Section 1: Silver Creek School Corporation High Ability Program

Mission Statement

The mission of the Silver Creek School Corporation High Ability Program is to provide each child with appropriate educational experiences corresponding to their academic ability. Silver Creek School Corporation recognizes that some students perform at, or show the potential to perform at, an outstanding level of accomplishment in core academic subjects. These students are found in all socio-economic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Silver Creek School Corporation recognizes the need to identify these students through systematic, on-going procedures and to provide differentiated curriculum and instruction in core academic subjects in order to develop their talents in these areas.

General Definition

A high ability learner (HAL) is a student who performs at, or shows potential for performing at an outstanding level of accomplishment when compared with other students of the same age, experience, or environment and is characterized by exceptional gifts, talents, motivations, or interests. (Indiana Code 20-10.1-5.1-2)

Program Goals

Goal 1 – High Ability Learners in grades K-12 will be identified regardless of gender, race, age or socio-economic background.

Objectives:

To have a reliable, consistent identification procedure to identify high ability learners and to share identification procedures with teachers and parents.
To make early identification of high ability learners a priority by allowing students to be referred from any grade at any time.
To evaluate the identification protocol and the high ability program as a whole on a regular basis.

Goal 2 – All Staff and stakeholders will be trained in the academic, social, and emotional needs of High Ability Learners.

Objectives:

To train instructional, guidance, and support staff to appropriately work with HALs.
To provide on-going professional development to promote appropriate differentiated instruction in the core subject areas.
To encourage additional high ability professional development such as attending conferences on high ability education.

Goal 3 – To provide challenging, differentiated curriculum and instruction that corresponds with the ability and achievement levels of identified HALs.

Objectives:

To implement best practices for differentiated teaching and learning specific to the needs of HALs (such as tiered lessons, ability grouping, flexible grouping, and acceleration).
To adapt, modify, or replace the regular classroom curriculum with more in-depth and accelerated content to maximize potential and meet the advanced learning needs of HALs.

To continue to explore the best practices and best strategies, such as enrichment or acceleration of HALs.

Service Description

Elementary School

Silver Creek School Corporation serves elementary high ability students through the Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model (SCGM). High Ability Learners will be placed in cluster groups at each grade level. The number of cluster groups will vary depending on the number of High Ability students in the grade level. The teacher will differentiate the curriculum for the HALs by using various strategies, such as, but not limited to, curriculum compacting, tiered lessons, ability grouping, flexible grouping, acceleration, and independent study projects. The High Ability Coordinator will serve as a resource to the cluster teachers, as needed.

Middle School

High Ability Learners entering middle school are looked at individually to determine the best class placement for these students depending on their academic strengths and interests. Course offerings vary depending on what school the student attends. Please contact the school’s counselor for additional information on course offerings. HALs may also be clustered into a classroom where the teacher will differentiate the curriculum for the HALs by using various strategies, such as, but not limited to, curriculum compacting, tiered lessons, ability grouping, flexible grouping, acceleration, and independent study projects. The High Ability Coordinator will serve as a resource to the cluster teachers, as needed.

High School

High Ability Learners entering high school are also looked at individually to determine the best class placement. HALs are encouraged to take Advanced Placement courses and Dual Credit offered through Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana University, and Vincennes University. Please contact the school’s counselor for additional information on course offerings. Silver Creek High School also has Project Lead the Way Engineering and Biomedical programs. In addition to dual enrollment in high school and college courses and Advanced Placement courses, Silver Creek High School offers a special class that is interdisciplinary as a service option. The topics for this four-year program consist of Art and Architecture, Discovery, World Civilizations, and Conflict. An extended curricular trip is associated with each year’s study to give the students first hand exposure to the concepts being studied.

Screening for Identification

During the Spring semester all students in grades K and 2 are administered the CogAT Screener, which measures learned reasoning and problem solving skills in three areas: verbal, quantitative and non-verbal. Students who score in the top 25% of the grade level at their home school will be placed in the nomination pool.

The High Ability committee will also actively seek new referrals from teachers or parents for students not already identified in grade 5 and grade 8 . These students will also be placed in the nomination pool.

Students in the nomination pool will be invited to participate in further testing to determine eligibility for High Ability placement (to begin the following school year). These students will be further assessed with the full CogAT and the Iowa Assessments, if needed. Additional data is also collected for each student, such as, but not limited to, Acuity, M-class, Dibels, DRAs, ISTEP scores, classroom grades, teacher recommendation, and reports of classroom performance.

Formal Identification for Services

Decisions regarding placement for High Ability services will be made by the High Ability Study Council. Students can qualify for high ability placement in multiple ways:

Students in grades K & 1 qualify as a High Ability English/Language Arts student by:

achieving a Verbal Reasoning score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Verbal Reasoning score between the 85th - 94th percentile AND an ELA (English/Language Arts) TOTAL score at or above the 95th percentile on the Iowa Assessments.

Students in grades 2-8 qualify as a High Ability English/Language Arts student by:

achieving a Verbal Reasoning score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Verbal Reasoning score between the 85th - 94th percentile AND an ELA (English/Language Arts) TOTAL score at or above the 95th percentile on the Iowa Assessments
achieving a Verbal Reasoning score between the 85th - 94th percentile, an ELA (English/Language Arts) TOTAL score between the 85th - 94th percentile on the Iowa Assessments, and performing at an outstanding level of accomplishment when compared to other students of the same age, experience, or environment, as determined by the High Ability Study Council.

Students in grades K & 1 qualify as a High Ability Math student by:

achieving a Quantitative Reasoning score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Quantitative/Non-Verbal Composite score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Quantitative Reasoning or Quantitative/Non-Verbal Composite score between the 85th - 94th percentile AND a Mathematics total score at or above the 95th percentile on the Iowa Assessments.

Students in grades 2 - 8 qualify as a High Ability Math student by:

achieving a Quantitative Reasoning score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Quantitative/Non-Verbal Composite score in the confidence band of the 95th percentile on the CogAT
achieving a Quantitative Reasoning or Quantitative/Non-Verbal Composite score between the 85th - 94th percentile AND a Mathematics total score at or above the 95th percentile on the Iowa Assessments.
achieving a Quantitative or Quantitative/Non-Verbal Composite score between the 85th - 94th percentile, a Mathematics total score between the 85th - 94th percentile on the Iowa Assessments, and performing at an outstanding level of accomplishment when compared to other students of the same age, experience, or environment, as determined by the High Ability Study Council.

Students qualify as a High Ability General Intellectual student by:

qualifying as both a High Ability Math AND ELA student

Continued Placement

A student who qualifies for High Ability placement at the end of Kindergarten will be placed in the program for grades 1 & 2. At the end of 2nd grade, students will participate in the screening process again and must “re-qualify” to remain in the program. This is necessary because learned reasoning ability and achievement scores can change rapidly in the primary grades. Therefore, it's important to make sure that students who qualified at the end of Kindergarten are still performing up to the same standard, when compared to their same-aged peers at the end of second grade.

A student who is identified at the end of 2nd grade will remain in the program indefinitely unless a student begins to perform poorly in the program and the Exit Procedures (described below) are initiated by a teacher or parent.

Petitioning/Appeals Procedures

An appeal process is in place in the event that a child is not placed for High Ability services, and a teacher, parent, or other person close to the child challenges this decision.

The following steps clarify the appeal process:

The petitioner contacts the High Ability Coordinator who provides an appeal request form.
Appeal request form is completed and delivered to the High Ability Coordinator.
Coordinator schedules a re-assessment one calendar year from the date of the previous assessment.
Upon completion of the re-assessment, Coordinator collects recent quantitative and qualitative data available for the student.
The data collected is reviewed, compared against criteria for placement, and a final placement decision is made.