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Beloit School District changes advanced‑learning identification to district norms, expands access
Summary
District leaders explained a multi‑year effort to change how students are identified for advanced‑learning services — moving from national norms to district‑ and building‑level benchmarks and broadening program opportunities, which officials say has produced a more demographically aligned cohort.
Theresa Morteck, the district’s executive director of teaching, learning and equity, told the Board of Education on July 15 that the Beloit School District has revised how it identifies students for advanced‑learning services to reduce disproportionality and expand access.
Morteck said the district and a research partner examined the existing service model and the sensitivity and equity of the identification process. The district now supplements national norms with building‑ and district‑level benchmarks — using locally derived 90th‑percentile cutoffs in some screens — and multiple assessments (CogAT for general intellectual, MAP for specific academic measures, and the Torrance test for creativity) to recognize strengths across five state‑defined advanced‑learning areas (specific academic, general intellectual, creativity, leadership, visual and performing arts).
“It wasn’t a watering down of expectations,” said Christie Champion, the district’s lead advanced‑learning specialist, describing the change as an adjustment to criteria rather than curriculum rigor. Champion and Morteck said the change increased representation among groups that had been underidentified under national norms: English‑learners, for example, rose from about 2.5 percent of advanced‑learner identifications three years ago to roughly 30 percent of the district’s identified advanced‑learner group this year.
Morteck described the change as part of a broader strategy aligned to the district strategic plan — connecting identification to academic achievement, equity, and engagement — and said the district participates in two statewide networks that provide programming and opportunities for students.
Board members asked about classroom supports and extension activities; Morteck and Champion said the district has begun building “enrichment for all” materials for teachers and worked on math and ELA extension activities that classroom teachers can deploy when specialist services are not available.
Juan Romero, the board clerk, praised the revised criteria during discussion: “It really felt like a gatekeeping kind of problem before…so thank you so much for doing that.”
District staff said the changes created a cohort of identified students that is more closely aligned with the district’s demographics and that they are continuing implementation work, including teacher supports and participation in state networks.
Looking ahead, staff said they will continue to monitor identification data by school and subgroup and expand classroom enrichment resources to reduce the need for referral-based identification alone.
