Enhanced Learning Program (Gifted)
Program Overview
The Queen Creek Enhanced Learning Program (ELP) is designed to meet the educational needs of students in K–12 who have been identified as gifted, or scoring 97% or above on aptitude tests. This program strives to:
- reflect unique abilities, interests, and talents of each child;
- develop higher order thinking skills;
- increase growth of the entire child; and
- refine critical and divergent thinking skills.
Gifted Education
- Queen Creek Unified School District believes that each classroom holds students who show potential for performing at high levels compared to others of their same age, experience, or environment. These students deserve differentiated instruction to achieve their full potential while supporting their unique social and emotional needs that is common among gifted learners. We expect that within the QCUSD district, gifted students will acquire higher levels of thinking—to apply and synthesize knowledge to new situations, to organize thoughts, and give value to new and challenging ideas.
- Students who we identify as gifted have services available to them throughout their time in the Queen Creek Unified School District. These tailored experiences provide support to students as they develop into an independent learner. Our programs provide a safe environment for gifted students to learn from failure, evaluate their own efforts, and develop a love of learning in their path to become responsible and productive citizens.
- For more information, contact the gifted specialist at your child’s school.
The following is a list of collapsible links. After selecting the link, additional content will expand. Arrow down to read the additional content.
Introduction
- The Queen Creek Unified School District recognizes the need to provide developmentally appropriate educational opportunities for gifted students and commits to helping these students maximize their full potential academically, socially, and emotionally. We provide a variety of service options to support each, unique learner as they develop into successful adults demonstrating self-esteem, self-efficacy, and creative productivity.
- Gifted students exist in each ethic, geographic, and socioeconomic group and require differentiated instruction to achieve full development of potential. All QCUSD students may access gifted referral procedures without discrimination with regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, disabilities, or economic background. Queen Creek Unified School District students must qualify within Arizona State Department of Education guidelines for gifted service eligibility and placement using assessment tools that meet the state’s standards of validity and reliability. For more information please visit the ADE Gifted Education website.
Instructional Goals
The aim of gifted programming in QCUSD is to assist eligible gifted students in maximizing their potential through a challenging curriculum, differentiated instruction, and appropriate social and emotional scaffolding.
The instructional goals are as follows:
- Enhance curricula and provide educational learning experiences that reflect each child’s unique abilities, interests, and talents.
- Nurture and refine critical, divergent, and creative thinking.
- Increase growth of the entire child: academically, socially, and emotionally.
- Provide students with learning experiences that involve planning, interpreting, finding, evaluating, and using information and technology.
- Scaffold and provide authentic experiences for student communication of information, ideas, and solutions clearly and accurately.
Delivery Models
- Elementary
- The QCUSD Enhanced Learning Program (ELP) is designed to meet the unique academic, social, and emotional needs of students who score at or above the 97th percentile on national norms in any one of the three areas - verbal, nonverbal or quantitative reasoning according to Arizona Statute R7-2-406 A 1 a. Students practice creative problem solving in a homogeneous, small group setting. Students benefit from the pull-out program by having a safe environment to challenge themselves intellectually while enjoying the social and academic benefits of their general education classroom. We use project based learning to focus on 21st Century Skills, STEM content, creative problem solving, and public speaking. Projects are specifically designed to challenge students based on strengths assessed in the Cognitive Abilities Assessment Tool (CogAT 7): verbal, quantitative, and non-verbal.
- Katherine Mecham Barney Elementary is a school of choice that offers an accelerated curriculum model across grades kindergarten through sixth.
- Secondary
- Students in seventh to tenth grades can take Honors classes or general ELA/English. At eleventh grade there is AP Language and Composition or Dual Enrollment English 11 (college level/credit). At twelfth grade, students can enroll in Dual Enrollment English 12 or AP Literature and Composition. There are no prerequisites for advanced ELA courses at this time.
- The accelerated options in junior high for mathematics are Honors Math 7 and Honors Algebra. At the high school level, there are several options for taking accelerated classes in math: Honors Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, Honors/Dual Enrollment PreCalculus, AP/Dual Enrollment Calculus, AP Statistics and Quantitative Reasoning (with a dual enrollment option). Prerequisites are available in the course catalog.
Gifted Referral Procedures and Eligibility Requirements
- Elementary
- Referral Process
- Students must qualify within Arizona State Department of Education guidelines for gifted service eligibility. We may recommend a student may for gifted testing from a teacher, parent, and/or standardized pre-assessment data. While we can not use achievement scores to support gifted eligibility in Arizona, we do use them to refer students for testing. We can identify students can earlier; however, it is highly recommended that we complete the initial testing no earlier than second grade. Younger grades are when students develop core foundational and social skills and younger students are often not acclimated to extended standardized testing.
- Students recommended have the opportunity to take the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT 7) once per year. We conduct the testing sessions three times a year (Fall, Winter, and Spring) and we will communicate the results will approximately a week after completing the assessment.
- Reciprocity
- The federal government does not have requirements for gifted education which causes each state to have their own regulations. Students must qualify within Arizona Department of Education guidelines for gifted services eligibility using assessment tools that meet the state’s standards of validity and reliability. Automatic admittance to the QCUSD ELP program is guaranteed with supporting documentation from the previous district identifying which assessment was used and with qualifying results. Please see Arizona State Board approved list for the identification of gifted students for a comprehensive list.
- Private Testing
- Please contact the gifted specialist at your student’s site prior to receiving private testing. We may not accept results based on the provider hired.
- Secondary
- Access to all honors and AP ELA courses is open to all students without any restrictions or prerequisites. Honors Math 6 is open access and a prerequisite for Honors Math 7. You can find prerequisites for all high school advanced and dual enrollment courses in high school Math in the course catalog.
Testing and Program Admittance
While students can be identified as early as kindergarten, it is highly recommended that initial testing for gifted is done in second grade. Primary students often find the assessment daunting as they are not acclimated to standardized testing. Additionally, primary grades are when students develop core foundational and social skills. These skills ensure a student’s future academic success. Second through fifth grade students can be tested during one of the three testing windows.
- Testing Window 1: Early September
- Testing Window 2: Mid December
- Testing Window 3: Early May
Referral forms are available at each elementary school. For additional ELP/Gifted testing information, please contact the school counselor.
To inquire about having your child tested for the Gifted Program or to get more information, please email the staff at the school your child attends.
