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Norfolk presents Emerging Scholars model and growth in gifted-services access; officials emphasize "services over labels"
Summary
Norfolk Public Schools told the board May 7 that an early talent-development effort called Emerging Scholars expanded access and led to a higher-than-average identification rate after retesting. Presenters said services should be based on readiness, not labels, and described plans for the next local gifted plan cycle.
Carla Stead, Norfolk Public Schools’ director for gifted and academic career services, told the school board on May 7 the division has expanded early talent development and is starting the next local-plan revision cycle.
Stead described two central principles shaping the division’s approach: expand equitable access to enrichment and prioritize services over formal labels. “We focus on equity and opportunity,” Stead said. She explained the Emerging Scholars model uses school-based local norms and a first-grade universal screener to identify students who are in the top 15% within their school but who may not meet the higher universal threshold for formal gifted identification.
Key findings and figures: Stead said that in school year 2024–25, 398 students in grades 2–4 received Emerging Scholars services in addition to formally identified gifted students. She said the division retested its first Emerging Scholars cohort and that of 109 retested students “nearly 30 percent were newly identified as gifted after receiving services.” Stead also said overall district identification across K–12 is about 17%, above the Virginia state average she cited at 12.3% and above national averages commonly cited as 6–7%.
Services and structure: Norfolk Public Schools explained a four-level service framework: - Level 1: Universal enrichment for all students (arts & sciences enrichment in classrooms). - Level 2: Targeted, small-group instruction in general education. - Level 3: Emerging Scholars and other targeted clusters for students ready for enriched opportunities. - Level 4: Formally identified gifted students receiving specially aligned instruction.
Stead said roughly 70 arts-and-sciences enrichment courses were offered across 25 schools this year and that GRTs (gifted resource teachers) are staffed full time at elementary schools with shared GRT support at middle and high schools. She described efforts to work with English learners and students with disabilities (including twice-exceptional students) and said the division has partnered with College of William & Mary for professional development about twice-exceptionality.
Board reaction and next steps: Board members praised the Emerging Scholars results and asked whether the model suggests a broader shift to schoolwide enrichment. Stead and board members discussed schoolwide enrichment models used elsewhere; Stead said the division will begin stakeholder engagement this summer and plans to draft an updated local plan for board review in June 2026 before submitting the plan to the Virginia Department of Education for technical review in October 2026.
No board vote was taken on the gift education presentation. Stead said the division will continue to track participation and identification and to refine services so that identification and services better reflect the district’s demographic diversity.
