District presents changes to AMP and magnet ELP identification; leaders say outreach has increased

District staff gave an annual report on Jan. 21 about the Salt Lake City School District’s advanced academics and magnet programs, describing recent identification changes, staffing, and outreach strategies aimed at expanding access for underserved students.

Dr. Alex Parsons, identified in the meeting as the supervisor over gifted and talented, and district staff described a series of identification and scheduling changes for AMP (Advanced Academics and Mentoring Program) and magnet ELP. Parsons said the district now gives the CogAT cognitive abilities test at the end of third grade rather than at the start of fourth so schools can begin fourth-grade services without delay, and that AMP identification shifted from one static composite group to flexible groups by verbal, quantitative and nonverbal domains.

Parsons said each elementary school now has a 0.5 full-time-equivalent (FTE) AMP teacher; the model typically pools a 1.0 FTE teacher across two schools, with AMP groups averaging about 25–30 identified students per grade at some sites. AMP also includes flexible “talent-development” or “open-access” activities such as book clubs and storytelling competitions. Parsons and Dr. Hall said the district is experimenting with widening identification while tightening targeted services so more students can be included in appropriate enrichment.

The presentation included data and examples: Parsons reported AMP identification is intended to reach roughly 5–15% of students per grade at each school with a goal to move toward matching district demographics, and that open-access activities sometimes reach additional students who are not flagged in the district database. Staff also cited examples of increased participation among Hispanic students, English-language learners and low-income students and said they were working to improve counts for Black, Indigenous and Pacific Islander students, numbers that were low enough at some sites to be suppressed in public reporting (counts under nine).

On magnet ELP (full-day magnet programs), staff outlined a change to an area-based invitation model: the district will invite top-scoring students from the magnet school’s feeder area up to the program’s enrollment cap and then populate a wait list, rather than inviting all qualifying students systemwide without enrollment limits. Staff said the change aims to provide parents with timelier enrollment information and to reduce “hang time” when families wait for an invitation.

Staff described the new Edison magnet site and reported that about 79 students were identified with a 75% participation rate during the site’s early roll-out; 58 students were enrolled at the time of the presentation. Staff also described planning to adjust grade configurations (for example a 5–6 split) to reduce disruption for families who are concerned about moving a child only for a single year.

Board members asked for more data and recommended a study session focused on the programs. Board Member Ashley Anderson raised concerns about per-pupil cost differences she had seen in internal materials, saying in some cases district spending per pupil in a magnet classroom was about $2,000 higher than in neighborhood classrooms; staff said class-size differences and program configuration explain many per-pupil cost variances and offered to bring further analysis to a future study session.

Staff emphasized outreach changes: districtwide testing in kindergarten and third grade now happens automatically (parents are notified but don’t need to sign up), and staff said they changed some consent procedures to notify parents of placement and allow opt-out rather than requiring parents to take an active opt-in step. Parsons and AMP teachers described school-level recruitment practices and examples of students who benefited when identified for domain-specific enrichment.

Ending: District staff asked the board to consider a study session so members could review identification, equity of access and cost questions in more depth. Board members agreed to add the topic to a future study session and to accept continued outreach and data reporting from the department.