Primary Talent Pool Program
The Mayfield Independent Primary Talent Pool Program serves students from Kindergarten through the third grade that have three pieces of evidence including a
committee recommendation. The evidence compiled can include test scores, teacher recommendations, along with evidence of high achievement, creativity, leadership, and characteristics of talent in visual/performing arts.
The primary teachers utilize Singapore Math strategies with Math in Focus. This program is designed to differentiate lessons within the classroom in order to reach ALL learners. Teachers use hands-on, visual, and written strategies to make math meaningful and challenge their students.
The primary teachers are an asset in helping to identify the Primary Talent Pool students and to challenge the students daily. The GT Coordinator works in conjunction with the primary teachers through consultation and collaboration, providing support and information including supplementary materials. The students also participate in a pull-out program that meets once a week.
The following can be found at http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Gifted+and+Talented /Frequently+Asked+Questions++Gifted+and+Talented.htm
PRIMARY TALENT POOL
Q: What is the Primary Talent Pool?
A: The Primary Talent Pool is a group of primary students (P1-P4; Kindergarten through Third Grade) informally selected as having characteristics and behaviors of a high potential learner and further diagnosed using a series of informal and formal measures to determine differentiated services during the primary program.
Q: What is the benefit of selecting students for the PTP?
A: The benefit of selecting students to participate in the PTP provides early enrichment for those students whose gifts and talents need to be nurtured in order for those talents to develop further. Additionally, talent development may assist in the formal identification process in fourth grade.
Q: When students become eligible for formal identification in the fourth grade, are PTP students automatically identified as GT?
A: PTP students are not automatically identified as GT once they reach the fourth grade. Specific and more stringent criteria must be met to formally identify a GT student.
Q: Can formal testing be used to select students for the PTP?
A: Yes. However, data from formal, normed measures shall not be used for the purpose of eliminating eligibility for services to a child in the primary program. Formal, normed measures may be used to discover and include eligible students overlooked by informal assessments.
Q: What percentage of primary students is recommended to be selected for the PTP?
A: According to 704 KAR 3:285, “high-potential learners” are students who typically represent the top quartile (25%) of the entire student population in terms of the degree of demonstrated gifted characteristics and behaviors. The PTP may represent the top 5% in each of the five areas of GT (general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, leadership, creativity and the visual and performing arts) for a total of 25% of the entire primary school population.
Q: Can a student be selected for the PTP one year and not the next?
A: No. Once a student is in the PTP, the student remains in the talent pool until exiting the third grade (P4). Services may need to be periodically adjusted to fit the individual child’s specific needs.
Q: Are parents/guardians to be notified that their child is in the PTP?
A: There is no reference in the GT regulation that parents/guardians are to be notified of student selection for the PTP. Individual districts may decide whether to notify or not and this can be addressed in the district’s policies and procedures.
Q: How are services delivered to PTP?
A: For a student in the primary grades, services shall allow for continuous progress through a differentiated curriculum and flexible grouping and regrouping based on the individual needs, interests, and abilities of the student. Emphasis on educating gifted students in the general primary classroom, shall not exclude the continued, appropriate use of resource services, acceleration options, or other specific service options. A recommendation for a service shall be made on an individual basis.
References:
Primary Talent Pool Frequently Asked Questions; A Publication of the Kentucky
Advisory Council for Gifted & Talented Education & the Kentucky Department of
Education