Frequently Asked Questions

1. Advanced Curriculum/High Ability Program – What does Indiana law require us to do?

Identify students in the general intellectual and specific academic domains, K-12. (In SCH, we identify students in three categories: general intellectual, language arts, and math.)
Use multifaceted assessments (ID) that include high ability students from poverty, limited English proficiency, and all ethnic groups
Appropriately differentiate our curriculum and instruction for students
Provide professional development to teachers and counselors on the specific needs of gifted students
Periodically conduct a systematic program assessment
Create a guidance and counseling plan
Report on our program effectiveness, specific use of funds, and student achievement.

2. What is the definition of a High Ability student?

“High Ability student” is one who: “performs at, or shows the potential for performing at, an outstanding level of accomplishment in at least one domain when compared to other students of the same age, experience, or environment; and is characterized by exceptional gifts, talents, motivation, or interests.” (as defined by Indiana Code)
Nationally, the terms Academically Talented, Gifted/Talented, and Gifted are all used to describe gifted students. In SCH middle schools, we refer to students who are gifted as “high ability” because that is the term used by the Indiana Department of Education. In elementary we identify students who need advanced curriculum/instruction as they are still developing their academic skills

3. How are students identified in SCH?

Multifaceted Student Identification Plan

The School City of Hammond (SCH) employs a multifaceted identification process to ensure that students are appropriately placed in the High Ability program. Students are identified for Math, Language Arts, or both, starting in kindergarten. The process includes both qualitative and quantitative measures, with identification occurring at strategic developmental points:

Quantitative Measures:
- Grades K-2: iReady Diagnostic assessments in Reading and Math are used to measure academic abilities.
- Grades 3-8: ILEARN assessments evaluate achievement of Indiana Academic Standards in Reading and Math.
- Grade 4 and Grade 6: Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) assesses verbal, quantitative, and non-verbal reasoning.
- Grade 8: PSAT 8 is administered to provide insight into academic readiness for high school.
- Grade 9: PSAT 9 helps determine advanced academic placement in high school.
- Grades 10-12: SAT scores are considered for ongoing placement and program evaluation.

Qualitative Measures:

The Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS) gather teacher and parent input on critical areas such as intellectual ability, creativity, and leadership. This tool is designed to ensure equitable identification across all demographics.

An identification committee, including trained educators and administrators, reviews all assessment data and qualitative input to make placement decisions. This committee follows a culturally responsive process to ensure that students from diverse backgrounds are identified.

4. What is SIGS?

SCH relies on the Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS) as a qualitative measure for gathering teacher and parent input. The SIGS is a nationally normed, research-based observational tool designed to identify students with high abilities. It assesses critical areas such as general intellectual ability, language arts, mathematics, creativity, and leadership. SCH ensures the use of equitable and bias-free tools to identify high ability students from all backgrounds.

5. Local norms and standardized tests:

The School City of Hammond will implement an unbiased identification process based upon specific criteria using reliable and valid qualitative and quantitative testing measures to identify students in reading, math or both.

6. What are the characteristics of a high ability (gifted) child?

The National Association for Gifted Children identifies children as highly able or gifted “when their ability is significantly above the norm for their age.” These abilities can be demonstrated in many different ways. No child exhibits giftedness in the same way, but the following table provides some possible ways in which a child may demonstrate their giftedness.

7. What are some negatively perceived characteristics sometimes associated with a gifted child?

Self-critical; impatient with failures
Critical of others or of the teacher
Overreacts
Domineers
Gets angry or cries if things go wrong
Hands in messy work
Is more concerned with concept than the details
Refuses to accept authority
Refuses to do rote homework
Bored with routine tasks
Makes jokes or puns at inappropriate times
Disagrees vocally with others or with the teacher about ideas and values
Is nonconforming/stubborn
Is reluctant to move on to another topic

8. What’s the difference between a high-achieving child and a high ability, or gifted, child?

“Identification of gifted students is clouded when concerned adults misinterpret high achievement as giftedness. High-achieving students are noticed for their on-time, neat, well-developed, and correct learning products. Adults comment on these students’ consistent high grades and note how well they acclimate to class procedures and discussions. Some adults assume these students are gifted because their school-appropriate behaviors and products surface above the typical responses of grade-level students. Educators with expertise in gifted education are frustrated trying to help other educators and parents understand that while high achievers are valuable participants whose high-level modeling is welcomed in classes, they learn differently from gifted learners. In situations in which they are respected and encouraged, gifted students’ thinking is more complex with abstract inferences and more diverse perceptions than is typical of high achievers. Articulating those differences to educators and parents can be difficult.”

(from High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker, Bertie Kingore, Ph.D.)

9. What if my child is new to SCH Schools?

High ability placement in a previous district is not an automatic placement in the School City of Hammond. School districts often have different measures and criteria for placement. The School City of Hammond will consider scores on comparable tests completed at other schools. The identification committee will discuss scores and acceptability for admission into the School City of Hammond’s High Ability Program. If additional testing is needed, the identification committee will make that decision.

10. What services or curriculum are different if a child is identified as needing advanced curriculum?

Students identified as needing advanced curriculum in the School City of Hammond (SCH) are provided with differentiated instruction and enrichment opportunities tailored to their unique abilities. The curriculum and instruction plan includes the following key components:

Curriculum and Instruction Plan

K-6 WIN time
- Enrichment
- Daily
- Provided in small groups
- Curriculum utilized: Junior Great Books and Math Enrichment materials/resources
Grades 4-8 Modern Classroom
- Daily
- This research-backed instructional model serves students at all levels of understanding, both inside and outside the classroom. In schools worldwide, we’ve seen our educators leverage technology to foster human connection, authentic learning, and social-emotional growth for all students.
- Provides blended learning, self paced structures, and mastery-based learning
- Meet every student at where they are.
- Utilized in every discipline and subject area and/or course.
Provide Makerspaces in all buildings and utilized at each grade level
- Curriculum developed to ensure students are exposed to certain tools, activities, etc. per grade level.
- Makerspaces are spaces where students can gather to create, invent, and learn. They combine DIY with education. According to Oxford Dictionary, a makerspace is a place in which people with shared interests, especially in computing or technology, can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.
  - Makerspaces provide hands-on learning opportunities.
  - Students can learn concepts through books, lectures, and videos, but in a makerspace they have an opportunity to take an abstract concept and put it into practice. For instance, in a classroom kids can learn about electricity, but in a makerspace students can make a paper circuit and create a holiday card that lights up.
  - Makerspaces teach kids resilience.
  - Creative spaces give kids an opportunity to use various tools and materials. As they tinker, students analyze what’s working and what’s not, and they have to try different tactics to solve problems. Through this process, kids learn to experiment, accept failures, make improvements, and develop the resiliency they need to try and try again.
  - Makerspaces help kids build communication, creativity, and collaboration skills.
  - Team projects in makerspaces authentically create collaboration and communication. In order to create an item or complete a project, kids naturally communicate, contribute ideas, and take on tasks—which helps them build those 21st-century skills of collaboration, creativity, and communication.
  - Makerspaces encourage educational equity.
  - Makerspaces help introduce students to engineering, computer science, robotics, and other sciences that traditionally have been the purview of white males. In a makerspace, girls, students of color, neurodiverse learners, English language learners, and students of any socioeconomic background can access the same tools and technology that once may have been available only to students in gifted programs or in robotics clubs.
PLTW
- Project Lead The Way® (PLTW) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes pre-engineering courses for students in K-12th grade. PLTW forms partnerships with public schools, higher education institutions, and the private sector to increase the quantity and quality of engineers and engineering technologists graduating from this country’s educational systems.
- Students who have done well in their math and science courses and who like to use computers will find these courses intellectually stimulating and manageable. Each course has something special to offer all students because it is a hands-on daily experience in problem-solving skills in electronics, robotics, and manufacturing processes. In addition, the problem-solving/analytical skills and processes are applicable to any career field. If a student decides engineering is not for him or her, that learning will have occurred in high school and not later in college.
HIGH School: AP/Dual Credit Courses
- Dual enrollment means a student takes a college course to earn high school and college credit. On the other hand, AP classes are high school classes with college-level curricula created by the College Board. (In some cases, completed AP classes count for college credits, though it depends on the college in question and the student’s score on the AP test.)
- Taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes or enrolling in college-level classes as a high school student (dual enrollment) looks good on your transcript, helping you stand out on an application and jump-start college.
Classroom-Based Differentiation (K-8)
- By engaging students in rigorous activities, teachers maximize learning potential. Classroom teachers use a variety of resources for students who exhibit strong proficiency in a given area. Teachers will challenge students within the classroom setting and adjust throughout the year when appropriate.
- When planning appropriate programming and services for high ability students schools must consider the following:
- How will different students be grouped, organized, or provided with individual plans for the most effective learning?
- What training does the teacher have or needs to most effectively teach and plan learning experiences for high ability students?
- What content, standards and pace are most appropriate for these students?
- What instructional models, strategies, projects, and products are most appropriate and will promote academic growth?

It is important to note that a high ability student may not require advanced instruction for every skill.

Individualized Enrichment Support (K-8)
- As required by the state of IN, students who show the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to peers of the same age, are provided with appropriate instructional adaptations and educational services. All K-8 students are screened using multiple measures to determine the need for regular enrichment services in the areas of math and/or language arts. If indicated by data, students are offered consistent access to math and language arts enrichment activities throughout the year as appropriate.
- To enrich student experience, classroom teachers use lessons and resources within the district’s curricular programs. Teachers may also modify content, process, products, and/or learning environments to meet the needs of their students.
High School
- Students who are identified as having high ability are encouraged to take Honors, Advanced Placement, and/or Dual Credit/enrollment courses.
Elementary/Middle School
- Total School Cluster Grouping: This method is most recommended and will be utilized at School City of Hammond.
- Total School Cluster Grouping is a way of meeting the unique needs of all learners in a school. Classrooms can remain heterogeneous as ability levels are identified for all students and cluster groups with various skill needs are placed in each classroom. Student data is considered to create deliberate instructional groups thereby reducing the range and/or number of achievement levels each teacher must teach.
- Between-class grouping: High ability students may be “traded” among teachers at a particular grade level. This will allow for greater differentiation in order to meet the needs of high ability students within groups and may narrow the range of ability for teacher preparation within the grade level.
(Step Ahead) Subject Acceleration
- After careful evaluation students are placed in a class with older students for part of the day to receive instruction that is above grade level

11. Once a student qualifies for the high ability program, does he or she have to re-qualify every year?

Provided that he or she continues to be successful in the high ability curriculum, there is no need to re-qualify from year to year.

12. What happens if my high achieving child does not qualify as a High Ability student?

An appeal process is in place in the event the identification team does not place a child in services and a teacher, parent, or other person close to the child challenges this decision.

The following steps clarify the appeal process:

The petitioner contacts the building facilitator who gives an appeal form to the parent/guardian.
The appeal request form is delivered to the high ability coordinator.
The high ability coordinator reviews the student profile and may request additional assessments which may include by not limited to an alternative ability test, alternative achievement test, and alternate teacher rating scale.
The District identification team reconvenes to consider new data. This meeting may include an interview with the student and/or petitioner(s).
The Identification team reports the results to the high ability coordinator.
The District High Ability Coordinator reports results to the petitioner.

High Ability Appeal of Placement Decision Form

13. Can my child be exited from the high ability program? If so, what is the procedure?

Parents can always request an exit from the program. Please contact your child’s counselor for assistance.
In some cases, the HA placement may not be successful for a child. Our procedures in these situations are to involve parents, teacher, counselor, and—if necessary—the HA Coordinator to consider school-based interventions which may improve the child’s chances for success, to monitor responses to these interventions, and—if necessary—to change the student’s placement. Even in situations when a child has been exited from the program, he/she is still eligible for placement in future years. Please see this link on the website for more information: Exit Procedure for High Ability Program

14. My child did not attend kindergarten in SCH. Can he/she be tested to qualify for high ability programming as a first grader?

If a student, parent, or teacher believes a high ability placement for services is no longer appropriate, he or she may:

Arrange a conference with the parties involved, including the parent and the teacher providing services. (This conference may be a telephone conference.)
Parents, students, and teachers examine issues of concern and discuss interventions that may be implemented.
Participants agree on a probationary period not less than one grading period to implement interventions.
At the end of the probationary period, the parent, student, and teacher meet to review progress and determine whether or not the student should exit services.
If an exit is deemed appropriate, the parent signs permission to “de-flag” students for high ability placement and services.
Parent permission for exit and documentation of meetings/ interventions are sent to the high ability coordinator.
High ability coordinator removes the high ability flag for students in the database.

15. How does my child get placed in HA Science or HA Social Studies in middle school?

The state of Indiana requires us to identify and serve students as high ability in math and language arts only. Thus, we do not have formal identification for students in other subject areas such as social studies and science. Your child’s middle school counselor will be best positioned to help you with additional ongoing questions or concerns on this.

16. More questions?

Please read all of the information elsewhere on this website. Chances are, your answer can be found here.
Please direct your building-specific questions to your child’s teacher, school counselor, or principal.
Please direct other questions to the following individuals:
- Dr. Paige McNulty - Pemcnulty@hammond.k12.in.us

Questions about high school programming are best answered by our high school counseling staff or school administrators.

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