What did the task force conclude about the proposed new school?
The task force has concluded that a self-contained program is the most effective way to serve the minority of TAG students who are unusually gifted and need very advanced instruction, specifically students in the top one percent of the district. These students are now isolated. No single school is likely to have enough students at a single level to group them for instruction. For example, even if a very large elementary school of 600 students has an unusually high incidence of very gifted students, it is still likely to have no more than 10–and they would be spread out over six grade levels. To meet these students instructional needs as required by law either an individual teacher would have to separately design curriculum and instruction for each student or the student would have to be “skipped” several grade levels. “Skipping” several years, known as “radical acceleration” has serious disadvantages. Many schools that serve children of the same age do not have any staff members who a
