Glossary

Glossary of Terms in AIG Program

Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) - Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) students perform or show the potential to perform at substantially high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experiences or environment.

Acceleration - Faster presentation of content to more closely match the speed at which gifted students learn. 

Accountability - Holding students, faculty, administrators and district personnel responsible for instructional outcomes.

Achievement - Accomplishment or performance; the realization of potential. Compare with aptitude.

Advanced Placement (AP) - A program developed by the College Board where high schools offer courses that meet criteria set by institutions of higher education. In some cases college credit can be earned after completing an AP exam. (Contact college or university for their specific requirements)

Aptitude - Undeveloped potential or ability; the inclination to excel in a particular area

Aptitude test - Aptitude tests evaluate intelligence in more specific areas like mental fitness, verbal ability, and mathematical skills.  While both aptitude testing and IQ testing aim to measure brain power, they do so in different ways. Generally speaking, IQ tests assess general intelligence.

Asynchronous development - Different rates for physical, cognitive, and emotional development. For example, a gifted child may be chronologically 8 years old, intellectually 15 and emotionally 5. Extremes displayed by gifted children have led some experts to define giftedness itself as asynchronous development.

Clustering - Placing students of the next highest ability level based on year-end standardized test performance in the same class or group for purposes of instruction. Research shows higher academic achievement gains for all students when grouped by ability and taught at a pace that matches their learning rates. 

CogAT - The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) is a multiple-choice assessment that measures reasoning skills with different types of verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal questions. The CogAT is an aptitude test commonly given as an entrance exam into schools’ gifted programs.

Compacting - Eliminating repetition, minimizing drill, and accelerating instruction in basic skills so that gifted students can move to more challenging material.

Composer Program - This nurturing program is grounded in the belief that giftedness can be found among a very diverse group of students. The Composer identification process incorporates linguistic and logical/mathematical activities; therefore, the selected students include members of low socioeconomic or culturally diverse populations who are not typically identified through standardized testing. The Composer Program is an interdisciplinary program designed to promote both the affective and cognitive growth of these students.

Content - The academic subject matter studied in an educational program or class.

Convergent thinking - Thinking which results in conventional solutions and answers or conformity. Contrast with divergent thinking.

Cooperative learning - Students working in small groups within a classroom on the same assignment. There is often a division of tasks. Cooperative learning groups with students of similar ability with complementary skills tend to work most smoothly.

Differentiated Education Plan (DEP) - A written document which states the AIG student’s unique characteristics and needs, educational goals and objectives to meet those needs, and instructional materials and services to be provided.

Differentiation - Adapting the curriculum to meet the differing needs and abilities of students within a class. One strategy for differentiating the core, grade level curriculum is to modify the content or subject according to the following theories:

Depth - Students go further, deeper and more elaborately within a subject area.

Complexity - Students make relationships and associations across and between subject areas. They study relationships over time and from different points of view.

Discovery method - A variety of student-centered approaches to teaching, including the Socratic method, in which the teacher acts as a guide and/or resource. Unlike programmed instruction, the emphasis is not on efficiency in mastering a predetermined body of knowledge, but in developing students' abilities to learn how to learn.

Divergent thinking - Thinking which results in novel, unique, or creative solutions or answers. Contrast with convergent thinking.

Enrichment - Deeper coverage of content often provided for gifted students. Contrast with acceleration

Exceptional learners - Students with an IQ in the bottom or in the top percent of the population, or those with other physical or mental differences which affect learning.

G.A.L.E. - The GCS AIG department offers a local endorsement called G.A.L.E. (GCS AIG Local Endorsement).  After completion of this course teachers can teach AIG classes in Gaston County Schools.  This cohort consists of but is not limited to online modules that are self paced.  After completion of the G.A.L.E course teachers are awarded a local endorsement and 3.0 CEUs. Once teachers have completed the course they can then choose to pursue the add-on state certification and take the Gifted Education Praxis (5358).

Grade acceleration - Promotion to a higher grade. 

Heterogeneous Grouping - grouping students by mixed ability or readiness levels. In this environment, a teacher is expected to meet a broad range of students' needs. 

Higher order thinking skills - Abstract reasoning, critical thinking, and problem solving abilities

Homogeneous Grouping - Grouping students according to similar readiness and ability. The purpose of this grouping is to allow students to spend more time with their peers and restrict the range of needs that a teacher must address.

Identification - The selecting and labeling process for inclusion in the gifted program.

Individualized Differentiated Education Plan (IDEP) - An Individualized Differentiated Education Plan (IDEP) will be developed for special circumstances where the gifted student has unique needs, educational goals and objectives for a given time period.

Individualized instruction - Content and pacing of instruction geared toward the individual’s unique learning styles, abilities, needs, and goals. 
Integrated curriculum - Combination of content from two or more subjects to enhance meaning through interconnectedness of knowledge. 

Intelligence - A general concept of mental ability, often summed up as the ability to learn from experience. The concept was put into a measurable form as intelligence quotient, but theorists such as Howard Gardner believe there are multiple intelligences for which traditional IQ tests do not sample. 

Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) - This is an achievement test which measures a student's knowledge in specific subject areas that students have learned in school – reading, language arts, mathematics.

Multiple intelligences - Constructs of intelligence that include more aspects of mental ability than the conventional concept of intelligence. Howard Gardner proposed seven intelligences: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. He recently added an eighth: naturalist.

Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) - This is a nonverbal test used for qualifying students for gifted and talented programs. It is an aptitude test commonly given as an entrance exam into schools’ gifted programs. The NNAT utilizes shapes and figures to evaluate the problem-solving and reasoning abilities of a student without relying on their language skills. In other words, the NNAT assesses how a student thinks instead of what a student knows.

Pacing - The speed at which content is presented and instruction delivered. Pacing which matches the student's rate of learning is optimal. Because gifted students are usually able to learn faster, they often need accelerated pacing.

Pacing guide - A pacing guide is a written schedule or chart displaying the topics/skills and outcomes related to the curriculum to be addressed during a school year. A pacing guide may also be known as a curriculum map, program timeline, instructional guide, or year-at-a-glance.

Peer group - People with which one feels equal. Due to gifted students’ asynchronous development, they may have very different intellectual, social, and emotional peer groups.

Perfectionism - The desire to execute tasks flawlessly. Gifted children may develop perfectionism after entering school, as they perform better than their classmates. Later, such perfectionism may lead to avoiding challenges so as not to appear imperfect.

Portfolio - A collection of student work that demonstrates achievement for purposes of assessment.

Pull-out - A gifted educational program that takes exceptional learners in the elementary grades out of the regular classroom for a limited time for enrichment and acceleration. 

Referral - A process where teachers, administrators, or parents (by written request) seek screening for possible gifted testing. 

Screening - A process of looking at historical testing data and academic performance to determine if further testing is needed for gifted consideration.

Standards Based Grading - Standards-based grading (SBG) is an intentional way for teachers to track their students' progress and achievements while focusing on helping students learn and reach their highest potential. It is based on students showing signs of mastery or understanding various lessons and skills.

Standardized test - A test taken by many students under identical conditions which allows results to be compared statistically to a standard such as a norm or criteria. See reliability, validity.

Talent Development - The GCS Talent Development Program is a nurturing program designed to cultivate the whole child by developing social-emotional skills, nurturing diverse thinking strategies, and extending classroom learning. Our goal is to support and engage our youngest learners through a caring, skill-centered approach that fosters growth and potential. There are two components of the program:  the Talent Development Program in grades K-2 in all elementary schools, and the Composer Talent Development Program in grades 2-5 at Title 1 elementary schools.

Tiered Assignments - A strategy to differentiate instruction in which all students work toward the same goal but activities are geared toward each student’s level of knowledge and understanding.

Twice exceptional - A term used to describe a student who is both gifted and has exceptional needs.

Underachievement - A significant difference between ability and performance. A gifted underachiever is often defined as having superior intelligence, yet working below grade level.