Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education.gifted Talented topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ector County ISD to shift gifted-and-talented screener to 2nd grade, expand secondary showcases
Summary
Director of Advanced Academics Kristen Besley told the board the district will move the universal GT screener from third to second grade, expand showcases for secondary students, and require depth-and-complexity training for teachers; no programmatic service model changes were requested.
Kristen Besley, ECISDs director of Advanced Academics, told the board at a May 13 workshop that the district will propose moving its universal gifted-and-talented (GT) screener from third grade to second grade and will expand showcase opportunities into secondary schools.
Besley said ECISD currently identifies about 10% of its students as GT — roughly in line with the statewide average she cited — and emphasized the proposed changes are enhancements rather than programmatic shifts. "We are not asking to make any programmatic changes in the approval," Besley said, adding that the district would screen both second and third grades during the transition year to avoid missing students.
Why it matters: earlier screening aims to catch students sooner so services can begin before the intensive third-grade pullout. Besley said research and recent state-level discussions favor second-grade screening; the district plans to screen kindergarten, second, third and fifth in the first year, then move to kindergarten, second and fifth thereafter.
Besley described the districts delivery model: GT students in elementary are clustered in classrooms with a GT-trained teacher of record and receive weekly pull-out services (the district employs 12 certified GT pull-out teachers and four elementary specialists, Besley said). Secondary GT supports include honors, AP and IB course options and three subject-area specialists who provide classroom support.
To support classroom teachers, ECISD will require depth-and-complexity training for any teacher who has a GT student in class. Besley said the training will no longer be an optional professional-development menu item but will be implemented as either a beginning or advanced module, depending on teacher experience.
Trustees asked about staffing and equity. Besley said the districts GT population has become more representative of district demographics over the last four years and that the board corrected a local handbook language issue in February to remain in compliance with the TEA state GT plan.
Next steps: Besley asked the board for feedback and said any formal policy or timeline for the screener change would return to the board for action. She reiterated that these are program enhancements intended to improve early identification and classroom-level transfer of GT skills.
