Honors Program Sees Less Students Exiting

The Gifted and Talented program has undergone several changes over the past few years, including changes about the placement of students into the program.

"We're constantly look at ways to improve," said Beverly Wilpon, Curriculum Supervisor.

The new placement practices, which were put into place for the 2010-2011 school year have reduced the number of students that were exiting the program after being enrolled in honors courses.

"One of the things that really started the conversation at the Gifted and Talented Review Committee was that fact that there were students in the program were not eligible the following year," Wilpon said. "That is what made us look at the identification process."

Wilpon said there has been a "dramatic" decrease in the amount of students exiting the program, which tells the district they are now on a path to identifying the right students.

Language arts literacy numbers look different from the rest of the courses, Wilpon said, which is consistent with past findings. The review committee found that there is a decrease in exiting the program in grade 6, but in grade 7 that number has remained flat since the changes to enrollment were made.

"We do believe that it is directly in line with what we would expect to see," Wilpon said.

The committee recommended to the Board of Education that the science, social studies and language arts literacy be brought onto the same level, and require the same amount of points for eligibility. Currently, a student needs 20 points through testing to be eligible for science and social studies, and 25 points for language arts.