2.5.7 An Archdiocesan Approach to the Identification and Selection of Gifted Learners

TITLE An Archdiocesan Approach to the Identification and Selection of Gifted Learners

INTRODUCTION An experienced high school principal of a Newman Selective Gifted Education Program school abruptly asked if it was necessary that he be involved in the gifted identification and selection process of the students coming into his school. By the end of the process he had made significant timetable adjustments to cater for the gifted students he thought didn’t exist in his college. This school is just one of 63 in a system of 152 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney, the largest and most diverse in Australia. Across the three regions/districts within the Archdiocese, these schools have made significant changes in their traditional practices by using a system-designed multiple criteria process to strategically identify and select gifted learners within an optimal timeframe.

THE ISSUE While the identification of gifted students has become more widely practiced in our school system, the aftermath of how best to place them in a secondary school setting, especially those with diverse learning needs, tends to be more problematic due to the rigidity of the school curriculum and timetable (Worrell et al, 2018). This is often the case when students are screened rather than profiled using data from multiple sources. Ineffective practices are time-thieves and they stifle the learning growth of teachers and students, especially if the traditional processes are predominately administrative and focus less on the critical thought and collaboration of the available data.

THE SOLUTION The development of our system’s gifted identification and selection process uses an affectionately labelled ‘hotmat’ which has stimulated engaging professional learning and best practice for school leaders within an efficient timeframe. With evidence provided by parents, primary schools and other diagnostic assessments (Johnsen, 2004, 2009; Worrell & Erwin, 2011), the diversity of gifted students has been ‘uncovered’ by the process and has, in many cases, shifted the curriculum structures within our secondary schools, a mountain that has rarely been moved in the system.

CONCLUSION Our system of schools are gradually introducing this effective and efficient gifted identification and selection process into their teaching and learning communities. Experienced school leaders are sharing their expertise with their peers hence, strategically embedding and sustaining the process across the system to ensure educational equity is accessed for our gifted learners, as well as building capacity in teachers of the gifted.

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