Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)

Our Mission Statement

All students identified as gifted and talented in the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District have the right to an appropriate education that provides educational interventions which challenge learners’ thinking and abilities in order to promote  high levels of  academic growth. Facilitators and teachers work together to ensure that the educational needs of gifted and talented students are met in the regular classroom and/or in a specialized learning setting.

Program Goals

GATE serves academically and intellectually gifted and talented K-12 learners in the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District.  The goals of the program include:

Goal 1.  To provide screening and identification practices that create a proportional representation of demographic groups that closely mirror the district’s total population by:

• monitoring the representation, performance, and retention of underrepresented populations in the program including students who are culturally and ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged, English learners, highly gifted, and twice-exceptional.
• screening all second-grade students using a research-based, non-linguistic screener; 
• articulating and publishing a GATE appeals process for learners who missed the qualifying criteria by a narrow margin.
• provide training for teachers which includes up-to-date “best practices” for potential identification of a student, and how to reduce biases when identifying students for assessing

Goal 2.  To provide a learning environment that will:

• challenge and stimulate gifted learners to reach their potential while interacting with intellectual peers;
• encourage the development of problem-solving by providing instruction and opportunities for higher-level critical thinking, creativity, communication, leadership, and research; 
• foster positive affective interactions, enhance self-concept and encourage self-direction and self-evaluation. 

Goal 3. To implement a curriculum in grades 3-8 that will:

• meet the varied needs of intellectually and academically gifted learners as reported in the current research literature. These include a faster pace of instruction and learning, depth and complexity of differentiated content, student-generated topics of interest, and an intense drive to master subject material;
• provide the opportunity to interact with intellectual peers, and provide support for heightened social and emotional sensitivities; 
• align to Idaho Content Standards with an emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM) topics.

Goal 4: To provide professional development that will support: 

• classroom teachers and parents in understanding and meeting the unique needs of gifted learners; 
• learners and parents in the transition from elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school;
• GATE facilitators in initial program setup and ongoing professional growth in current best practices.