Identifying Gifted and Talented Students

Three Pathways to Gifted Identification

Students are identified gifted in Poudre School District (PSD) through one of three pathways: grade 3-8 screening, the referral process, or transferring into this district with a portable GT identification. The screening and referral pathways are described in more detail below. Please refer to the GT Transfer Students webpage for more detail about the transfer pathway.

 

Screening

A PSD student's multiple qualifying data points can naturally lead down the path to a gifted identification. Therefore, all PSD students receive consideration for gifted identification in reading and math through the gifted screening process, which begins when students take the CogAT in spring of second grade. Students also take the MAP assessment in math and reading beginning in second grade and the CMAS state assessment in math and English language arts beginning in third grade. District-level gifted identification specialists review all grade 3-8 achievement and ability assessment data at least twice each school year, typically in August and April, and work directly with the gifted site coordinators at every school to identify new students who qualify via screening.

 

PSD Gifted Referral Windows

Teachers, parents, and students themselves can initiate a referral (or an Multilingual or Twice-exceptional Investigation) for gifted identification.  There are TWO gifted referral windows in PSD -- one in 1st semester, starting August 26th, and one in 2nd semester, starting January 13th. See specifics below. 

Fall 2024 Window

• K-12 Academic Aptitude (August 26 - October, 4, 2024)  Window closed

Spring 2025 Window

• K-1 & gr 3-12 Academic Aptitude (January 13 - February 21, 2025) 
• K-12 Talent Aptitude (January 13 - February 21, 2025) 

 

Referral Process 

Step 1: BEFORE you request a gifted referral form from the gifted site coordinator at your child's school, please take time to read through the identification criteria that is at the bottom of this page and is also available in the Overview of Gifted Identification in PSD document linked above.

• Know that your child needs to have at least one qualifying data point to initiate a referral.

Step 2: Contact your school's gifted site coordinator to get a copy of the PSD gifted referral form.  You can find your school's site coordinator's name and link to their email here on the Gifted Services by School web page. You may request a referral form at any time during the school year, but referral paperwork will only be accepted during the open windows. If you miss the deadline for a window, you will need to wait to submit the paperwork until the next open referral window.

Step 3: Once completed and signed, email the referral form to your school's GT site coordinator. The site coordinator will then send the referral to the K-12 Gifted Program Coordinator.

Step 4: After the referral window closes, a district gifted ID specialist will contact you about possible next steps in the process for your child. Gifted referrals require a strong body of evidence (BOE), and that BOE takes time to build. Additional assessments may be needed. Each referral is unique.

Step 5: A final determination will be made for all gifted referrals and communicated to families by the end of the semester of the submittal window.  

 

Identification Criteria

To qualify for gifted education services, a student needs at least three qualifying indicators that span two different areas of the body of evidence.

• Qualifying indicators include scores at the 95th percentile or higher, Exceeded Expectations on CMAS, or a predetermined score on assessments in demonstrated performance.
• No two scores may come from the same assessment or the same type of assessment. (e.g. MAP and i-Ready are both norm-referenced achievement tests, and multiple qualifying scores count as ONE qualifying data point.)
• All qualifying indicators need to be within the same two-year period.

 

The four possible areas in the body of evidence for a gifted ID are . . . 

 

Note: The assessments listed above are not an exhaustive list but are the most  common assessments used in screening and referrals in PSD.