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The Barren County Schools Gifted and Talented Handbook can be found here.  The handbook states the following: "We realize that gifted children exist throughout our society regardless of sex, race, ethnic origin, socio-economic background, or disability, and we identify them through demonstrations of their outstanding intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, and visual and performing arts abilities.  We are proud of the dedication and hard work of those who work diligently to provide these “special people with special needs” with educational experiences commensurate with their abilities."

This shows that Barren County recognizes the underrepresented populations and is working to identify students in those areas. They call gifted learners "special people with special needs." They are working to provide this group with experiences to fit their needs. We know this is important for gifted learners. They need program that focuses on their strengths and needs.

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Barren County Elementary Curriculum Site

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Barren County Elementary Curriculum Site

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Professional Foundations of Identification and Assessment Plan (Policy and Standards)

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Professional Foundations of Identification and Assessment Plan (Policy and Standards)

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Barren County Schools utilizes KRS 157.200 for a definition of giftedness. This KRS states "exceptional children" is a category of "exceptional students" who are identified as possessing demonstrated or potential ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in general intellectual aptitude, specific academic aptitude, creative or divergent thinking, psychosocial or leadership skills, or in the visual or performing arts.

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Strenghts of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Policy and Standards)

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Strenghts of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Policy and Standards)

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Strength 1: The handbook (linked in the introduction) includes all Kentucky Regulation Statutes that refer to Gifted Education. This includes the definitions of commonly used terms that parents or others reading may not understand. The handbook includes 14 pages of these regulations. This ensures that families know the law and what they are entitled to.

Strength 2: Barren County also includes all district policies that oversee Gifted Education. The districts plan for identifying students within these district policies include:
-Employ a multi-faceted approach and utilize ongoing and longterm assessment;
-Be based on a variety of valid and reliable measures to include both informal and formal techniques and other data specific to each category of giftedness, consistent with standards established by Kentucky Administrative Regulation;
-Screen students for all areas of giftedness as defined by KRS 157.200.

The school district uses many MANY different pathways for determination of eligibility for gifted and talented services to ensure that student's individual needs, interests and abilities are met while also addressing environmental and cultural factors. The district notes that some of these could be "...whether the student is economically disadvantaged, or underachieving, is a member of a racial or ethnic minority or has a disability." This shows cognizance of the misrepresentation and the strive to go past it.

Strength 3: The full handbook is available on the internet for all stakeholders. This is an 81 page document that helps parents, community members, staff members, and students about the gifted program.

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Weaknesses of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Standards and Policy)

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Weaknesses of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Standards and Policy)

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1. The handbook states that staff are "screen students for all areas of giftedness as defined by KRS 157.200." There are many screening tools available within the handbook on what to look for and the forms, but there is no formal training mentioned.

2. We know the importance of using characteristics in underrepresented populations, such as ELL students. There is no mention of this in the policy section. There are no policies regarding ELL students.

3. There is no district data represented for gifted students. We have no idication of the identification rate to back up any of the district decisions.

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Professional Foundations of Identification and Assessment (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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Professional Foundations of Identification and Assessment (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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I was really excited as I went through this plan to see many areas where families and staff collaborate together for the betterment of the gifted students.

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While Barren County's plan is very comprehensive, there is always room for improvement.

Short -Term Goal 1: Add a gifted/talented teacher to the parent meeting to develop the GSSP.

Short- Term Goal 2: Provide training for ALL teachers on gifted and talented (what it is, characteristics of students, how to properly identify, services for the classroom, etc.)

Long -Term Goal 1: Work towards adding assessment and gifted/talented data to the handbook to back up the district plan and decisions made.

Long- Term Goal 2: Work on adding a characteristic assessment for ELL students.

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Strengths of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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Strengths of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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1. In the identification process, procedures, the plan states that parent input is used for determining services for a student. In addition, there is a plan in place to report progress of students to parents once a semester about the progress of the child in the gifted program. It is crucial that family members are involved in the decision making of services and as the services continue so that they can work on these same things and keep accountability for the district.

2. The district has a group of individuals to support the gifted and talented students. First, there is a Gifted/Talented Coordinator that oversees the whole program. They also have teachers in place that just serve gifted students. The handbook states that these teachers must have the correct certificate endorsement and recieve proper training. The handbook also states that teachers are responsible for providing services, in conjuction with the coordinator and the gifted and talented teachers.

3. The handbook states that there is a committee that includes the principal or assistant principal, counselor, and teacher that identify students for the gifted program. They use a variety of tools and measures but the PEOPLE make decisions. The handbook states that they meet two times per year to identify students with the first meeting in October and the second in the spring.

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Weaknesses of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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Weaknesses of Barren County's Identification and Assessment Plan (Collaboration with Colleagues and Families)

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1. The first weakness is that on the identification committee, there is no gifted and talented teacher that helps serve on this committee. We also know from the handbook that there is a lack of training for teachers and staff on the identification of gifted students. Knowing that staff have little training, I feel that there will be students missed in the process because they do not have the training that gifted certified teachers have.

2. Second, there is a whole section on who is responsible for providing services. It states that ALL Teachers are responsible for providing services to students. However, it does not provide any type of collection tool for data collection for teachers to keep to ensure that students are being served. There is very little accountability to ensure services are being met for in-class work.

3. Last, it states that teachers and an administrator meet with parents of identified students between September and October using the GSSP Protocol to develop a GSSP. Again, I have issues with the committee. If regular classroom teachers are going to be in this committee, they need to be trained in the gifted program. I have learned so much in just two classes that I did not know before. I was not equipped to service these students. If they are not going to train teachers, the gifted teacher needs to be in this meeting.