Academics
Gifted Program
Rome City Schools provides educational programs and services for identified gifted students at all grade levels following requirements for identifying and placing students in the gifted program governed by Georgia State Department of Education Rule 160-4-2-.38. The RCS gifted program is designed to meet the very specific academic needs of gifted students by emphasizing the following competencies:
Creativity, analytical thinking, and critical thinking
Extensive and advanced research skills
Inductive and deductive reasoning
Problem solving
Meta-cognition and cognitive strategy development
The gifted program is called Challenge at the elementary school level (first grade through sixth grade) where students receive instruction in a resource pull-out class once a week. We also offer cluster group instruction by certified gifted teachers at various grade levels throughout the district. Middle and high school gifted students receive instruction in advanced content classes.
Due to in-state reciprocity rules, gifted students who transfer to Rome City Schools from within the state of Georgia will be placed into our gifted program after a review of current documentation of services. Gifted students who transfer to RCS from out of state are not automatically placed into the gifted program and must meet Georgia placement requirements before being placed in the gifted classroom. Parents should notify their school of interest in gifted placement or test evaluation at the time of registration.
Assessment Process
The rules and regulations dealing with the assessment of gifted learners are approved by the Georgia State Department of Education and the State Board of Education. These rules and regulations, called "due process", have been established for the protection and privacy of individuals. There are three steps in the process of identifying and placing gifted students: referral, evaluation, and eligibility.
Referral
The referral process is the first step for entrance into the gifted program. A referral may come from administration, teachers, parents, peers, the student, or an automatic referral from district-wide testing scores. Referrals are reviewed by the Gifted Evaluation Team and this team determines which students will be evaluated for gifted education placement. A referral does not guarantee gifted testing will take place. The referral team will evaluate all available data to determine if gifted testing is warranted. A permission to evaluate form will be sent home and must be returned back signed before the evaluation process can begin.
Evaluation
Following parental consent, the local school evaluates the student's mental ability, achievement, creativity, and motivation through the use of nationally-normed group tests and survey checklists. These tests are approved by the Georgia Department of Education for qualifying students as gifted.
NOTE: Please remember that gifted testing takes several days to conduct and scoring usually takes a few weeks.
Eligibility
An eligibility team composed of at least three people (an administrator - school or district, gifted program teacher, and another individual with knowledge of the child or gifted program) reviews the evaluation information pertaining to the referred student. The team follows guidelines set by the Georgia State Department of Education when making a decision about the student's appropriate placement for gifted services. The local school notifies the parents as to the team's decision in writing via mail.
Gifted education students are responsible for mastery of all grade level standards and skills. However, due to the unique nature of the elementary gifted resource program and the additional workload the students are expected to carry, they will, in most cases, be excused from daily assignments given while attending gifted classes.
Gifted Testing Procedure
In order to eliminate interruptions in the regular education classroom as well as our Challenge classrooms, Rome City Schools administers the gifted tests during the testing window. Because our gifted teachers must conduct testing, they must cancel their scheduled classes. This testing window also allows more students to be tested for the gifted program and to place testing at the time periods of the year where students can be most successful. Rome City Schools has four testing "windows" as described below.
Rome City Schools Current Students
2nd - 6th grades (Testing window #1):
Referral Window - September/October
Evaluation Window - December/January
Kindergarten and 1st grades:
Referral Window - February/March
Evaluation Window - March - May
7th & 8th grade students:
Referral Window - December
Evaluation Window - January
Rome City Schools New Students
7th - 9th grades:
Referral Window - July/August
Evaluation Window - August/September
If you would like to nominate your child to be considered for gifted testing, please contact the gifted teacher for your child's school and/or the District Gifted Coordinator.
A Note to Parents of Gifted Students
Rome City Schools views a student's placement in the gifted program as an opportunity for further challenge, service, and problem-solving activities. We feel that our students should utilize their natural intellectual ability in conjunction with the skills learned inside of the classroom to be a leader that serves, leads, and improves the community both inside and outside of the classroom.
Gifted placement is not a reward for exceptional ability or high achievement and test scores. Rather than infusing the program with an elitist attitude, it is the desire of the Challenge staff to instill in gifted students such humanitarian values such as generosity, appreciation, tolerance, and integrity, and to help them realize a contribution to self and society.
Because of the more advanced work in the gifted program, students may be faced with making choices and decisions about the use of their time. Parents are encouraged to help students understand that they will have to make choices and to help them develop a system for managing their time.
Contact
Ms. Sabrina Teems, Early Learning 706-236-5050 ext. 5072 steems@rcs.rome.ga.us