Advanced Academics

Birdville ISD follows the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted & Talented Students and collects multiple measures when screening students who may be in need of GATE services.  After data is collected, GATE Placement Committees for each campus meet to review the data for each student that was screened for GATE services.  Recommendations for GATE services are based on a review of the data that is collected during the screening process.  The recommended levels of service is matched to the identified learning needs of each student screened.

• Level I Services- include classroom teacher supported differentiation for growth.  Students who are recommended for Level I services are NOT formally identified by Birdville ISD as receiving gifted services and they do NOT attend the weekly GATE pull-out classes.  Level I students receive support in their general education classrooms with curricular enrichment, extensions, and enhancements that are made available to the classroom teacher.
• Level II Services-include more complex instruction and faster pacing for appropriate growth.  Students who are recommended for Level II Services ARE formally identified by Birdville ISD as receiving gifted services and they DO attend the weekly GATE pull-out classes.  The weekly GATE pull-out classes are designed around the GATE standards of Independent Learning Skills, Critical & Creative Thinking Skills, Research Skills, Social & Emotional Development unique to gifted learners, and the Elements of Depth and Complexity.  During these pull-out classes, students have the opportunity to work with mental peers for an extended period of time with the district's Gifted & Talented Interventionists (GTI's), who have received extensive training in working with gifted students.  1-2 grade students remain on campus for their weekly pull-out class.  3-5 grade students participate in weekly pull-out classes at centralized locations throughout the district based on the student's high school feeder pattern.
• Level III Services-includes acceleration for appropriate growth.  Level III services include additional testing.  Access more information about testing for Level III services here.

Screening Timeline

Please note that this timeline is subject to change due to unforseen circumstances

Special Screening Situations

Transfer students: If a student transfers to Birdville ISD that was identified for gifted and talented services in a previous district, that student will be screened for GATE services after verification of the GT identification from the previous district.  Data from the previous district that is less than two years old may be considered by the GATE Placement Committee.  If data is more than two years old, new data will be collected to determine if gifted services are appropriate.  If your child is a transfer student, please contact Stacye Onstott, Coordinator of Gifted Services.  Email Stacye Onstott. Be certain to include:  child's name, child's current grade level, child's previous campus and district, and child's current home campus in Birdville ISD.  If a student was identified for GATE services at one Birdville campus and transfers to another Birdville campus, that student will continue to receive GATE services.

Special Education students: Data used to determine special education services for students may be used to help determine GATE placement as long as it is less than two years old.

Outside Test Scores: GATE Placement Committees will consider test scores from assessments given outside the district as long as the testing occurred in a public or private educational setting. GATE Placement Committees do not accept test scores from private assessments for GT service consideration. 

GATE Placement Committee Decision Appeal Process (FNG LOCAL)

If a student is not recommended for GATE services by the GATE Placement Committee, a parent, student, or Birdville ISD personnel, may request a formal reconsideration of the decision if one of the following three criteria are met:

• The home language of the student is not English, and there is evidence that this has impacted the results of the screening process.
• The student has a disability as identified through an Admission, Review, Dismissal (ARD) or 504 committee that may have an impact on the screening process.
• There is documented evidence that the student was experiencing emotional stress during the screening process due to a life change (ie divorce, death of a close family member, etc...)

Level I Appeal Process

• Parent, student, or Birdville ISD personnel must file a formal appeal  to the Coordinator of Gifted Services within 15 district business days of the receipt of the GATE Placement Committee’s decision, or if received during the summer, within the first 15 days of the school year.  Within 15 days of the receipt of the written Level I appeal, the original GATE Placement Committee members will reconvene to review student data collected during the screening process and consider additional information provided by the Level I appeal.  Based on a review of the data provided from the Level I Appeal, the original GATE Placement Committee members may uphold their original recommendation, make a new service recommendation, or request additional data be collected.  The original GATE Placement Committee will notify the person who filed the appeal in writing of the decision made.  **If the GATE Placement Committee decides to collect additional data for a student, that data may be collected at the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Access Level I Appeal Form

Level II Appeal Process

• If the parent, student, or Birdville ISD personnel did not receive the relief requested at the Level I Appeal Process, he or she may file a Level II Appeal.  After receiving notice of the appeal, the Level I administrator shall prepare and forward a record of the Level I Appeal, including all documentation submitted by the student or parent, as well as other documents relied upon by the Level I administrator in reaching the Level I decision, to the appropriate Level II administrator.  
• The Level II administrator shall schedule a conference within ten days after the Level II appeal is received.  The conference shall be limited to the issues and documents presented by the student or parent at Level I.  No new documentation may be presented at Level II that was not made available at Level I.
• The Level II administrator shall provide the student or parent a written response within ten days following the conference.
• Level II appeal forms will be made available electronically if requested.

What is Cognitive Abilities Testing (CogAT) and what is it designed to measure?

Aptitude Test Scores:  These tests measure the level and pattern of cognitive development of a student compared to age peers. These general reasoning abilities, which start developing at birth and continue through early adulthood, are influenced by experiences gained both in and out of school.

 cognitive abilities are assessed using the three communication systems most commonly used in school (words, numbers, and figures/shapes):

• The verbal (linguistic) section measures a child’s ability to remember and transform sequences of English words, to understand them and to make inferences and judgments about them.
• The quantitative (mathematical) section measures a child’s understanding of basic quantitative concepts and relationships.
• The non-verbal (spatial) section measures reasoning using pictures and geometric shapes. This section reduces the impact of language on the student’s score.

In addition, a composite score is obtained for student who complete all batteries of the CogAT, indicating how he/she performed on the test overall.  The composite score is an indicator a child’s overall general intellectual ability.

Scores are reported as Age Percentile Ranks for each battery.and the composite.  A percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the same age group whose scores fall below the score obtained by a particular student. For example, if your student obtained a percentile rank of 90 on the verbal battery, it means that 90 percent of students in the standardized sample scored below your student.  A percentile rank of 50 is considered average.  Birdville ISD considers both national and building norms when recommending levels of GATE services.

The scores on the three batteries make up a student's ability profile.  CogAT score profiles identify both the level of the student's scores and the pattern of scores across the batteries.  For more information regarding your child's ability profile, please access the Interactive Ability Profile Interpretation System.  

La Prueba de Habilidades Cognitivas (CogAT) está diseñada para medir el nivel y patrón de desarrollo cognitivo de un estudiante en comparación con sus compañeros de la misma edad. Estas habilidades de razonamiento general, que comienzan a desarrollarse al nacer y continúan hasta la edad adulta temprana, están influenciadas por las experiencias adquiridas tanto dentro como fuera de la escuela. CogAT es una evaluación multidimensional y mide tres habilidades cognitivas diferentes:

•  La sección verbal mide la capacidad de un estudiante de recordar y transformar secuencias de palabras, comprenderlas y hacer inferencias y juicios sobre ellas.
• La sección cuantitativa mide la comprensión de un estudiante en los conceptos y relaciones cuantitativos básicos.
•  La sección no verbal mide el razonamiento mediante imágenes y formas geométricas. Esta sección reduce el impacto del lenguaje en la puntuación del estudiante.
• La puntuación compuesta es un total de las tres baterías y es una medida de la capacidad de razonamiento intelectual general de un estudiante.

Los resultados de CogAT se informan como rangos de percentiles, lo que indica el porcentaje de estudiantes en el mismo grupo de edad cuyos puntajes caen por debajo del puntaje obtenido por un estudiante en particular. Por ejemplo, si su hijo(a) obtiene un rango percentil de 90 en la batería verbal, significa que el 90% de los estudiantes en la muestra estandarizada puntúan por debajo de su hijo(a). Un rango percentil de 50 se considera promedio medio.