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NOTICE TO TEACHERS, STAFF, STUDENTS, PARENTS/GUARDIANS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Wishkah Valley School District is accepting nominations for students to enter the Highly Capable program for the 2019-20 school year. Nominations will be accepted throughout the school year.
This program is designed to meet the unique needs of students who perform or show potential for performing at significantly advanced academic levels when compared with others of their age, experiences, or environments. Outstanding abilities are seen within student’s general intellectual aptitudes, specific academic activities, and/or creative productivities within a specific domain.
Students who are highly capable may possess, but are not limited to, these learning characteristics:
- Capacity to learn with unusual depth of understanding, to retain what has been learned, and to transfer learning to new situations;
- Capacity and willingness to deal with increasing levels of abstraction and complexity earlier than their chronological peers;
- Creative ability to make unusual connections among ideas and concepts;
- Ability to learn quickly in their area(s) of intellectual strength; and
- Capacity for intense concentration and/or focus.
Nominated students will be screened for eligibility in accordance with WAC 392-170-045. Parent/guardian permission will then be requested to allow eligible students to be assessed for entrance into the Highly Capable program. Assessment will be nondiscriminatory and consist of multiple objective criteria. Those students who score in the highly capable range will then be eligible for entrance into the Highly Capable program, subject to parent/guardian permission.
Questions Families Ask About Highly Capable Children
- How does one know if a child is exhibiting highly capable or gifted behaviors?
National Association for Gifted Children provides information on informal assessments and checklists to help address this question.
- Must a child excel in all areas to be referred to the highly capable program?
Children do not have to be gifted in multiple areas to be considered for the highly capable program.
- Can a child have learning or physical disabilities and exhibit highly capable traits?
Children can experience learning and physical disabilities and at the same time exhibit highly capable characteristics. This phenomenon is widely referred to as twice exceptional, dual exceptionality, gifted and learning disabled, and gifted learning disabled.
Nomination
If you know of a student in the Wishkah Valley School District that is in grades K-12 for the 2018-19 school year that should be considered for this program, please pick up a referral form at the Wishkah Valley School office, contact Eric Erickson at eerickson@wishkah.org to have a referral form emailed to you, or download a referral form here.
Welcome to the Wishkah Valley School Highly Capable Program Webpage!
At WVS the staff are dedicated to providing ALL students with an outstanding education that emphasizes high academic standards and the skills needed to become lifelong learners and productive citizens in a complex and changing society. With this intention, WVS offers accelerated learning and enhanced instruction services to students who qualify for the Highly Capable Program.
For more information please contact Eric Erickson, eerickson@wishkah.org, 360 532-3128.
