Programs in different GATE Sites

following information is compiled out from the GATE funding application.

Marguerite Hahn Elementary


The GATE Program at Marguerite Hahn Elementary is a magnet  GATE program for grades four and five. We serve the students from Goldridge, Evergreen and Maguerite Hahn. Many of our students attended Hahn for the primary years and are from attendance areas other than our designated feeder schools.

The classroom teacher are Peggy Busanzki and Steve Bates. The students meet the ED. Code requirements for GATE with a regular interaction with their intellectual peers in excess of 200 minutes per week. In addition, emphasis is placed on interaction with other students at the site. GATE classes this year have thirty students in fourth grade and thirty-one students in the fifth grade. The forth grade has 29 GATE identified and fifth grades have 31 GATE identified students.

The student enrolled in the elementary program have the district's core curriculum for the base. The teacher incorporate the many facets of differentiated curriculum in their classrooms on a daily basis. These vary due to the knowledge and ability level of the group. In the areas of Social Studies and Science depth and complexity are often augmented with Interact, FOSS, and GEM units. The differentiation also includes student choice (novelty). Students work on personal choice projects (novelty) and these projects foster time management with student progressing through the planning stage to completion with individual self-evalution. The students in fifth grade engage in projects developed by the GATE teacher titled "Historical Pursuits." The fourth grade students work on trimester projects, which align with the state standards for Social Studies. These include: Native American shelter project, Explorer's Project, and California State Historical Landmark Projects.

There are formal and informal assessments built in to each unit and lesson. Students are evaluated with teacher-made, curriculum-based tests which pretest and post test skills in math. Students are exposed to multifaceted mathematics instruction as well as arithmetic skills needed to complete higher-level mathematics. When appropriate, the use of challenge materials enhances the content.

Teachers use a variety of resources to develop appropriate curriculum and they do not rely on a single resource. Student access information through a variety of resources including technological resources. Both GATE classes are online and the use of the World Wide Web for research and information is encouraged.

Waldo Rohnert Elementary


The GATE Program at Waldo Rohnert Elementary is a magnet  GATE program for grades four and five. We serve the students from Monte Vista, Richard Crane, La Fiesta, John Reed, Thomas Page and Waldo Rohnert. The classroom teacher are Robin Greer and Donna Friedrich. The students meet the ED. Code requirements for GATE with a regular interaction with their intellectual peers in excess of 200 minutes per week. In addition, emphasis is placed on interaction with other students at the site. All GATE classes are blended classes. The fourth grade has 27 GATE identified and 4 blends. The fifth grade has 12 GATE identified students and 18 blends.

The student enrolled in the elementary program have the district's core curriculum for the base. The teacher incorporate the many facets of differentiated curriculum in their classrooms on a daily basis. These vary due to the knowledge and ability level of the group. In the areas of Social Studies and Science depth and complexity are often augmented with Interact units. The Students work on personal choice projects (novelty) and these projects foster time management with student progressing through the planning stage to completion with individual self-evalution. The students in fifth grade prepare projects such as biographies, autobiographies (past, present and future), Famous American, Presidential profiles, Space colonies, etc. The fourth grade students work on trimester projects, which align with the state standards for Social Studies. These include: Native American shelter project, Explorer's Project, and California State Historical Landmark Projects.

Students are exposed to multifaceted mathematics instruction as well as arithmetic skills needed to complete higher-level mathematics. When appropriate, the use of challenge materials enhances the content. Additional materials (books, games, manipulative) will strengthen, broaden, and expand the use of concepts in real life situations.

Our Student Success Team is available for students who need strategies for improvement. Resource Specialist teachers are familiar with GATE students are their unique needs. Teachers will continue training in the social and emotional needs of the gifted, as well as their academic needs.

Creekside Middle School

GATE - Creekside Middle School offers 16 GATE clusters in Humanities and Man in grade 6 - 8. Cluster grouping is the method we utilize to organize our classrooms by assigning students with similar needs, interests and abilities to same classroom. Identified GATE student clusters are the placed in one of three houses where they receive their instruction. They are then mainstreamed with the entire school population for their elective and physical education classes. Clusters are designed to achieve balance between the number of GATE students and non-identified GATE students in may one classroom. This year we have attempted to place at least 12-16 GATE students in each cluster. We also balance the number of GATE students in the three houses to achieve a balanced and comparable program regardless of their house assignment.

Within the student's 2 core classes, students receive a core curriculum as the foundation of their studies. This curriculum is content rich and engages the students at all times in the search for meaning. The goal of this type of curriculum is to encourage students to progress toward independent learning over time. The teaching strategies that are engaged to differentiated the curriculum for the students are in the area of acceleration, depth, complexity and novelty. Curriculum is designed so that students also have the opportunity to challenge themselves intellectually and grow as life long learner. All instructors of GATE students have received some level of instruction in differentiated instruction and will receiving more training in this year. Many successful strategies are implemented for differentiation at Creekside. Students are given opportunities to complete independent projects, and work in interest groups to provide for enrichment or mastery in a subject or competency area. Students are placed in flexible grouping situations which allows the students to be grouped according to their readiness and/or growth in a given skill.

Mountain Shadows Middle School

The GATE program at Mountain Shadows Middle School serves students in a cluster model. Students are clustered at each grade level in each academy. Mountain shadows jas a total of 94 GATE students: sixth grade - 40, seventh grade - 26, eighth grade - 28. The students meets the Ed. Code requirements for GATE with daily interaction with other GATE students in the classroom in excess of 200 minutes a week. Our model also supports daily interaction with nonfat students.

A portion of our GATE budget will be designated for professional development. We are considering the purchase of staff development materials from ASCU on strategies for differentiation. In addition, we will be purchasing some teacher resource materials on social-emotional needs of GATE students and differentiation. Our GATE teacher have expressed an interest in attending the CAG conference next year when it is in Northern California. As part of the professional development component of our budget, teachers will also be using release time for collaborative curriculum development. This will allow teachers to share their expertise with one another and will strengthen the program overall through articulation across academies and across grade levels.

Rancho Cotate High School

The goal of GATE is to meet the unique need of students who place in the top 5%ile of standardized or criterion referenced assessments. The intent of the program is to nuture within each student an enthusiasm for life-long learning. Specific skills and traits to be fostered in each GATE identified student include effective problem solving, deductive ann inductive reasoning, building a capacity for leadership, and exposure to alternative pathways for learning.

The gifted and talented are defined as those students who consistently excel above the average in one or more areas of human endeavor to the extent they need and may benefit from specially planned educational services. Initial placement in the Gifted amd Talented Education program is presently determined at the elementary grade levels. Student eligibility for GATE program and services is re-examined between the middle school and high school. At all levels, children who can successful in advanced courses are encouraged to participate, regardless of whether or not they were previously identified as gifted and talented.

Rancho Cotate High School services all secondary GATE students, ninth through twelfth grade. Students may receive educational support through rigorous differentiated instruction in the general education classroom or by enrolling in designated honor courses offered at Rancho Cotate High School. We believe that all students can learn and should have the opportunity to develop intellectually, physically and emotionally within an environment that promotes respect for one another.

Honor Class - Honor classes are offered at grade 9 and 10. These courses offer the student the opportunity to participate in an accelerated curriculum for the standard subject area of English, Math, Social Science, and World Language. Sstudent who meet prerequisite criteria are accepted into these courses.

Advanced Placement (AP) - The advanced Placement program of the College Board is a national cooperative educational endeavor between high school and colleges and universities. The program is based on the belief that high school students can successfully complete college-level studies and receive college credit. The program serves three groups: students who wish to pursue college level studies while attending secondary school; school that wish to offer such opportunities  for gifted and talented students; the colleges/universities that wish to recognize and encourage such achievement.

College Preparatory Math (CPM) - CPM program is a series of college preparatory courses designed for the student whose individual learning modality is best suited for an experiential amd self-paced approach to acquiring new math concepts. Through individual, cooperative and collaborative learning strategies, students discover mathematical concepts. Students will participate in an integrated mathematics approach for the subject area of Algebra and Geometry.

Technology High School Program - Tech high program offers students who are enrolled at Rancho the opportunity to experience a rigorous and integrated curriculum utilizing project-based learning and technology as a key instructional strategy. Students register for mathematics, science and engineering course in the Tech High program while fulfilling all other core as well as elective requirements at Rancho Cotate High School
 
 

 
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