Vision

Giftedness and high potential are fully recognized, universally valued, and actively nurtured to support children from all backgrounds in achieving their personal best and contributing to their communities.

Mission Statement

We believe that every student has the right to have the opportunity to develop his or her talents to the highest level. The needs of high ability students differ from others in rate of learning, capacity for in-depth learning, and need for diversity. Therefore, these students need to be provided with an environment that is both stimulating and challenging and that is able to accommodate their abilities.

These students benefit from an emphasis on problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, research, and leadership skills. This is accomplished through enrichment, acceleration, differentiation of the curriculum, and diversification of supplemental materials.

We believe that parents play an integral part in the education of high ability students. Their support of the student and school is essential for success.

Furthermore, we believe it is important that each student is given support and guidance in their affective development and leadership ability so that each will be able to utilize his or her abilities out of a healthy sense of self.

Wawasee recognizes that high ability learners can be found in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

Program Goals:

• Provide a variety of appropriate services for the high ability student, K-12, including acceleration, cluster grouping within a grade level, and differentiated curriculum based on students’ learning needs.
  • Determine the students’ needs based on complied information to make decisions about acceleration and differentiation. This will include screening for early entrance to kindergarten.
  • Determine services based on the classroom curriculum and the level of acceleration for the high ability student.
• Provide students with learning experiences at an appropriate level of challenge based on current and pre-assessed data.
  • Support and resources from the high ability coordinator and high ability liaisons to facilitate student learning.
  • Provide ongoing professional development to aid in interpreting test data and differentiation options.
  • Analyze trends in test data to ensure growth of the high ability students.
• Ensure the curriculum for high ability students is aligned with the state standards and is an extension of the regular classroom.
  • Differentiation of core curriculum within the regular classroom with support from the high ability coordinator. Some techniques for differentiation are:
    1. Reading Workshop
    2. Writing Workshop
    3. Math Workshop
       • Math workstations
       • iReady
       • Math Pentathlon Games
• Recognize and provide for the social and emotional needs of the high ability student.
  • Cluster grouping of students to provide interaction with peers of like ability.
  • School counselors are available to meet the individual needs of the high ability student.