Gifted Education Huron City Schools Chris Standring, Director Amanda Arthur, Gifted Intervention Specialist Dale Casper, Gifted Intervention Specialist

Identifying The Gifted… 1. Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. 2. Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school. 3. When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything. 4. F.W.Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21. But his employers would not let him wait on a customer because he “didn't have enough sense.” 5. A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had “no good ideas.” 6.Caruso's music teacher told him, "You can't sing. You have no voice at all.” 7.Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.

Identifying The Gifted… 8. Wehrner von Braun flunked 9th grade algebra. 9. Admiral Richard E. Byrd had been retired from the Navy, “unfit for service" until he flew over both poles. 10. Louis Pasteur was rated as mediocre in chemistry when he attended the Royal College. 11. Abraham Lincoln entered The Black Hawk War as a captain and came out a private. 12. Fred Waring was once rejected from high school chorus. 13. Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade. The Rhode Island State Advisory Committee on Gifted and Talented Education Source:

Gifted children's intellectual abilities often set them apart from their age-mates. These characteristics may take any of the following forms:   Gifted children are fluent thinkers, able to generate possibilities, consequences, or related ideas.   They are flexible thinkers, able to use many different alternatives and approaches to problem solving.   They are original thinkers, seeking new, unusual, or unconventional associations and combinations among items of information.

  They are willing to entertain complexity and seem to thrive on problem solving.   They are good guessers and can readily construct hypotheses or "what if" questions.   They often are aware of their own impulsiveness and irrationality, and they show emotional sensitivity.   They are extremely curious about objects, ideas, situations, or events.   They often display intellectual playfulness and like to fantasize and imagine.

  They can be less intellectually inhibited than their peers are in expressing opinions and ideas, and they often disagree spiritedly with others' statements.   They are sensitive to beauty and are attracted to aesthetic values.   They can also see relationships among seemingly unrelated objects, ideas, or facts.   They are elaborate thinkers, producing new steps, ideas, responses, or other embellishments to a basic idea, situation, or problems. Source: The Rhode Island State Advisory Committee on Gifted and Talented Education

Ohio Law and Rules for Gifted Education Huron City School’s identification process follows the Ohio Revised Code (law) and Ohio Administrative Code (rule). Gifted students are defined in the Ohio Revised Code ( ) as those who perform or show potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared to others of their age, experience or environment.

All public schools in Ohio, with the exception of “community schools,” are required to identify gifted students in kindergarten through grade 12. Students are identified as gifted in one or more of four major categories: superior cognitive ability; specific academic ability; creative thinking ability; and visual or performing arts ability. There are four fields included in specific academic ability: mathematics; science; social studies; and reading or writing, or a combination of these two skills.

District Requirements The law and/or rule provides that:  Districts must have an identification plan and local board policy approved by ODE;  Districts must have regular opportunities for assessment for giftedness based on referrals from teachers, parents or other children;  Children who are culturally and linguistically diverse, low socio-economic status, with disabilities and/or limited English proficient must be included in the identification process;

District Requirements (Continued) The law and/or rule provides that:  Parents must be notified of assessment results;  Parents have an opportunity to appeal;  Districts must distribute their gifted identification policy to parents. policy to parents. For more information, check out the Ohio Department of Education - Gifted Education in Ohio “Facts for Parents” posted on our website under Gifted Education.

District Requirements (Continued) Districts are required to identify gifted students. However, school districts are not required to provided gifted education services. Currently, the state provides school districts with partial funding for identifying gifted students and employing or contracting gifted education staff. Huron City Schools contracts with North Point Educational Service Center for its gifted staff.

Requirements for the Written Educational Plan [WEP]  Description of services to be provided.  Goals for the student for each service to be provided.  Methods for evaluating student progress toward reaching the goals.  Method and schedule for reporting student progress to parents.

Requirements for the Written Educational Plan [WEP] (Continued)  Staff responsible for implementing services.  Policies regarding waivers of assignments in the regular classroom and the re-scheduling of tests. (This only applies when a student attends a pull-out program.)  Deadline for next review of WEP.  Copies of WEP to parents and staff responsible for implementation of student’s services.

HCS Services English Language Arts  Self-contained English Language Arts classes are taught by the gifted intervention specialists for students identified as gifted in superior cognitive and/or reading for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.  Enrichment activities provided by the gifted intervention specialist for those students identified in writing.  Post-Secondary Educational Options Program [PSEOP] coursework is provided through the Huron High School English department.  Credit Flexibility options are available by contacting the high school principal.

HCS Continuum of Services Mathematics  An Accelerated Mathematics Program is provided for students who are identified as gifted in mathematics and meet two-step criteria. Pre-Algebra is offered in grade 6 and advances throughout junior high into high school with Algebra I, and Geometry.  Post-Secondary Educational Options Program [PSEOP] are offered through the Huron High School Mathematics department.  Credit Flexibility options are available by contacting the high school principal.

How are you meeting the needs of your child by providing…  Choice?  Flexibility?  Instructional time with peers at the same level?  Experiences with goal setting and self- evaluation?  Freedom to set their own pace?  Experiences to learn new techniques, find ideas, discovery and play?

Additional Information  Ohio Association for Gifted Children:  National Association for Gifted Children:  National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented:  Midwest Talent Search – Center for Talent Development:  Belin-Blank Center:  The College of William and Mary