By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School Board unanimously approved a gifted and talented magnet school at Harriet Bishop Elementary School at its Nov. 6 meeting.

The magnet will be a school-wide enrichment model for all students to receive varying levels of instruction, as well as a school-within-a-school model for the exceptionally gifted children, explained Principal Rob Nelson.

“It needs to be a hybrid model … Some students may show high levels across the board,” Nelson said. “Others may have some special needs in certain subjects.”

By having the school-wide enrichment model, as well as the school-within-a-school, the needs of a wide range of students will be met, Nelson said.

Staff will have more training to develop lesson plans to teach the same topic at varying levels to cater to every student. Integration money has been set aside for that training.

In addition to the core curriculum of math, literacy, science and social studies, there will be specialists in art, physical education, science and vocal music.

For the exceptionally-gifted students, there will be electives offered as optional courses and some could include: stringed instruments, world language, choir, band, video production, running club and sport stacking.

For enrichment clusters, defined as students seeking more learning opportunities, meteorology, photography, Web design, stock market, pottery and geology groups could be formed.

“These electives are fluid,” Nelson told the School Board. “This list is the proverbial tip of the iceberg.”  

Getting in

All students in the Harriet Bishop attendance area will still attend the school there and all other students will be screened.

There are about 70 to 80 seats available for additional students, but who gets into those seats depends on a complex tiered system.

“Space remaining for additional students will be allocated to students who have demonstrated a need for gifted and talented instruction as demonstrated through ability or achievement assessments,” according to a memo to the board from Assistant Superintendent Aldo Sicoli, who has been overseeing the magnet initiatives. 

While the magnet school was mandated by the state in an effort to balance racial demographics between District 191 and the Lakeville School District, race cannot be considered when determining who will be in the school. What can be considered, however, is a free- or reduced-lunch qualification, Sicoli said.

According to the identification criteria chart, the first tier of students qualifying for admittance are from either district, their family qualifies for free- and reduced-lunch and depending on their standardized test scores, will be placed in a group.

“There is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ picture of a gifted/talented child,” according to the identification criteria explanation of process.

Students can be gifted in different areas; intellectual giftedness – discovered typically through ability tests, like CogAT tests; high achievement – combination of relatively high ability scores and high achievement scores, like MAP tests; creative giftedness – not easily identified through tests but have strong critical and abstract thinking skills, usually noted by teachers; and subject specific giftedness – strong performance on one sub-test of an ability test.

For example, if an applying student from either the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District or the Lakeville School District has a score of 140 or higher on a CogAT test (cognitive abilities test) or NNAT test (Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test) and qualify for the free- and reduced-lunch program, they will automatically be placed in a cluster group at the magnet school.

From there, qualifications range from lower CogAT scores to peer or teacher recommendations to students not qualifying for free or reduced lunches.

The school is set to open as a magnet school in September 2009.

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com