Cobb County provides services for identified gifted students at all grade levels.  Gifted services are designed to meet specific academic needs of gifted students by emphasizing the following competencies:

• Critical and creative thinking
• Higher order reasoning
• Extensive and advanced research skills
• Advanced and accelerated academics

The elementary students are served through a program called Target, a pull-out resource program for gifted-identified students.  Students typically meet one day per week.  Target standards focus on both cognitive and affective growth.  Gifted students have a full instructional day in Target including classwork and homework.  They are excused from making up classwork and/or overnight homework assigned in the regular classroom on that day. 

Gifted Evaluation Process

All gifted assessments in the Cobb County School District adhere to the rules and regulations established by the Georgia Department of Education. There are three steps in the process of identification and placement of students into the gift-ed program: referral, assessment, and determination of eligibility.

Referral

The referral process is the first step of the gifted services eligibility process. A referral may come from teachers, parents, students, or as the result of system wide testing. Referrals are reviewed by each school’s eligibility committee to determine whether further assessment of a student for gifted eligibility is appropriate.

Assessment

Students are assessed in first, third, and fifth grades in four areas: mental ability, achievement, creativ-ity, and motivation. Instruments include nationally normed tests, rating scales, and other approved measures. All assessments comply with state rules and regulations.

Once assessment is completed, the data is evaluated for determination of eligibility.

Determination of Eligibility

Eligibility may be established in one of two ways:

Option A

Mental Abilities and Achievement.

Mental Ability: 99th percentile (K-2) or 96th percentile (3-12) on a standardized test of mental ability – Composite Score only   

Achievement: 90th percentile in total battery, total reading, or total math section of a standardized achievement battery

A student must meet eligibil-ity requirements in both.

Option B:

Mental Ability: 96th percentile on a standardized test of mental ability approved component or composite score  

Achievement: 90th percentile in total battery, total reading, or total math section of a standardized achievement battery   

Creativity: 90th percentile / 90 percent on a creativity assessment

Motivation: 90th percentile / 90 percent on a motivation portfolio assessment

A student must meet eligibility requirements in three of the four following areas.