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Gifted Education: Advanced Learning Plans
Guidelines for Completing the Student Profile for Gifted Education

  1. Fill in all available information before deciding which (if any) tests need to be administered. This form should then be completed during the "Child Study" meeting.
  2. "Very strong" evidence suggests a student working approximately two years above grade level, or same age peers. This may be evident by percentiles above the 94th percentile, classroom performance or portfolio evidence comparable to a child at least two years older, of strong anecdotal evidence from observations such as the Kingore Observation Inventory. "Strong evidence" would indicate behaviors and skills from approximately 1 to 1 1/2 years ahead of peers. On the checklists, it is up to the discretion of the building level GT contact to decide if the evidence is very strong. It is important to take into consideration the amount of training in traits of gifted and talented children that the classroom teacher has had. Parents often include anecdotal evidence to support their ratings, so careful consideration must be given to their input.
  3. "Comments" may include information that is discussed during the staffing and/or other evidence about the strengths and needs of the individual student.
  4. This information needs to be kept in the student's individual file with the building level GT contact.
  5. Information that the student is flagged for gifted and talented programming services needs to be placed in that student's cumulative files. Specific testing scores may or may not be appropriate to include in the cumulative files. Check with your individual district for guidelines in this.
Guidelines for Completing the Advanced learning Plan for Gifted Education

  1. When a student is formally identified as gifted in one or more areas, several things need to occur:
    • A Student Profile is completed and reviewed by the Student Support/Intervention Team. Membership on this team is the same as it would be for any exceptional student with needs that exceed what is offered in general education.
    • The Student Support/Intervention Team identified special programming needs. Specific learning goals and programming needs for the student will be identified for implementation and progress monitoring. Goals and programming needs as entered on an Advanced Learning Plan. (ALP).
    • Parents need to be notified and included in any discussion and decisions concerning their child regardless of whether or not the student is or is not identified as gifted in any area. Parents need to have input on the contents of the ALP prior to, after or during the process of it being written by the Student Support/Intervention Team.
    • Progress on specific goals needs to be monitored on a regular basis throughout the school year. Annual review of ALPs is required.
    • Once formally identified the student information needs to be added to the district's data base of identified gifted students. This process will vary from district to district, but it is very important to keep this information current as it is required for district accountability procedures.
    • Identified students will need to be flagged as gifted in the category of LA, Math, Both or Other.
  2. Make sure that the data on the Advanced Learning Plan aligns with the information from the Student Profile.
  3. Details on how to fill out Learning Goals.
    • Student learning goals should reflect specific educational needs that focus on the student's area(s)s of identification. In other words, they should not all be about remediation. If there are significant social/emotional concerns related to giftedness, specific goals can be written that address those issues.
    • Goals must be written for a short or significant (no more than 1 school year) amount of time. A sample goal might be to increase the student's math scores by 1 1/2 years during the course of one school year.
    • Strategies include examples of the structures and programming designed to ensure that the student meets the goal. An example might be compacting of the math curriculum, math acceleration by one grade level, etc Progress monitoring of the effectiveness of identified strategies is critical and modifications may be made as needed.
    • Evidence of Goal Reached would relate back to the learning goal and serves as the accountability measure. The evidence may be in the form of formal or informal classroom assessments, anecdotal records, rubrics, portfolios, etc.
  4. The student's progress on the learning goals must be monitored on a regular basis. Strategies may be altered with parent approval. This should be a work in progress.
  5. The ALP needs to be updated and signed by the parent/guardian each school year.
  6. The ALP is meant to be a workable, effective tool that will help ensure that gifted students continue excelling in their areas of talent.
  7. Individual districts will need to decide where to keep the copies of the ALP. It is strongly recommended that parents and classroom teachers have their own copy, and that a file on each student is kept that contains original documents.
  8. The Student Support/Intervention Team will review student eligibility for gifted education programming at least once every three years or at transition to the next level of schooling. Special educational needs may change over time.
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