development, testing, and improvement to create rigorous programming that responds to gifted learners’ characteristics of precocity, intensity, and complexity.  This programming represents three interrelated dimensions, including: one, advanced content; two, higher level processes and product development; and three, issues and themes connected to interdisciplinary concepts.  
  • The student selection process for PERC will begin in late September at the conclusion of the fall benchmark assessment window. Data gleaned from the beginning of the year benchmark assessments will determine placement.  Multiple measures will assist with this process.  Student data will be taken from the following: 
      • LinkIt (ELA - Grades 3 & 4/Math - Grades K-4)
      • Acadience Reading Benchmark Assessment (Grades K, 1 & 2)
      • Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT) 
      • Teacher Recommendation 

Continuum of Services

  • Kindergarten PERC
    • Advanced Structured Literacy Instruction
    • Advanced Word Work Instruction
    • Storybook STEM Challenges
  • 1st Grade PERC
    • Engineering Adventures Unit:  Music to My Ears (An Acoustical Engineering Challenge)
  • 2nd Grade PERC
    • Engineering Adventures Unit: Bubble Bonanza/Engineering Bubble
      Wands (connects to advanced geometry and states of matter) 
  • 3rd Grade PERC
    • Engineering Adventures Unit: Go Green/Creating Recycled Racers
  • 4th Grade PERC
    • Engineering Adventures Unit: A Slippery Slope (Engineering an Avalanche Protection System)

Policies, Procedures, & Continuum of Services for Grades 5-8

5th-8th Grade PERC

  • At Kenneth R. Olson Middle School, the Program for Enrichment, Reasoning & Creativity (PERC) curriculum in Grades 5-8 enhances and extends specific content areas at each grade level.  Mathematics is the area of concentration in grade 5.  In grade 6, Mathematics and English Language Arts are the areas of focus. In grades 7 and 8, Mathematics, Science, and English Language Arts are the areas of concentration. Our PERC 7th Grade Science course also includes Future Cities. In grade 8, the PERC program also includes Spanish I in which students can receive high school credit.
  • Academically talented students are selected for both programs on the basis of test results, classroom performance, and teacher recommendation.  Students are
    evaluated each year.     Board Policy #2464.
  • 5th Grade PERC
    • Mathematics enrichment instruction focused on project-based learning.
    • Animal/Environmental Advocacy
      • Students participate in the Philadelphia Zoo UNLESS Contest, which is a year-long, project-based contest that encourages students to create real solutions to environmental issues in their lives.
  • 6th Grade PERC

Mathematics: 

  • Advanced Mathematics Curriculum- 6th and 7th Grade Curriculum
  • Double Advanced Mathematics- Pre Algebra
    • The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Advanced Mathematics Curriculum or Double Advanced Mathematics is based on a rating system of the entire grade level of the following characteristics:


The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Grade 6 PERC Mathematics is as follows:

  • Course Average
  • LinkIt Score for Mathematics
  • End of Year Assessment
  • Teacher Observable Characteristics
  • Currently taking AP course
  • Curriculum aligns with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards


English Language Arts: The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Grade 6 PERC 

English Language Arts is as follows:

  • Past Marking Period Grades in Reading and Language
  • LinkIt Scores for Reading
  • Prior Year NJSLA English Language Arts Scores
  • Teacher Recommendation

  • 7th Grade PERC

Mathematics: The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Grade 7 PERC Mathematics is as follows:

  • Double Advanced Mathematics- Algebra I 
  • Advanced Mathematics Curriculum- Pre Algebra
    • The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Advanced Mathematics Curriculum or Double Advanced Mathematics is based on a rating system of the entire grade level of the following characteristics:
  • Course Average
  • LinkIt Score
  • End of the Year Assessment
  • Teacher Observable Characteristics
  • Currently taking AP course
  • Curriculum aligns with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards


Science

  • Future City Cross-Curricular Program
    • Future City is a STEAM competition that starts with the question, how can we make the world a better place?  In this competition students use the engineering design process to imagine, research, design, and build cities to showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue.  
    • Students complete five deliverables
      • 1,500-word essay
      • A scale model built from recycled materials
      • A project plan
      • A presentation video
      • A question and answer session
    • While competing in Future City, students 
      • Apply math and science concepts to real-world scenarios
      • Develop writing, public speaking, problem-solving and time management skills
      • Research and propose solutions to engineering challenges
      • Discover different types of engineering and explore career options

English Language Arts:

The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Grade 7 PERC English Language Arts is as follows:

  • Past Marking Period Grades in Reading and Language
  • LinkIt Scores for Reading
  • Prior Year NJSLA English Language Arts Scores
  • Teacher Recommendation
  • 7th Grade ELA- Future City Essay:
    • Students in the 7th Grade PERC Pre-Algebra class participate in the Future City engineering competition by Rutgers University.
      In order to foster cross-curricular learning design, students receive instruction and support on the essay portion of the Future City project in their ELA class.
  • 7th Grade ELA Course Description:
    • In alignment with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, students in 7th grade PERC English Language Arts develop essential reading and writing skills by working with advanced literature and informational text.  Students discuss themes, the world, and the human condition when reading advanced texts in order to improve their comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and overall enjoyment of reading.  In addition, students learn about keyword study techniques as they craft narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces, as well as written responses to the text.  Instruction is presented using a Structured Literacy Framework by infusing 21st-century technology skills.
  • 8th Grade PERC

Algebra

  • Advanced Mathematics Curriculum- Algebra I
    • The Algebra curriculum is aligned with the Lenape Regional High School District.
    • enVision Algebra 1 textbook is utilized.
    • Students must receive an A or B in Algebra I to move on to Geometry the following year at Seneca or at OMS.
    • The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Algebra I is based on a rating system of the entire grade level of the following characteristics:
  • Course Average
  • LinkIt Score
  • Algebra Readiness Assessment
  • End of Year Assessment
  • Teacher Observable Characteristics
  • Currently taking AP course

Geometry

  • Double Advanced Mathematics- Geometry
    • The Geometry curriculum is in alignment with the Lenape Regional High School District (Honors).
    • Utilize the enVision Geometry textbook
  • Seneca High School sending district Geometry teachers collaborate with each other, as well as, with the Geometry department at Seneca.  
  • Students that maintain an average of “C” or above will receive high school credit as long as the proper paperwork is provided. 
  • The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Geometry is as follows:
  • Passing of Algebra I course with an average grade of a “B” or better
  • Teacher Recommendation
    • Higher-order thinking math application projects (i.e. Escape Room)
      • The Escape Room project is a year-long project that involves researching, developing puzzle chains, building models, budgeting and purchasing items, constructing the escape room, and game master management.  This project involves the initial to final stages of building an escape room.

English Language Arts: The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Grade 8 PERC English Language Arts is as follows:

  • Past Marking Period Grades in Reading and Language
  • LinkIt Scores for Reading
  • Prior Year NJSLA English Language Arts Scores
  • Teacher Recommendation
  • 8th Grade ELA Course Description:
    • In alignment with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, students in 8th grade PERC English Language Arts develop essential reading and writing skills by working with advanced literature and informational text.  Students discuss themes, the world, and the human condition when reading advanced texts in order to improve their comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and overall enjoyment of reading.  In addition, students learn about key word study techniques as they craft narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces, as well as written responses to text.  Instruction is presented using a Structured
      Literacy Framework by infusing 21st century technology skills.
  • The 8th Grade PERC ELA course moves at an accelerated pace.  Students enrolled in this course are also taking Spanish I, which replaces one period of ELA in Grade 8.  Therefore, students in 8th Grade PERC ELA have one period of a combined Reading/Language course.
  • Spanish I Placement Assessment (given towards the end of 7th grade) 
    • Spanish I replaces one period ELA in Grade 8

Spanish I

  • 8th Grade Spanish I
    • The Spanish I Curriculum is in alignment with the Lenape Regional High School District.
    • The Curriculum aligns with ¡Avancemos! 
    • Students that maintain an average of “B” or above will receive high school credit as long as the proper paperwork is
      provided. 
    • Seneca High School sending district Spanish Teachers collaborate with each other, as well as, with the Spanish Department at Seneca.  This allows for a smooth transition from Spanish I to Spanish II.
    • The criteria used to determine if a student is eligible for Spanish I is as follows:
  • Spanish I Placement Assessment (given towards the end of 7th grade)
  • Past Marking Period Grades in Related Arts Spanish
  • LinkIt Scores for ELA
  • NJSLA Language Arts Scores
  • Teacher Recommendation

Complaint Information

  • For any complaints regarding the Gifted and Talented Program, please follow the Chain of Command below:
    1. Contact the Gifted and Talented teacher
    2. Contact Principal/Curriculum Supervisor Amy LaBarca
    3. Contact Superintendent of Schools Shaun Banin

Policies