Elementary Education Program (K-4th Grade)

The Austin Public School Board has developed a policy regarding Early Entrance to Kindergarten. Early entrance to kindergarten is considered a grade acceleration, and as such, the Belin & Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development states that "students should be expected to achieve, relative to their new grade peers, at a high level that is generally comparable to their performance in their previous grade. Such students are typically among the top 10% in a class, and they should be expected to remain in the top 10% throughout their academic careers."

Items that must be completed to be considered a candidate for early entrance to kindergarten:

• Early childhood screening (free - make an appointment by calling 507-460-1709).
• Student background information (form found in the attached document).
• Letter of support from the parents/guardians outlining why the child should be considered for early entrance to kindergarten.
• Letter of support from a pre-school teacher (or other adult who works with the child in a pre-school like setting) outlining the child's readiness academically and socially/emotionally. An outline of what is needed in this letter is in the attached document.

The above items must be submitted to the District Coordinator of Gifted and Talented Programming by April 1.

Andrea Malo
401 3rd Avenue NW
Austin, MN 55912
andrea.malo@austin.k12.mn.us
507-460-1924

Upon receiving these items, the coordinator will contact the family to schedule academic and ability testing.

Decisions about early entrance to kindergarten will be made and communicated to families by June 1.

APS Early Entrance Procedure

Some students need targeted interventions to enrich their school experience. Classroom teachers may deliver some of these interventions when differentiating services within their classroom. Each elementary building also has an Advanced Academics and Talent Development instructor who assists classroom teachers in providing these interventions. Students may be pulled out of the classroom for these interventions or the instructor may push into the classroom to deliver services. The area of intervention would be based on student need (typically Reading/Language Arts or Math).

The Young Scholars program is designed to provide practice using critical thinking skills in order to nurture the gifted potential in students. Students are chosen for this program based on their scores in the Nonverbal battery of tests on the CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) ability assessment and/or observations in whole group lessons. This program is intended to increase the number of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students accessing K-4 advanced academic services.

Pi Academy is a district program that first-fourth grade students are invited to join if they meet qualifications. Students must be intellectually gifted in both reading and math (based on standardized assessment scores) and perform in the top stanines on the CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) ability test.

This multi-age classroom is housed at Southgate Elementary School. Teachers deliver complex, challenging instruction through increased pace, depth, and complexity. Bussing is provided for students who qualify for this program and live outside of the Southgate attendance area.

Activities for elementary students sponsored by the Gifted Services for Talent Development Department include the following:

• The APS Poetry Contest (grades K-12)
• Project E3 (grades 4-6)
• Robotics teams (grades 3-4)
• STEAM Expo (grades 3-4)
• Young Authors, Young Artists (grade 4)