Board of Education Policy 4000, Instructional goals… “encourages and supports initiatives and program flexibility permitting students to learn at a rate commensurate with their skills, abilities, performance, and interests”.  Furthermore, Policy 4000 states…. “Initiatives developed by the district should include the opportunities for both enrichment and acceleration”.

In accordance with this Board of Education policy, procedures are in place which will result in the identification of students who will benefit from opportunities for acceleration.  The following narrative describes the procedure for identifying these students.

Definition of Terms

1.      Enrichment – to go beyond the base expectations for the course.  The focus is on extension of the student’s learning, not simply more of the same material.

2.      Acceleration – to move at a faster pace than is normally expected through Shenendehowa’s instructional program, including single subject and whole grade acceleration.

Enrichment Strategies

Enrichment opportunities may be provided to students based on a teacher’s knowledge of the child’s needs, discussion between school staff and the child’s parents or directed by recommendation of the child’s home school’s Instructional Support Team (IST) committee.  The decision to provide enrichment to a student should be made on the basis of demonstrated ability and need.  Enrichment may be provided in those areas where a child has mastered the core content and would benefit from an opportunity to enhance his/her learning.

Evaluation of a student who has received enrichment may be accomplished by collecting samples of student work (including projects), gathering feedback from the student, gathering feedback from the child’s teachers or other school staff, and from the child’s parents/guardians.  Documentation will be made by the child’s classroom teacher in regard to the enrichment program the child received for math.  This information will be placed on the green test data card found in the child’s cumulative folder and/or SIS system.
Acceleration Procedures

Referral Process:  A referral may be made by an administrator or teacher during the first two marking periods for acceleration to take place in the current school year.  A referral may be made by a parent/ legal guardian after the second marking period for potential acceleration for the following year. 

The referral shall be submitted to the School Principal, who will be responsible for forwarding copies of the referral to the building’s IST and the Academic Administrator for math.

Should the referral be submitted by someone other than the child’s parent, the referring person will contact the parents to notify them that their child has been referred to the school team for consideration to accelerate.

Data Collection:  The referral of a student will be reviewed, in the order in which it is received, by an ad hoc IST designated by the School Principal.  Members of the team may include the child’s teacher, the School Principal, other teachers of the child, school psychologist, and counselor. 

The team will discuss the reasons for the referral using the information below:

• A review of school records
• Student work samples
• A review of available data including local and state test results
• A review of on-going classroom assessment results presented by the teacher
• Discussion of classroom observation data provided by the teacher(s) or other certificated staff

If the team determines that math acceleration is a possibility, the team designee will contact the Academic Administrator for math to provide additional data.  The team designee will also contact the parent to notify them that testing will take place to obtain the additional data.

Examples of possible additional data:

• Testing for Advanced potential (ie. TOMAGS, SCAT, CogAT, I.Q., etc.)
• Teacher Evaluation Questionnaire

Review of Data:

The information gathered by the Academic Administrator for math will be sent to the child study team evaluating the referral.  This team will determine if acceleration is warranted based on a thorough analysis of all data, using a district created rubric. Members of the team may include the child’s teacher, the School Principal, other teachers of the child, the school psychologist, and counselor.   

Student Assessment:  In some cases, it may be determined, based on the data gathered and reviewed, that the student would benefit from acceleration.  If so, the study team will recommend how acceleration can be provided.  This recommendation will be reviewed by the Academic Administrator for math and the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction prior to implementation.    

If acceleration is not recommended at that time, a future evaluation may be initiated during the next school year. A designated member of the IST will inform parents of the team’s decision to accelerate or not and what program will be provided to meet their child’s needs.

Program Planning: The need for acceleration will be determined on a case by case basis.  Documentation of acceleration will be placed in the cumulative folder.

Evaluation of Program Impact:  Once a plan for acceleration has been implemented, data should be gathered to evaluate its impact on student learning.  Data collected might include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Samples of student work, tests, quizzes and projects
• Student feedback
• Teacher(s) comment / evaluation
• Parent feedback
• Observation of the Student

Annual Review: Students participating in an accelerated program will be evaluated on an on-going basis throughout the school year.   If required, planning for the following school year will be accomplished through an annual meeting.  The review will focus on an assessment of the student’s success given the current program, the student’s need for continued programming, and the expectations set forth by the general education curriculum in successive years.

(Finalized 12/20/07. Updated 1/20/10)