Pullman Schools report expanded screening, 118 students enrolled in highly capable services

Pullman School District instructional coach Joni Stevens told the school board on Sept. 24 that the district expanded identification for its highly capable (gifted) services with universal screening in second and sixth grades and additional referrals, and that 118 students are currently receiving services.

The update explained why the district screened second and sixth graders: second grade is when many students can reliably demonstrate academic strengths and sixth grade follows guidance from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), Stevens said. "We did some universal screening for all second and sixth grade students," she said. "We didn't give them all a test... I personally reviewed every single second- and sixth-grader's information to identify some people."

Stevens described the referral and evaluation process: a multidisciplinary committee reviews teacher input, parent inventories and standardized data such as MAP and SBA scores and then selects students to move to testing. From spring referrals, the district received 117 referrals, tested 62 students and qualified 23. Most referrals were from parents, Stevens said. The district currently services 118 students in a cluster-grouping model at elementary and middle school levels.

The program design described by Stevens places kindergartners into accelerated consideration by teacher recommendation, uses spring referral and cluster grouping for grades 1–8 and offers self-selected pathways for grades 9–12. Services include placement in classrooms with trained teachers, differentiated instruction and curricular and online resources. Stevens said the district runs parent information nights and provides a parent resource website; last January 25 families representing about 30 students attended an information night.

Board members asked for trend data by school and clarification on why the numbers differ between referrals and testing. Stevens said the multidisciplinary referral committee evaluates multiple data sources and may decide not to move a referred student forward to testing when it is not judged likely to be successful or when another program may better fit the student. She said testing begins with a CoGat prescreener and, depending on that score, may be followed by additional assessment. "We have people that are gifted in one or the other, but our program identifies both reading and math," Stevens said.

The board did not take action on the report; members asked staff to provide trend data by school in a future meeting.