Gifted Services

Elementary Services


"Gifted/Talented" refers to those children who are identified by professionally qualified persons to be capable of high performance, and includes those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in one or more of the following areas:

  • General intellectual ability
  • Specific academic aptitude
  • Creative and productive thinking
  • Leadership
  • Visual and performing arts

The Boise School District Gifted Services focus on academic and intellectual giftedness.

Kindergarten Services

Students in kindergarten are identified and served in the regular classroom in collaboration with a gifted and talented facilitator. Kindergarten students may be referred for testing to determine qualification for 1st grade programs for the following year.

Grades 1 - 6: GATE Pull-Out Program

The GATE Pull-out Program is one part of an array of services to students in our District, serving academically and intellectually gifted/talented students in grades 1-6. Students can be referred for evaluation by parents or teachers through the gifted facilitator, or full time gifted classroom teacher, in their home school. Referrals begin by contacting the child's teacher.

Gifted and Talented personnel provide direct services to these students in part-time pullout programs and coordinate other activities for them. Schools are arranged into gifted pods with one facilitator and one classroom per pod. Busing is provided between schools.

Students may also be accelerated if the school and parents decide the child would be more appropriately served (physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually) at a more advanced grade level.

Curriculum for the GATE Pull-out Program

  • Leadership Training
    • Leadership in the classroom
    • Community Service Projects
    • Public Speaking
    • Debate
  • Affective Education
    • Social/Emotional Needs
    • Learning Styles
    • Introvert/Extrovert
    • Goal Setting
    • Careers
  • Critical Thinking / Writing / Reading
    • Relationships, Analogies, Inductive/Deductive
    • Sequencing, Inferences, Logic
    • Expository Writing, logic, exposition, persuasion, argument
  • Research Methods
    • Primary Research Skills
    • Secondary Research Skills
    • Library Skills
    • Technical Writing Skills
  • Independent Study
    • Planning
    • Investigate/Gather Data
    • Communicate Information
    • Evaluation
  • Mathematics / Problem Solving
    • Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Probability
    • Problem Solving Process
  • Arts / Sciences
    • Art Appreciation
    • Art History
    • Creativity
    • Scientific Methodologies

In some cases, focus classes may be offered based on the interests of students.

GATE is not provided as an honor nor a reward, but as an educational intervention for students who need it.

Grades 1 - 6: Full-Time Gifted Classrooms

Mission Statement: Our mission is to provide gifted learners the tools and strategies to discover and actualize their potential.

Full time, multi-age settings for gifted students are available in classrooms in at least one school in each quadrant of the District. Enrollment in these classrooms is on an open enrollment, space available basis and students must meet the criteria for the Gifted Program. Parents should inform the home school facilitator and then contact the principal at the school where they wish to enroll their child.

Curricula for students in these classrooms is based on the Boise School District's adopted curriculum in each of the subject areas. These curricula are differentiated to accommodate the students' needs for an accelerated pace of instruction, academic rigor and individual strengths and differences.

Grades 1 - 6: Highly Gifted Program

Mission Statement: Our program provides an extreme intervention to meet the unique needs of academically and intellectually highly gifted individuals.

Highly gifted children are those whose intelligence is at the extreme end of the spectrum. Highly gifted children are often performing many years above their peers in subject matter and are usually early readers.

The Highly Gifted Program is an extreme intervention for students whose intelligence is so far above the norms for their age, that it is difficult to meet their needs through other gifted services. The student expectations in this program include the development of independent learner skills. The curriculum emphasizes research, making connections, methodology of various disciplines, and clearly stating and supporting your assertions.

The Highly Gifted Program is located at Collister Elementary for grades 1-4 and at Hillside Junior High for grades 5-8. Busing is provided.