Members of the Prince Edward County School Board voted in favor on May 8 of establishing a revamped gifted student program that was presented during the April school board meeting.

Changes proposed for the gifted program include implementing universal screenings for all students in first and fourth grades using measures that test students’ intellectual ability. Students who score at the 90th percentile or above on ability or achievement testing will be recommended for additional testing.

The school division proposed to compare the scores of students locally rather than comparing the scores of students to national norms.

Ruth Williamson, coordinator of exceptional programs, said following a question by Buffalo District school board member and Vice Chair Lucy Carson that once the new plan is signed by administration, it is set to go into effect for the next school year.

Prospect District school board member Elzora Stiff asked if all of the requirements needed for a child to be considered gifted would carry equal weight.

Williamson said the current gifted student program placed more weight on the two nationally normed tests. For the new program, Williamson said the process would be designed in a way that would consider the whole child and their strengths.

The current gifted student program identified students as gifted who score at the 98th percentile on two nationally norm-referenced tests. Other identification measures include parent and teacher rating scales, taking into consideration the student’s grade-point average and being evaluated based upon parent or teacher recommendation.

Farmville District school board member Dr. Peter Gur asked about summer camps geared toward gifted students, and whether Prince Edward students could participate in those programs.

Williamson said two Prince Edward students who applied to Summer Regional Governor’s Schools camps were recently accepted, and said that there would be a priority in the upcoming school year to involve more students in summer programs that can bolster students’ opportunities when applying to colleges.

The proposed gifted student program, Williamson said, is meant to create a gifted student body that reflects the student body of the school division and identify gifted students who may have been overlooked due to the constraints of the current program.

The presentation from the April meeting cited that 69 percent of the current student population in the PECPS gifted program are Caucasian, but Caucasian students only make up 38 percent of the student body at PECPS. Approximately 23 percent in the gifted student program are African-American, but African-American students make up 57 percent of the total student body at PECPS.