Tucson Unified School District is revamping its program for gifted and talented students to appeal to more low-income and primarily Spanish-speaking families.
The district plans to increase the program from 4,800 students to 5,800 students over time [if district enrollment does not decline], by allowing the teachers to choose who gets tested and by also sending out postcards to families about testing opportunities, said David Niecikowski, program coordinator.
The current Gifted and Talented Education program, known as GATE, requires parents to request testing for their children.
However, for parents in the district who are not fluent in English, filling out the paperwork can be a challenge.
“This is a way for the underserved population that would have not been tested in way of parent population,” Niecikowski said. “Parent paperwork is a barrier for getting kids into the program.”
In the next six years the district also plans to have a gifted-endorsed teacher for every grade level in every elementary school in the district, Niecikowski said.
The new program will not be costly for TUSD’s dwindling budget because training for teachers will be provided for free from the GATE program and the grant money they have received.
“We don’t want to put up any other barriers for the teachers or students,” Niecikowski said.
The district has five elementary schools and three middle schools that offer the GATE program.
The students who qualify for the program will either be in the pull-out program, which consists of 30 to 90 minutes of special learning activities, or in a self-contained classroom in which students spend the entire day with a gifted-endorsed teacher.
Lineweaver Elementary is one of the five schools in the district that offer self-contained classes. There is one self-contained class for every grade level that has between 22 and 27 students per classroom, said Margaret Scott, principle for Lineweaver.
