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Gifted Education: Glossary of Educational Terms
Ability grouping -- the flexible regrouping of students based on individual instructional needs.
Acceleration -- moving at a faster pace through academic content.
Accreditation -- Means by which schools are acknowledged as providing adequate education to student while fulfilling all mandates and laws governing education.
Achievement test -- one which determines what a student knows within a specific unit or curriculum.
Affective needs -- the social and emotional needs of students.
Aptitude test -- one that measures how capable and able a student is to learn. May or may not be in a specific curricular area.
Benchmarks -- measurable achievements of students leading toward mastery of each Standard.
Charter school -- a public school designed and implemented to meet needs of a specific student population.
Cluster grouping -- the intentional placement of a group of similar ability students in an otherwise heterogeneous (mixed ability) classroom for a particular learning activity.
Concurrent Enrollment -- a provision that allows students to be enrolled in college classes while still in high school (see Post Secondary Option).
Cooperative grouping -- an instructional strategy in which small, usually heterogeneous groups of students work collaboratively to learn.
Curriculum -- the course of study, i.e., math, English, history
Curriculum compacting -- an instructional strategy in which a student's grasp of a subject area is frequently reassessed by the instructor, and following demonstration of mastery of the subject, the student is allowed to progress to the next level or is given core in-depth work in the same subject area.
Diagnostic test -- one which determines what a student knows within a specific unit or curriculum
Differentiation -- the modification of programming and instruction based on a student's academic need and intellectual ability.
Enrichment -- the enhancement of the curricular program with additional opportunities for learning.
Exceptional Children's Educational Act -- a Colorado law that groups students with disabilities, students for whom English is not the primary language, and gifted/talented students as those who have different educational needs based on their identified exceptionally.
Feeder schools -- those schools that, because of location, generally accept and send students to one another -- elementary to middle to high
Gifted and Talented -- refers to children of exceptional ability.
Heterogeneous grouping -- students are taught in mixed ability groups.
Home school -- a parent provides all or some of a child's education privately in the home. Parent requires no certification but child is tested with a standardized test to demonstrate achievement.
Homogeneous grouping -- students are taught in similar ability groups.
Mandate -- a law that compels a specific method of addressing a particular educational need. Gifted education does not have a legislative mandate in Colorado.
Mentorship -- a cooperative arrangement between a student and a professional adult for the purpose of sharing common interests in a particular skill, knowledge or career orientation.
Out-of-level (or off level) testing -- testing typically given to a particular grade or age of students and used to assess abilities of younger students at a higher level than their developmental peers
PSO (Post Secondary Option) -- a provision that allows students to be enrolled in college classes while still in high school (also called concurrent enrollment)
Private school -- a school which is funded by private sources and/or tuition.
Pull-out program -- Classes and activities that are held during the school day but outside the regular classroom.
Standards-based education -- a state-mandated mechanism for which students demonstrate what they know and are able to do with regard to particular content areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, geography, and foreign language. For gifted students this system of establishing identifiable and assessable skills and knowledge offers a framework for flexibility and instruction based on need.
GT Teacher/Facilitator -- the person assigned to a specific school to insure identification of Gifted and Talented students, support staff in provision of appropriate educational experiences, and be an advocate for Gifted and Talented students.
Tracking -- a rigid, inflexible system in which students are selected for semi-permanent grouping based on ability. In the past, students with high ability in one subject might have been selected for the high track in all subjects.
Transition process -- the process of student articulation between grades and levels.
Twice-exceptional students -- those who have both the characteristics of students with disabilities and of students with outstanding potential.
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