Special Education / Gifted and Talented Education

Special Education Core Beliefs:

The mission of the Paterson Public School District, Department of Special Education Services is to provide referral, identification, evaluation and instructional services to students identified as disabled through the identification process.  The Department of Special Education works closely with the members of the Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) to locate and identify students with disabilities in need of special education services.  Once students have been identified in need of an evaluation, the child study team works closely with the parent and instructional staff to determine if the student is a student with a disability AND requires special education services.

Staff:

The Department of Special Education consists of an administrative staff of a Coordinating Director, Director of Compliance, Director of Child Study Teams, Director Special Education Instruction, Director of Out of District Placements, Supervisors of Special Education Services and Parent and Community Services.

At the school levels there are Child Study Teams consisting of School Psychologists, Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultants, Speech-Language Specialists and Social Workers who evaluate and write individual educational programs for students with disabilities.  There are teachers of students with disabilities who provide instruction as outlined in each student’s IEP and speech/language specialists, occupational therapists and physical therapists who provide direct service to students.

Parent Resources:

Parental Rights for Special Education

English     Spanish     Portuguese     Arabic    Korean

Special Education & Bilingual Advisory Council Meeting Schedule 2014 - 2015:

English      Spanish

Nomination, Screening, Identification & Selection of Students

Nomination
All students not previously identified shall be eligible for nomination for the program each year. Nominations may be submitted by students themselves, teachers, parents or any person familiar with a student's abilities, potential, performance, and/or past records. Nominations shall be based on evidence of high level reasoning ability and/or the development of unique products that demonstrate unusual academic ability.

Screening
The screening stage creates a pool of students twice the size which will be selected for the program.  It uses existing data on the students at target grade levels.  NJASK test results will be used as a screening measure for achievement in academic areas assessed.  Thus, all students scoring at the advanced level of 275 or greater in Math and or ELA would be included in the pool.  Some adjustment for ELA scores may need to be made in order to balance the size of the pools for each area.  Other screening measures may be parent or teacher nominations and grades.

Identification
This stage of the process requires the use of more off-level assessments to discern who top students are in each domain.  The Cognitive Abilities Test is used at all grade levels to find the most promising students in three domains: verbal, mathematical, and nonverbal.  Since the program will be organized in the three areas of Mathematics, English, and Science, these aptitude scores will be useful in rank ordering the students within each area for selection of the top 10% in a given grade level.  In addition to the COGAT, it is important to obtain teacher recommendations on these learners in their area of strength, with appropriate indicators for aptitude in these areas.

Students in the Paterson Public Schools will be assessed for Gifted and Talented starting in mid-February of each school year, using multiple measures that may include:

• Cognitive Abilities Test
• Teacher Questionnaire
• Parent Questionnaire
• Student Questionnaire
• STAR Math
• STAR Reading
• Portfolio of student work

Selection
A selection committee, whose members have received training in gifted education, will review all applications as they are received.  This committee makes the final decision as to which students qualify for the program.  It is important to ensure that underrepresented groups are considered for selection.  The use of nonverbal measures and the use of domain-specific scores should help with inclusion.  However, a selection committee will review the files of students selected for the program to ensure that these groups are adequately represented and evidence considered that would be important to their inclusion.

Any new students entering the Paterson Public Schools who are identified from another school district and miss the spring identification sessions will be screened during the first six weeks of the school year.  Students must be enrolled and attending to participate in the Identification Process.  Students enrolling from private schools are asked to call the Supervisor of Gifted & Talented Education for an appointment.

The selection process and evaluation process is in compliance with New Jersey Department of Education requirements for Gifted and Talented programs.

Gifted & Talented Application Process

Nominations may be submitted by students themselves, teachers, parents or any person familiar with a student’s abilities, potential, performance, and/or past records.  Nominations shall be based on evidence of high level reasoning ability and/or the development of unique products that demonstrate unusual academic ability. 

Students in the Paterson Public Schools will be assessed for admission in to the Paterson Academy for the Gifted & Talented using multiple measures that may include:

• Cognitive Abilities Test
• Teacher Questionnaire
• Parent Questionnaire
• Student Questionnaire
• Report Card  (2nd Marking Period)
• STAR Math (Fall/Winter)
• STAR Reading (Fall/Winter)
• NJASK Scores (Spring 2013)
• Model Unit Assessments
• Portfolio of Student Work

Gifted & Talented Links

National Association of Gifted Children

New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC)

Johns Hopkins University (CTY) Center for Talented Youth

Montclair State University

Rutgers University
Young Scholars/Courses in Gifted
Elizabeth Beasley
(848)932-4748