Gifted and Talented: Just a Label?

At Silver Creek High School, students who have been identified as Gifted and Talented have opportunities to learn in ways that fit them better; but many aren’t aware of this or aren’t using it to their full potential

What is Gifted and Talented?

Students who are identified as Gifted and Talented (GT) are given opportunities to change aspects of their learning. This is useful for students who already have mastered aspects of knowledge within a class, or for students who work at a different pace than their peers.

This identification has a variety of impacts on a student’s education depending on their Advanced Learning Plan (ALP). Each GT student has an ALP which includes differential strategies students can use to enhance their learning in their GT identified areas. This can include pacing, leveled classes, etc.

However, GT learning doesn’t always have to happen in class. George Coupounas is a Freshman at Silver Creek who is identified as GT in English. Coupounas has chosen to explore his GT certification outside of classes, partially because he was unaware of the changes he could make in school.

“I want to go into the military, so I am learning a lot about different weapons platforms,” Coupounas said. “I am spending roughly one hour a night doing some form of military study/training, specifically I am researching the functionality and lethality of different weapons platforms both big and small … and I am constantly training myself to be able to both follow a leader’s instructions to the letter and to be that same leader.”

Student Driven Opportunities

Additionally, Coupounas believes it is an oversight that GT students are not exposed to the options available to them. This is not an isolated occurrence, and many students feel they are not given information about their GT status and what they can do with it.

The reason so many students like Coupounas are unaware of the possibilities being identified as GT gives them is often because of a lack of awareness and participation.

Though GT gives opportunities, they must be sought out by the student, and many students choose to take the typical path with the rest of their peers.

It is not the teacher’s responsibility to guide GT students towards some opportunities, but sometimes they do. Ashlee Gerner, Silver Creek’s GT coordinator explains that the student is responsible for exploring their options.

“Students have to advocate for themselves,” Gerner said. “You may have some teachers that recognize that a student is identified as GT and seems bored, and they may proactively offer a suggestion around a different strategy or different work, but more often than not it is on the student to self-advocate.”

GT Coordinator Support

The GT coordinators do what they can to offer information to interested students. Each year, the GT coordinators host a workshop for students to fill out their ALPs and give information, particularly to freshmen, about their options. However, this year, only about 30% of freshmen participated in these seminars.

Each student identified as GT was pulled out of class at some point during the first semester to fill out their ALP, but for many this was not an event they remember nor feel they learned from.

Is GT Just a Label?

However, alongside this point of view, there is another who believes people don’t know about the options available to them because the options aren’t helpful.

This is the argument that the classification of Gifted and Talented is simply a label, one with few real-world applications, within or outside the classroom.

However, this label can come in handy when applying for things such as scholarships, volunteer opportunities, and colleges. Emily Robertus, a senior at Silver Creek found her GT status in the visual arts helpful on her applications.

“Some schools have visual arts portfolios that you can submit for extra scholarships … I can put [my GT status] in as a booster for me,” Robertus said.

While this can be helpful for students, in this context it is only a label. If students want it to be more than that, they have to take the initiative and use their Differential Strategies.


Universal High School and GT Students

However, there is a program that can take a GT status and give students even more opportunities. This program is called Universal High School (UHS).

UHS is an exclusive program for students who want a more independent approach to their high school education. It is not GT-specific, but many of the students involved are identified as GT, and the program leaders are also Silver Creek’s GT Coordinators.

UHS can be very helpful for students who are identified as GT, but choosing to use the resources offered is still up to the student.

UHS can support GT students by offering them the opportunity to explore topics of interest independently and still get credit through a type of curriculum called an Original Study, or to work completely at their own pace through an online class.

This can be even more helpful than the opportunities an ALP and Differential Strategies gives within a class.

Additionally, since the GT coordinators are the same as the counselors for UHS, they can provide additional support and suggestions for using the GT opportunities.

“Having my counselor and my GT coordinator being the same person helps a lot,” Robertus said.

This assistance, plus the additional opportunities it offers, makes UHS a great resource for GT students. If they advocate for themselves, students can go far in high school, much farther than they could with a typical education experience.