SAGE PROGRAM

Seymour Academically Gifted Education (SAGE) currently serves first through fifth grade students within the district. SAGE helps meet individual needs of academically talented students. These are needs that cannot be met within the general education classroom. 

The mission of the Seymour School District Gifted Program is to provide a learning environment with opportunities to maximize the potential of gifted students. This will be accomplished through highly challenging educational opportunities and specialized instruction that will allow students to contribute to the demands of an ever changing world. 
 

---

Program Goals

The Seymour School District Gifted Program will:

• Provide a learning environment to develop critical thinking, creativity, and reasoning abilities. 
• Ensure opportunities for gifted learners to participate in challenging learning experiences not available to students in the regular classroom. 
• Provide opportunities for gifted students to collaborate and challenge other students with similar skills and talents. 
• Address the social emotional needs of gifted learners through educational and self-reflective experiences that allow students to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and build on those areas.  

Learner Outcomes

The goal of the Seymour Gifted Education Program (SAGE) is to identify academically gifted students and provide them with a learning environment that will allow them to develop to their full potential. Students who are in the program will

• learn in an environment designed to foster advanced thinking, creativity, and reasoning, while strengthening decision-making and communication skills.
• build the skills and confidence to learn independently and take ownership of their learning.
• experience advanced and challenging instruction not typically offered in the regular classroom.
• develop social and emotional awareness by recognizing and responding to their own strengths and needs and those of others.
• be provided opportunities to collaborate, challenge one another, and interact with peers who share similar skills and talents.

 

Placement Process

STEP 1. Students can be referred by teachers, parents, and other interested people who are in a position to observe the daily behavior of children. Adults who wish to recommend gifted candidates are asked to complete a referral form. The form contains a checklist designed to identify children who display characteristics common to gifted students. If you would like to make a referral or have questions about the referral process, please contact Sarah Cable at scable@seymourschool.net or by phone at (417) 935-2287 at extension 312. 

STEP 2. The records of students identified in Step 1 are reviewed for information. This may include past tests and referrals that might indicate that the child requires additional educational services. Additionally, a gifted screener may be administered to specific grade levels. Students who are selected to move forward in the placement process will be in the top 2 tiers when compared to peers of the same grade level. Exceptions may be made on a case by case basis. 

STEP 3. The information from Steps 1 and 2 is used to make a prioritized list of students to be given an intelligence test. Parents will be informed of the testing situation, and asked to sign a consent form, before a school psychological examiner administers the test. 

STEP 4. To be placed in the SAGE program, students must achieve item one as well as two of the three following criteria listed below. 

Selection Criteria: 

Students must meet item one as well as two of the three following criteria in grades 1 through 5. 

1. General Mental Ability- An IQ score at or above the 90th percentile (a score of 120) or above on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition. (WISC-V) 
2. Academic Ability- A score at 80 percent or above on a nationally normed assessment. 
3. Creativity,Reasoning, and Problem Solving Ability- Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAt) is at or above the 85th percentile. 
4. Other- Documented evidence of exceptional performance in a general academic area, a fine arts area, or another area related to the design of the gifted program. 

STEP 5. In the event qualifications are met, the child and his or her parents are given information about the SAGE Program and asked to make the final decisions as to whether the child will participate. 

Students in first through fifth grades will receive 150 minutes of specialized instruction per week within the gifted classroom setting. While attending SAGE classes, missing work from the student’s classroom will not be counted against him or her. While it is our goal to avoid pulling students during core instruction time, on some occasions it may not be avoidable. Classroom teachers will make their best effort to supply students with the information they may have missed during their SAGE sessions.