The Page Unified School District recognizes that the gifted student has special needs and offers differentiated learning opportunities. The Page Unified School District will provide gifted students with appropriate and intellectually challenging curriculum as part of the general education school day. An enriched curriculum with the flexible grouping of students will be used to facilitate differentiated instruction. The gifted student will be provided opportunities to participate in co-curricular enrichment activities and academic competitions. Gifted students will be provided with an environment that supports their emotional and social needs by staff who have been trained to work with the unique needs of the gifted child.
"Gifted" means a child who is of lawful school age, who due to superior intellect or advanced learning ability, or both, is not afforded an opportunity for otherwise attainable progress and development in regular classroom instruction and who needs special instruction or special ancillary services, or both, to achieve at levels commensurate with the child's intellect and ability.
Arizona Revised Statutes Article 4-15-761. Arizona Department of Education
In the fall of 2005 it was announced that PUSD was one of only 14 recipients to receive the Javits Gifted Education Grant in the country. The grant was highly competitive with over 140 applicants that included: Universities, State Departments of Education and local school districts. Page actually placed 4th in the grant rankings. The grant totals approximately $980,000 for three years.
We are now in the second year of implementing "Buried Treasure: A Journey of Discovery." This project was designed to address the Javits Gifted grant priority of implementing identification methods specifically designed for use with underserved gifted students. Please read the Javits Annual Update Report to get the latest information on this project.
The grant proposal outlined four major areas of focus for our gifted education program over the next three years. Those four focus areas are listed below with brief descriptions of what those areas entail. For more information please contact Melissa DeVries the project coordinator at (928) 608-4145.
1. Increase identification and participation of underrepresented populations in our district through:
- 2nd grade screening using SOI and Naglieri.
- "Growing our own" through the prescriptive tools and the brain development exercises of the
- SOI lab.
- Student support through school counselors and support staff.
- Parents/community participation through various activities and forms of communication.
2. Increase the percentage of students exceeding standards and achieving academic growth of one year or more annually through increased rigorous learning opportunities such as:
- Honors Classes
- Differentiation
- Compacting
- After school clubs
- Academic Competitions
- Acceleration
- Concurrent Credit Options
3. Increase the use of identified instructional strategies in all classrooms by providing professional development opportunities that address the needs of our population of gifted and visual spatial learners to include:
- Gifted Development Center will facilitate the training of our staff in methods of teaching to the visual spatial student.
- Staff and Administrative in-services, professional development and University classes.
- Opportunities to attend workshops and trainings out of district.
4. Measuring Success and Sharing Results to include:
- Data obtained throughout the grant period will be shared at the local, regional, state and National levels.
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