![]() ![]() Houlihan said he hopes to present a proposal in spring 2016 that could be used to screen students who would start kindergarten in fall 2017. He said in an interview that he would have the research department confirm the data.ĭistrict officials are working to revise the qualification criteria for the gifted program – a potentially more controversial change. Houlihan told the school board that he thought the district typically removes more than 1,000 students, mostly minorities, from the gifted program after retesting in fifth grade. Gifted students who stay in their neighborhood schools are supposed to receive a specialized education as well. In HISD, the gifted label is particularly significant because students who achieve it can apply to one of the popular Vanguard magnet schools, which serve gifted students and receive extra funding from HISD. The testing of all kindergarten students to determine if they are gifted will continue this year, as will the testing that the district offers before kindergarten. "Our position would be, once you're identified as gifted and talented, you're gifted and talented for as long as you're in HISD," Andrew Houlihan, the district's chief academic officer, told the school board Monday. The district, however, will continue to test the other fifth-graders to see if they meet the gifted criteria. Under the proposed change, the district would stop retesting fifth-graders already identified as gifted - no longer ousting them from the gifted program if they do not re-qualify. Grier noted in his State of the Schools speech in February that the district's black, Hispanic and low-income children were far less likely to be identified as gifted than their white, Asian and wealthier classmates. ![]()
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