Gifted Education Services
Bulloch County Schools offers gifted education services for students in elementary, middle, and high school. Eligibility for services is based on guidelines established by Georgia’s State Board of Education. Services are provided through the following delivery models:
- Resource Classes: The school system’s Quality Unique Experiences in Study and Thought (QUEST) program provides special instruction for gifted students so they may achieve at levels commensurate with their intellectual abilities. Quest provides both group and individual learning experiences to develop cognitive skills, leadership potential, thinking abilities, and creative abilities. The Quest program provides opportunities that enhance students’ communication, problem solving, creative and critical thinking, research and study, guided independent study, and self-evaluation skills.
- Advanced Content Courses: Advanced content courses are offered in grades 6-12 as an opportunity for gifted students to acquire content knowledge at an in-depth level.
- Cluster model: Small groups of gifted students are provided with enrichment opportunities by a gifted endorsed teacher beyond regular course content in a heterogeneous setting.
- Advanced Placement Courses: Advanced Placement courses are offered for students in grades 9-12 to provide a more rigorous level of instruction with potential for college course credit.
- Gifted Review in Fall and Spring: Bulloch County Schools conducts a fall and spring review of students who are nominated for gifted services. All nominations should be submitted online via the gifted education webpage by the advertised date. Unless new data suggests a need, testing will not be repeated more than once every two years. Any nominations received after a test window closes will be held until the next review period.
To be considered for gifted services, students may be nominated by one of the following:
- an automatic referral process, teacher, parent, peer, or self.
- an automatic referral and nomination by scoring at the 90th percentile or above in either reading or math on a standardized achievement test.
Please note that a nomination does not guarantee a formal evaluation of a child's eligibility. Once the nomination window is closed, an eligibility team at each school will review the data submitted to determine if a student requires a formal evaluation for gifted services.
Gifted Services are based on need: therefore, the review team must establish that there is evidence of a need for services before evaluation can take place. If a formal evaluation is recommended by the review team, then the student will be evaluated in four areas: mental ability, achievement, creativity, and motivation. After formal evaluation is complete, under State Board of Education guidelines, two options are available to determine eligibility for gifted services:
Option A: A student is required to have a qualifying score on the mental ability and achievement tests.
- For students in Kindergarten through second grade: the student must have a composite score of 99 or above on a standardized test for mental ability and 90 or above in either Reading or Math on a standardized achievement test.
- For students in third grade and higher: the student must have a composite score of 96 or above on the mental ability test, and 90 or above in either the Reading and Math portions of the standardized achievement test.
Option B: A student is required to have qualifying scores on any three of the four categories of measurement.
- Mental Ability: A student must have a composite score of 96 or above, or have the same range of scores on at least one component of the mental ability test.
- Achievement: A score of 90 or above on the standardized achievement test.
- Creativity: A score of 90 or above on the creativity measure.
- Motivation: A score of 90 or above or a grade point average (grades 6-12 only) of at least 3.5 or above in motivation.
When a student is identified for gifted services, parents are required to give their consent for services. Students and parents are presented with the Criteria for Continuation of Gifted Services at the beginning of gifted services.