Highly Capable

Warden School District strives to recognize, support, and encourage the unique needs of highly capable students and to provide challenging and invigorating curriculum and opportunities.

How is a student determined to be eligible for the highly capable program?

Definition

The Warden School District recognizes the state definition of highly capable students as students who perform or show potential for performing at significantly advanced academic levels when compared with others of their age, experience, and environments. Outstanding abilities are seen within students’ general intellectual aptitudes, specific academic abilities, and/or creative productivities within a specific domain. Highly capable students may possess, but are not limited to, the following learning characteristics:

Capacity to learn with unusual depth of understanding, to retain what has been learned, and to transfer learning to new situations;
Capacity and willingness to deal with increasing levels of abstraction and complexity earlier than their chronological peers;
Creative ability to make unusual connections among ideas and concepts;
Ability to learn quickly in their area(s) of intellectual strength; and
Capacity for intense concentration and/or focus

The Warden School District Highly Capable Program seeks to identify the most highly capable students in our district who will benefit the most from highly capable services. A student will be identified as highly capable, and therefore qualify for highly capable services, if he/she meets criteria on two of the three state defined areas noted below:

Academic abilities
Intellectual aptitude (cognitive)
Creativity

Characteristics

Observing characteristics of highly capable students is often difficult when we are dealing with obviously bright children. The chart below is helpful in seeing the subtle differences between the bright child and the highly capable learner.

Bright Child	Highly Capable Learner
Knows the answers	Asks the questions
Is interested	Is highly curious
Is attentive	Is mentally and physically involved
Answers the questions	Discusses in detail, elaborates
Top group	Beyond top group
Listens with interest	Shows strong feelings and opinions
Learns with ease	Already knows
6-8 repetitions for mastery	1-2 repetitions for mastery
Understands ideas	Constructs abstractions
Enjoys peers	Prefers adults
Grasps the meaning	Draws inferences
Is receptive	Is intense
Copies accurately	Creates a new design
Enjoys school	Enjoys learning
Absorbs information	Manipulates information
Technician	Inventor
Good memorizer	Good guesser
Enjoys straightforward, sequential presentation	Thrives on complexity
Is alert	Is keenly observant
Is pleased with own learning	Is highly self-critical

Overview of the process

Step 1: Referral

The individual making the referral submits completed Referral Form to school psychologist.
Classroom teacher or advisor completes the Teacher Referral and Feedback Form, attaches a copy of the student’s current report card, and submits packet to the school psychologist.
The Highly Capable Selection Committee reviews referrals to determine which students meet the eligibility requirements to move forward to cognitive testing.
The committee notifies parents/guardians of their student's eligibility to test and communicates the date of testing for eligible students.

Highly Capable Referral Form

Step 2: Assessment

Step 3: Selection

The Highly Capable Selection Committee reviews test scores to determine which students qualify for highly capable services. A student will be identified as highly capable if he/she meets criteria on two of the three assessment areas noted below:

Academic: The student’s overall achievement score is at or above the 97^th percentile in mathematics and reading within the last 12 months.
Cognitive: The student’s overall IQ is at or above the 97^th percentile.
Creativity: The student’s overall creativity test score is in the 9^th stanine in at least one section, or at or above the 97^th percentile.
Parents will be notified of qualification within thirty calendar days.

Step 4: Services

Confidentiality is maintained during all steps of the process. If you have a question about this process, please contact the Director of Support Services at (509) 349-2366 ext. 1440.