Gifted and Talented Overview

  • The West Des Moines Community Schools Gifted/Talented Program identifies and serves students who: 

    • possess outstanding abilities, talents, and potential for high performance when compared with same-aged peers, and
    •  require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs. 

     
    Exceptional abilities or potential are present in all ethnic and cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in students with disabilities (i.e., twice-exceptional). Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior due to giftedness in one or more of the following areas: 

    • General Intellectual Ability
    • Specific Academic Ability in one or more core content areas
    • Creative Thinking Ability
    • Visual or Performing Arts Ability
    • Leadership

    Program Goals

    Program Goal 1: The WDMCS Gifted/Talented Team will utilize multiple measures to identify gifted/talented learners and their varied needs.

    Program Goal 2: The WDMCS Gifted/Talented Team will facilitate programming to meet the varied needs of gifted/talented learners.

    Program Goal 3: The WDMCS Gifted/Talented Team will develop and facilitate professional learning opportunities for all staff focused on addressing the varied needs of advanced learners.

    Student Standards and Outcomes

    Student Standards and Outcomes were created to align with the following: National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) PreK-12 Gifted Programming Standards, Autonomous Learner Model Dimensions, Iowa Core Universal Constructs. These standards and outcomes provide a framework through which students identified to receive direct gifted/talented services engage in meaningful learning experiences when working with a Gifted/Talented Specialist.
Expand All

  • Standard 1

  • Standard 2

  • Standard 3

  • Standard 4

  • Standard 5

  • Standard 6

Last Modified on September 19, 2023