‘School within a school’ program for gifted and talented elementary students to open next fall at Eisenhower
(01/18/19) A new “school within a school” program for Anoka-Hennepin’s exceptionally gifted learners in grades three through five will open next fall at Eisenhower Elementary School in Coon Rapids.
According to Dr. Mary Wolverton, associate superintendent for elementary schools, the new program will be offered to those students who test in the top 1-2 percent of state and national standards, and will offer an accelerated curriculum in math, English language arts and science.
“This has been identified as a strategic priority, specifically in relation to increasing student achievement, by the School Board,” said Wolverton.
Anoka-Hennepin’s gifted and talented programming planning began in 2016, Wolverton said, with University of St. Thomas professor Dr. Karen Rodgers, who reviewed the district’s existing programming.
“In that process, she interacted and got feedback and input from various stakeholders to help inform what we currently have in place and what we should consider moving forward,” Wolverton said.
From that review, last year, Anoka-Hennepin began the process of upscaling the identification process of students by administering the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to all second grade students in the district, which will be one of the primary data points used to determine if students are among the top one or two percent of learners.
Simultaneously, members of the district’s elementary curriculum department conducted research about other existing programs around the state and nation, and even made site visits to programs in the metro area.
“We gathered that information from those successful programs, along with research and data, to inform our future programming so we could really design a great model for Anoka-Hennepin” said Ranae Case Evenson, Anoka-Hennepin’s director of elementary curriculum and instruction.
Eisenhower Elementary School was chosen to host the program, Wolverton said, because of its central location within the district, as well its student population being stable looking into the future, guaranteeing room for the program to flourish.
As for getting into the program, first, in February, this year’s second graders will take the CogAT, which was taken by this year’s third graders last year. Results from the February test will be available later that month, and then using that data, along with other achievement markers, letters will be sent to families inviting them into the program, Wolverton said. Those letters will be sent in mid-to late-March.
Once they receive an invitation letter, families will have a few weeks to gather more information before having to decide to move students into the school within a school program, or remain at their neighborhood school, Case Evenson said. For families who do chose to be part of the program, they’ll formally apply for in district transfer, and like with other Anoka-Hennepin specialty schools, once accepted, transportation will be the responsibility of the family — buses will not be provided.
In addition, a more comprehensive look at Anoka-Hennepin’s existing talent development programming, which has existed for years, will be conducted.
“We’re also looking at a reset of the talent development programming for students in that top five to 10 percentile, so that students who don’t qualify for the top one to two percentile, we’ll still have a comprehensive talent development program for them,” said Johnna Rohmer-Hirt, the district’s director of research, evaluation and testing.
As for the fall, Eisenhower will have three total sections of gifted and talented programming — one for each grade (three, four and five). It’s also been recommended that a school psychologist or social worker be added to Eisenhower specifically to work with students in the program — something the other programs visited around the metro area had.
Moving into the future, Eisenhower has the space flexibility to add additional sections as needed, and the School Board may think about adding an additional school within a school site if necessary.
“I’m very excited about going forward with this,” said School Board member Jeff Simon.