Gifted Services

Katie Pearson

Gifted Learning Coordinator

Valley View Local Schools believes that all children are entitled to an education that meets their individual needs. We are committed to providing children with opportunities to progress their abilities.

Our goal is to provide services where our Gifted Learners:

Develop and apply higher-level thinking and processing skills.
Use effective, positive leadership skills in the classroom and community.
Use logical reasoning, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills to come to solutions or hypotheses.
Develop a desire for excellence to improve their organizational skills and grow in personal responsibility and self-confidence as learners.

We want to create a student-centered, rigorous academic environment specifically designed to meet the intellectual, creative, social, and emotional needs of gifted individuals within their unique culture while helping to produce self-directed, life-long learners who will become productive citizens.

Specific provisions are made to meet the needs of our gifted students within their regular K-12 classroom and as part of the integrated school day.

In the elementary buildings, administrators and teachers work together to ensure students identified as gifted are clustered appropriately in the general education classroom. The classroom teachers who are providing gifted services will participate in ongoing professional development to help meet the needs of gifted learners.
In grades 7-8, students are clustered in classrooms and placed with teachers who receive ongoing professional development. There are also advanced classes offered to gifted students. These courses may offer a quicker pace and more rigorous content.
Gifted services for high school students are provided through honors course selection, College Credit Plus, and Advanced Placement courses.

K-12 gifted services consist of a combination of the following:

Differentiated instruction
Advanced coursework
Classroom cluster grouping
Subject and grade acceleration
Honors, Advanced Placement, and College Credit Plus

Qualifying for Gifted Services

Valley View Local Schools uses the guidelines established by the Ohio Department of Education to identify gifted students with approved assessments, including:

Whole-grade screening for superior cognitive ability in grades 2 and 4, using the NNAT3
Whole-grade screening in reading and math in grade 1 using the Iowa Test of Basic Skills
Whole-grade screening in reading and math, three times yearly, through MAP testing in grades 2–8
Additional testing for gifted identification outside of whole grade screening is offered when:
- A student is new to the district and/or is referred by a parent, teacher, or themselves and has not been already assessed with an approved standardized instrument
- A student scores 1-2 points away from the identification cut-off on the whole-grade screening

Gifted Referrals

Students enrolled in Valley View Local Schools may be referred for gifted identification by a parent, teacher, peer, or themselves, at any time.
You can download and complete the Gifted Identification Referral Form by clicking the link below or contact the gifted coordinator, Katie Pearson, at katie.pearson@valleyview.k12.oh.us
Once completed, Gifted Identification Referral Forms should be returned to your child’s school building. You can download and complete and then email the completed form to your child's building secretary. The building secretary will send the form to the Valley View Board Office.
The gifted coordinator will be in touch during the rest of the referral process.

Download Valley View Local Schools Gifted Referral Form

Acceleration

Early Entrance into Kindergarten

Parent Resources

SENG

A nonprofit organization that offers resources and information to families about the Social emotional needs of gifted learners. Ohio’s Association for Gifted Children Website for information on characteristics, identification, and other resources.

Ohio Association of Gifted Learners

Website for information on characteristics, identification, and other resources. Below is a link for one free download of their parent handbook.

National Association for Gifted Children

Provides a variety of informative articles, and resources to support gifted learners.

How Do I know if A Child is Gifted

There are many characteristics of gifted students which may be helpful when making the decision whether to refer a child for gifted screening and/or assessment. Click the following link to learn more.

Logo Image

Logo Title

In This Section