4.9.6 Total School Cluster Grouping (TSCG): A Talent Development Approach to Programming in K-6

TSCG is a research-based programming model designed to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents and address the learning needs of all students. When implemented with fidelity, TSCG results in more students identified at higher levels of achievement; fewer students identified at lower levels of achievement; addition of students from traditionally underserved groups (i.e., low-income, Native American, African American, Latinx) to high achievement over time; increased student achievement; and improved teacher practices. The model and supporting research, including that from a recent 5-year Javits funded scale-up project with 100 schools, will be reviewed in this session.

The Javits project involved a sample of 100 elementary schools, using an experimental longitudinal design and three-level growth curve modeling. Focusing on diverse students from low-income families from multiple settings including urban and rural schools, sites with at least 40% of their students eligible for Federal Free and Reduced Meals Program were included from eight states. As an intervention, TSCG helps teachers (1) improve student achievement; (2) recognize and develop talent among students from underrepresented populations; and (3) routinely use with all students strategies often found only in gifted programs. By providing all students with enriched and differentiated educational experiences in classrooms in which teachers have the training and time to attend to individual needs, the project resulted in identifying significantly more students from low-income and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families as gifted and in improved achievement. TSCG combines grouping, with teacher training and the delivery of enriched, differentiated curriculum and instruction in every classroom. TSCG involves yearly identification of student achievement levels and places gifted/high-achieving students in one cluster classroom, above-average achieving students in other classrooms, and decreases the range of achievement variability in every classroom. Clustering enables teachers to more effectively challenge their students, thereby providing full-time services to gifted students, facilitating achievement growth among all students, involving all teachers in the use of gifted education strategies, and helping teachers develop and recognize talent among students from underserved populations whose potential often goes unrecognized in heterogeneous classrooms. Phase I (Years 1 through 3) involved controlled study of treatment and control schools. Delayed implementation of treatment among control schools and on-going data collection from Phase I treatment sites occurred in Phase II (Years 4 and 5). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed to describe program effects and to evaluate the project. Results from Phase I will be discussed.

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