Gifted and Talented Education

GATE is “Gifted and Talented Education”, which is the name the State of California gives to educational programs designed to meet the special needs of gifted students.  A gifted student is one whose learning ability is exceptionally high and whose thinking skills are highly developed.  Gifted students may or may not be academic achievers.  Research has shown that these students often need a deep and complex curriculum in order to experience intellectual growth.   The purpose of the GATE program is to help provide the necessary challenges for their intellectual growth and to help them develop skills to cope with wide discrepancies in their intellectual, social, chronological and emotional growth.

The Galt Elementary School District usually starts the formal identification of gifted students in second grade by screening all second graders.  Parents, teachers, or students can initiate the process of GATE evaluation in grades three to eight, and students may be evaluated more than once in their school careers.  Once identified as gifted, students remain identified as long as they are attending school in this district.

Classroom teachers offer GATE students a differentiated curriculum in their areas of strength.  The district has a part-time GATE Coordinator who oversees GATE testing and provides some support to teachers and parents of gifted students. 

Parents are encouraged to participate in the GATE Advisory Committee that meets from three to eight times a year to discuss issues related to the program. The committee consists of parents, teachers and administrators from each school, and is open to any interested person. 

Each school site is currently in the process of evaluating its GATE program.  The results of these evaluations will be shared at the next GATE Advisory committee meeting and will provide information to be included in the district’s next application to the State for funding for the program.