Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District's gifted and talented program is a go after CSD school budgets passed on May 10. Emily Higgins, the program's creator and coordinator, gave a rundown on what teachers, students and parents can expect. It is not exactly how previous generations think of “gifted and talented.”

Higgins said to be in such a program 20 to 30 years ago, students had to perform well in all aspects of school. The new program will look at students who may have a strong ability in just one area. This will allow a wider variety of students with exceptional skills to seek more of a challenge in school.

Higgins began working on the program last summer with input from then-superintendent Eileen King and throughout the year has worked with a panel which included Interim Superintendent Bob Webster. 

Maine requires every school district to have a plan that meets the needs of students who have these exceptional abilities or who exhibit the potential to excel. Higgins said the goal of this program is to meet the needs of students who have different abilities and includes students who are performing well and those who are not doing well, but have the ability to handle more challenging materials. It also includes students who are “twice-exceptional” – those who receive services for one subject, but perhaps have exceptional strengths in another.

Higgins said gifted and talented is similar to special education in that individualized services based on a student's need.

Higgins said the program works to develop children's strengths. It involves variety of categories including visual and performing arts, social studies, science, language arts, math, and the twice-exceptional aspect of the program, which can include any of the categories.

"A lot of people don't have an awareness that these programs exist or that they are available for their children. What a gifted child looks like or acts like ... (with) these exceptional potential abilities -- they're quirky, they might have a sophisticated sense of humor, they might need fewer repetitions to grasp material ... they enjoy complexity and abstraction, very observant, curious, wild ideas."

Students who have performed poorly in the past should not be considered lacking in ability to do better, said Higgins. She said many students who underperform are gifted and underperform for a variety of reasons including boredom and struggling to stay focused on material below their level of understanding, or they "figure they can just sort of skate along without showing what they can do.”

Five percent of students are gifted, said Higgins, but among high school dropouts, 10 to 20 percent are in the tested gifted range. Higgins said further data shows gifted children already know 60 percent of all kindergarten material on the first day of class. Higgins said the data explains why most of these students ending the year in the same place as their peers develop issues such as acting out or becoming disengaged.

Higgins added, despite the common misnomer that children can be too immature to move up a grade or accept more challenging material, accelerating a gifted student does not affect them negatively.

"In fact, it's one of the easiest methods to deal with somebody who has higher than average academic abilities in their age range," Higgins said recalling the wisdom of one of her college professors: "A quirky kid is going to be a quirky kid."

"If they are immature for their age, they are going to be immature for their age wherever they are," said Higgins. "If they do well academically, then it gives them no harm in allowing them to go ahead."

Higgins said her role is to help teachers provide ways to explore more complex material in a class or to personally take on a subset of students to engage them in more advanced material. She will be working full time on gifted and talented for the CSD schools in the fall and acknowledges it will be different and new for everyone involved. It is a big change, and will provide new opportunities for students and teachers.

"If you think that your child may be gifted, you can talk to the classroom teacher … I think it's important that parents know they can talk to the teachers and say their child needs some more challenges … and ask for some considerations … People can tell if their kids are a little different and the kids that are gifted – they're all different. "

Parents are encouraged to share with teachers some of the things they see in their child at home and to ask what teachers see at school.

Three to five percent of the school’s population will be served on an individual basis. The screening process looks at everyone from teachers to guidance counselors to educational technicians, administration and the school nurse, said Higgins. They will look through a list of all the kids' names and suggest students who would benefit the most from the program. Higgins goes through each nominated student's data and talks with the guidance counselor about each student and considers report cards, test scores and previous teachers’ inputs.

Higgins then administers an ability test. Once the information is collected, a committee will determine who most needs services next school year. Need is key, because it identifies who is at risk with the stress or boredom some face, Higgins said.

Lastly, parents will be notified and meet with the teacher to develop a personal learning plan Higgins will implement.

"If somebody does always get something right, we need to make sure they get some things that they struggle with before they move on from here because it can be debilitating when you first encounter failure ... I want to get that curiosity back – that you show up to school with. Be curious, pursue your passions."

For more information, visit https://www.nagc.org