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Hernando Today

District Plans 'Gifted' Screening Sessions

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: June 10, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - It's sort of like the TV show "So you think you can dance."

But this is more of a "So you think your child is gifted," and designed to let local parents see if their children are intelligent enough to make the mark.

In an effort to get more local children with high IQs enrolled in the district's new centralized immersion-style gifted program - set to open this fall at Explorer K-8 off Northcliffe Boulevard in Spring Hill - Hernando County School District officials are offering local parents the opportunity to bring their children to a special screening session later this summer.

"I expect to see them coming out in droves," said the school's principal, Dominick Ferello. "I think this is a great opportunity for parents to bring their kids in."

The open session, meant for local children in kindergarten through eighth grade, will follow three closed screenings in June and July for all students who scored a level five or above on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or in the 98th or 99th percentile on the FCAT Norm Referenced Test, or NRT. Those parents will be called this week and invited to bring their kids in for testing, Ferello said.

But scheduling the screening will be tricky. Monday afternoon, the district's ESE staff was still attempting to schedule time to test the 418 general education students who scored high marks on the two tests, said Cathy Dofka, the district's director of Exceptional Student Education.

"Right now, we don't even have enough days (to test those students). I'm looking for direction on what to do next," she said.

A student is defined as "gifted" if he or she scores at least two standard deviations above the mean IQ score of 130 (minus the standard "error of measurement" of three points) and meets at least one characteristic of a gifted student on the state's standard scale or checklist.

If the student does not meet state criteria, they can also qualify under a Plan B, or socioeconomic plan meant to assist various subgroups.

In Hernando County, a student can qualify for this if they have a mean IQ score of 120 and are a member of an underrepresented group - such as a low socioeconomic level or if English is not their first language.

Legally, the district is required to pay for any student to be tested whose parent has submitted a written request to the district's ESE office. This request can be submitted anytime, Dofka said.

While she was not sure how much each request would cost, she estimated that each written request costs district staff hours of paperwork and time. Also, the open screening will not consist of a full IQ test. Only children who pass through the initial, one-on-one 20-minute "IQ indicator" screening process will move on to a full-blown IQ test, scheduled privately at a later date with a school psychologist.

In April, school board members voted for a plan that aims to place the county's gifted students in an immersion-style gifted program at Explorer. With 383 currently-identified gifted students in grades K-8 who would be eligible to transfer to the center, those who do not transfer to Explorer will be forced to "opt out" of gifted services, which many have been receiving at their home schools. Approximately 210 students have volunteered to go to the center, up from 188 at last week's school board meeting. Another several dozen are undecided, Dofka said.

The center will cost the district nearly $705,000 more than the amount currently being spent on gifted services at the district's 16 elementary and middle schools. Each child that does not attend will cause the district to lose $2,100 in additional state funding per child.

However, officials believe there are other gifted children who have not been identified, primarily because their teachers have not "caught" that they were gifted.

"Parents need to be proactive," Ferello said. "If a parent really believes their child has a special gift, they owe it to their child to come out, get tested and nurture that talent."

Ferello said he expects many of the parents seeking testing to be those who currently send their children to private schools, but believe that their children may be better served by the district's new centralized center, if eligible.

From June 23-25, officials will be writing and finalizing the program's curriculum, which is melded into the core curriculum mandated by the state and modeled after that used by other gifted programs.

"This is going to be a beacon in the state, and it's pretty exciting," Ferello said. "I want everyone to come to Hernando County and say 'Wow.'"

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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