Acceleration – moving at a faster pace through academic content. There are many different forms, such as full grade acceleration, subject acceleration, and curriculum compacting.
Advanced Placement (AP) – college-level courses for high school students. Advanced Learning Plan (ALP) – a written record of gifted education programming utilized with 11 each gifted child and considered in educational planning and decision making.
Affective Needs – social and emotional needs of a child.
Asynchronous Development – differing rates for physical, cognitive, and emotional development. The gifted child may have a chronological age of 8 years, a mental age of 12 years, and an emotional age of 5 years.
Cluster grouping – the intentional placement of a group of similar-ability students in an otherwise heterogeneous (mixed-ability) classroom for a particular learning activity. Ex. placing gifted students in a special class or together in a group in one regular class.
Commensurate Growth - the academic and affective progress that can be measured and should be expected of a gifted student, given the student’s level of achievement, learning needs, and abilities matched with the appropriate instructional level.
Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) – the test most used to identify gifted students. It is an ability test that includes 6 subtests in 3 areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning skills.
Curriculum compacting – an instructional strategy in which a student’s grasp of a subject area is frequently reassessed by the instructor, and following demonstration of mastery of the subject, the student is allowed to progress to the next level or is given more in-depth work in the same subject area.
Determination – the results of the gifted educational team to identify a student as gifted, place the student in a talent pool, and collect more data, or did not meet the requirements set forth by the school district and the Colorado Department of Education.
Differentiation – the modification of programming and instruction based on a student’s academic need and intellectual ability.
Dual Enrollment – students take courses part-time at a college or university in addition to attending classes at their regular school.
Early Access - early entrance to kindergarten or first grade for highly advanced gifted children under the age of six.
Enrichment – the enhancement of the curricular program with additional opportunities and avenues of learning. The process of covering a subject in greater depth than is usual, or tackling subjects not usually covered.
Exceptional Children’s Education Act (ECEA) – a Colorado law that groups students with disabilities, students for whom English is not the primary language, and gifted students as those who have different educational needs based on their identified exceptionality.
MTSS Multi-tiered System of Supports – an adaptable problem-solving model for parents and teachers to use to assess and address individual student needs. Tiered Assignments – assignments that are designed for different abilities.
Out-of-level testing – administering a test at a higher grade level or more advanced content to a younger student to assess their true abilities.
Twice Exceptional (2X or 2E) – a student who is identified as both gifted and as a child with a disability.
Underachievement – a discrepancy between recognized ability and actual academic performance. The causes of underachievement may be social, emotional, physical, and/or academic. Inappropriate curriculum can have consequence for the underachieving gifted student.
Western Academic Talent Search (WATS) – an opportunity for students in grades 3 to 9 to take above-level testing typically not available at this age. The testing includes the Explore test (grades 3-6) and the ACT and SAT for grades 6-9. This is a program sponsored by the Center for Bright Kids in Denver.
