Assessment for Identification and GATE Program Placement
  happens in the fall.
Check back on this website in August or early September for
procedures, dates and online registration.

• Identification:  Testing for GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) is offered in the fall. Check this website in September for dates.
  Frequently Asked Questions (Which assessment do you use? How do I prepare my child? When do I get the results?)
• Program Options  (Click here to read the San Francisco Chronicle article featuring our GATE program)
• Elementary Schools:
  •  All Schools: RtI² (Response to Instruction and Intervention)
  • George Hall Elementary (Fourth Grade and Fifth grade Cluster Groups of Gifted Students)
  • College Park Elementary (Fourth/Fifth Multi-Age Special Day Classes for Gifted Students)  
• Middle School
  •  All Schools: RtI2 (Rsponse to Instruction and Intervention)
  • THE Bayside STEM ACADEMY (Middle School GATE cluster classes)
• Contact information      smfcgate@gmail.com
• References
• Resources 

 The identification process for the district is in the process of review and change.  Please check back at this site in August or September for the 2012-2013 identification process.  Prior processes are described below:

Formal identification for GATE will begin in the third grade, and has four steps: Search, Screen, Identify, and Place 

Step One: Search: We analyze all test data for third graders, and gather information from teachers.  If a parent wishes to have their child considered for GATE identification, they need register online for the test on this website during the testing window. 

Step Two: Screen: Students take a comprehensive abilities test that includes a verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative section.  Students will be asked to participate in fluency exercises and exercises that indicate short-term memory and ability to manipulate data.  These tests occur each year in the fall.  Please check the website in August or September for tests early in the year..

The information collected on each candidate will be analyzed to develop a profile or case study for identification of giftedness and determination of appropriate services.   The GATE standards and the Ed Code require us to have information from many sources before identifying a student for GATE.  Those standards do not allow us to identify based on only one of the elements of the search.   

Step Three: Identification:  Students who score in the 97-99%ile of the population are identified as Gifted and Talented.    Options for gifted students are described in an orientation meeting in January.

Step Four: Placement:  Parents will be given the program options available to their child based on the available data.  Almost all GATE-identified students are served based on formative and summative assessment data at the school site.  Students who are in the 99%ile in all areas of the GATE assessment as well achievement data are offered placement in specialized programs at College Park or George Hall.  Placement is made only after careful consideration of multiple data, and with parent permission. 

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All School Sites:  RtI² (Response to Instruction and Intervention)

The strategic plan for the San Mateo-Foster City School District focuses on data-driven instruction.  The first step in teacher planning is to analyze student work to determine the level of understanding and achievement.  Lessons focus on the various instructional levels in the classroom to provide a rigorous curriculum to all students.

Appropriate strategies for gifted students include (but are not limited to):

• Challenge problems from Houghton-Mifflin Reading series
• Literacy circles
• FOSS Science (inquiry learning and scientific method are integral parts of this curriculum)
• Everyday Math enrichment activities (the games in Everyday Math are highly effective for gifted students)
• Problem of the Week (available on the intranet) 
• Field trips, simulations, constructivist activities (long-term, hands-on projects)
• Reader-writer workshop
• Integrated thematic instruction

Magnet schools offer alternatives that are appropriate for many gifted students.  Click here to learn more about the magnet schools in the San Mateo-Foster City School District.

In addition to outstanding instructional and intervention strategies in each classroom, the San Mateo-Foster City School District offers an opportunity to transfer to another campus for more intensive intervention for gifted students who are in the 99%ile of all measurements and assessments on a nationally-normed assessment.  At the elementary level, specialized GATE programs exist on two campuses:  George Hall Elementary and College Park Elementary.  Descriptions of each program follow.

George Hall Elementary:  Cluster Classes of Gifted Students in Fourth and Fifth Grades

George Hall School uses a Project-Based Learning approach to accelerate learning.  Project-based Learning is the use of classroom projects, intended to bring about deep learning, where the students use technology and inquiry to engage with issues and questions relevant to their lives.  In the fourth and fifth grades, teachers trained in strategies for the cognitive and affective needs of gifted students have clusters (three to eight students identified as gifted students) in a class. 

Cluster grouping is a way of organizing a heterogeneous classroom (a mixture of many learning styles and achievement levels) so that students with similar needs, interests, and/or abilities form an instructional group.  While this happens at all sites, George Hall teachers are trained in specific strategies for meeting the cognitive and affective needs of gifted students.

 More information about the cluster classes at George Hall

College Park Elementary :  Multi-Age Classrooms for Fourth and Fifth Grade Gifted Students (Special Day Classes)

Giftedness is a spectrum, and the special day GATE classes are designed for those students who are in the top one-half to one percent of the population, scoring 99%ile in a nationally-normed test, and above 550 on the California Standards test.   

From California Association for the Gifted¹: 

Researchers have noticed significant differences between moderately gifted, highly gifted, and profoundly gifted students on every cognitive and affective trait, especially in their degree of intensity and energy.  Students who are highly or profoundly gifted

• learn at a highly accelerated pace;
• process material with great depth;
• learn not by logical, sequential steps, but randomly or through awareness of inner patterns and structures, making connections that might not be apparent to others; and
• learn in a safe environment in which they can express their emotional intensity and moral and existential concerns that are characteristic of these children.

The classes at College Park are combination classes of fourth and fifth graders.  All students in the class have been identified as GATE students by multiple measures.  Students scoring in the highest range are given priority placement in those classes. 

The classes are characterized by intense depth, complexity, novelty, and acceleration.  Definitions of those terms as they apply to these classes follow:

• Depth is a process of thought that seeks generalizations and universal concepts.  Analysis of details, patterns, trends, ethical dilemma, structure, and principles support the larger idea.  Gifted students commonly need to explore a subject at a higher level of understanding by finding the origins of ideas; contributions and convergence of ideas; parallels in other contexts, and paradoxes within the idea (Kaplan, Content Imperatives) 
  • Curriculum in these classes moves quickly from the concrete to the abstract, and from foundational to complex.
  • The focus of the curriculum moves away from isolated facts toward concepts, and then toward generalizations or universal themes.
  • Students are encouraged to formulate questions instead of reciting facts.
• Complexity is the quality or process of thinking that combines many ideas or parts to develop complicated and interrelated wholes.” (California Association for the Gifted)  Gifted students often seek to understand complex concepts, problems, and generalizations.  Insight into complex concepts, and solutions to complex problems comes from multiple solutions across many disciplines, over time, and from different perspectives.  (Kaplan, Depth and Complexity Icons developed at University of Southern California through the Jacob K. Javits Grant for Gifted Education.)
• Novelty is a unique perspective, interpretation, or solution through original insight.  Students work with students of similar intellectual ability and academic interest to develop creative solutions to complex situations.
• Acceleration has two meanings in the context of these classes.  At one level, acceleration is the rapid pace of the curriculum (also known as curriculum compacting).  The more significant level is that of rapid movement from knowledge and comprehension toward analytical, creative, and critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).  While these classes teach the core academic standards for fourth and fifth grade, the learning is accelerated by looking at each standard with higher cognitive levels demanded by analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  Sandra Kaplan uses this image to describe acceleration:

More information on the GATE classes at College Park

Click here to read the San Francisco Chronicle article featuring these classes

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All Schools: RtI² (Response to Instruction and Intervention)

Click here for an annotated presentation about middle school options.

The strategic plan for the San Mateo-Foster City School District focuses on data-driven instruction.  The first step in teacher planning is to analyze student work to determine the level of understanding and achievement.  Middle school teams of teachers work to analyze data and provide a rigorous academic experience for students while meeting the unique social and emotional needs of this age. 

In addition to all the enrichment opportunities available at the elementary level, middle school students have the opportunity to excel in an elective area such as

• Music (jazz band, advanced band, orchestra, or symphony classes)
• Drama (by audition)
• Graphic arts
• Technology
• Acceleration in math
• Leadership classes
• Foreign language
• Language Immersion at Abbott Middle School
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at THE Bayside STEM ACADEMY
• International Baccalaureate model at Borel Middle School

Electives vary by campus, but each campus offers multiple enichment opportunities for gifted students.

In addition to outstanding instructional and intervention strategies in classrooms all across the district, the San Mateo-Foster City School District offers identified gifted students an opportunity to transfer to another campus for more intensive intervention for gifted students.  At the middle school level, the specialized GATE program is at THE Bayside STEM ACADEMY.

THE Bayside S.T.E.M. ACADEMY :  Cluster Classes for Gifted Students

THE Bayside STEM ACADEMY, in partnership with Stanford University d-School, uses Design Thinking in a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) goals. 

The GATE program at STEM Academy is a cluster model, with a significant cadre (seven to twelve identified gifted students) in core classes for Language Arts and Social Studies.  Students travel with other gifted students throughout the day, and teachers have had extensive training in multiple strategies for gifted learners as well as in design thinking from the Stanford University d-School.

Math students have the opportunity for acceleration to an appropriate instructional level by early admission to Pre-Algebra.  The STEM strand emphasizes complex, problem-based, student-centered curricula, differentiated according to the students’ needs.  This strand interfaces with all disciplines through design thinking as well as scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical thinking.  From humanities to science and math, from abstract logic to everyday problem solving, students learn to think in ways supportive of higher level engineering and science academics. 

Instruction in the humanities focuses on depth and complexity, using Dr. Sandra Kaplan’s model. (developed in collaboration with The Rosier School of Education at the University of Southern California through a Jacob Javits Grant for Gifted Education) Kaplan’s model provides  a springboard to analytical, creative, and critical thinking.  Students study grade-level curriculum at increasingly complex levels.  Using Kaplan’s iconic prompts, students analyze with depth…

… and complexity…

… using Content Imperiatives:

 More information about the GATE program at The Bayside S.T.E.M. Academy

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Information in this website is based on the following resources

¹Booster, M., Clark, B., Gosfield, M., Kerr, J., & Littrell, B.  (2006). CAG Position Paper: Highly and Profoundly Gifted Children.  Sacramento:  California Association for the Gifted.

¹Booster, M., Clark, B., Gosfield, M., Kerr, J., & Littrell, B.  (2008). The Leadership Challenge: A Guidebook for Administrators.  Sacramento:  California Association for the Gifted.

Additional References:

Clark, B. (2008).  Growing up gifted (7^th ed.).  Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice-Hall.

Davis, G., & Rimm, S. (2004) Education of the gifted and talented (5^th ed.).  Boston:  Allyn & Bacon.

Gross, M. (1993).  Exceptionally gifted children.  New York:  Routledge.

Kaplan, S. & Gould, B. (2003).  Depth and Complexity Icon Cards.  Los Angeles:  Educator to Educator

Silverman, L. K.  (1993).  Counseling the gifted and talented.  Denver, CO:  Love.

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Questions about the GATE program should be sent to Beth Littrell smfcgate@gmail.com   Beth works at school sites throughout the week, and is rarely in an office where she can answer a phone.  e-mail correspondence is answered within 24 hours whenever possible.

California Department of Education - http://cde.ca.gov

California Association of the Gifted - www.cagifted.org

GATE standards - http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r12/documents/gatestandards.doc

SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted) - www.sengifted.org

Hoagies Gifted Page - www.hoagiesgifted.org

National Association for Gifted Children - www.nagc.org