Gifted and/or Highly Achieving Ed
Summary
The mission of the Pine-Richland School District is to Focus on Learning for Every Student Every Day. Within the PRSD Strategic Plan, long-term and short-term goals outlined in the Teaching and Learning category form the foundation for continuous improvement. One of the short-term goals for 2016 - 2017 was to design and pilot an in-depth program review process for two of our departments (i.e., Science and Health & Physical Education). That initial work led to a final report and set of recommendations for program improvements. The process itself was refined and used in 2017 - 2018 in the areas of mathematics and business & computer science.
For the 2018 - 2019 school year, we reviewed the PR Social Studies Department and also modified the process for programming related to Gifted &/or Highly- Achieving students. In this particular case, the team modified some elements of the in-depth program review process given the differences between a traditional content area versus an approach to meet the needs of a specific population of students. One key element of the in-depth program review was the consideration of a program philosophy and vision (above).
Since this parallel process was being applied to students demonstrating certain needs or characteristics - versus a content area - a different approach was given to the idea of a program philosophy or vision. The very mission of the Pine-Richland School District is to focus on learning for every student every day. It is the word “every” that makes this mission so challenging and worthwhile. Gifted and/or highly-achieving students are reflected in the word “every.” As a result, there is not a “special image or phrase” for this work. Our image of “every” is reflected in the words and concepts of our district image.