Purpose

It is the fundamental purpose of the Coatesville Area School District to provide mentally gifted students with the opportunity to move beyond the routine acquisition of knowledge; to examine the relationships among different areas; or to delve deeply into a few areas.  The intent of our program is to challenge students to explore new areas of thinking and responding and to provide a sequence of experiences designed to promote continuous fulfillment of the potential of the gifted student.

Definition

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has defined the term mentally gifted to include a person who has an IQ of 130 or higher and when multiple criteria as set forth in Department Guidelines indicate gifted ability. Determination of gifted ability will not be based on IQ score alone. A person with an IQ score lower than 130 may be admitted to gifted programs when other educational criteria in the profile of the person strongly indicate gifted ability. Determination of mentally gifted shall include an assessment by a certified school psychologist.

Identification Process

The Coatesville Area School District employs a comprehensive assessment process in our continuing effort to identify mentally gifted students. The multiple criteria that the Coatesville Area School district uses to identify mentally gifted students consists of the following:

• Parent and teacher ratings of student behaviors

• Review of student academic records

• Ability and achievement assessments

• IQ Score