001Good afternoon everyone. I know people are getting in so we'll let everyone in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Glad that you can make it with us today. I think we got everybody in. Right. There's one more. Well, thank you everyone for uh joining us today. Welcome, welcome, welcome to GT Tuesday in the afternoon. We got some great things happening today. We got some great presenters with us. And so, uh, we're going to go ahead and get rolling as we get into this. So, uh, we got a robust agenda for today. Uh, we have, uh, our own TA representative from financial compliance, Peggy Watts. She will be here, uh, to talk about GT a lotment. Uh, and then we got, uh, Mrs. Pat Hardy and Carla Cheshire talking about Texas America 250. And then we have Dr. Ted
002uh Ted. Oh my goodness. Dr. Todd Hitler uh who will be talking about Baylor tip today. And then you know we typically roll out with our Q&A and our questions. And so thank you for joining us but you know I always start out with a couple of things. Hopefully everyone is doing well. Uh we are for our wellness check just you know did everyone enjoy your spring break? You're you know getting geared up for testing. Are everybody ready? And then or are you ready? Are you packed and ready to go to leadership next week? This weekend? So, if you drop in the chat, we'll truly appreciate that. Hopefully, everyone had a good time and got some rest. And as you know, we always start out with our state definition for gifted and talented. We're looking
003for those students who perform at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, and environment. So really looking at how we are doing that in that gen in the intellectual, creative or artistic area. Also are they how what is their capacity for leadership and then thinking about that specific academic fields? How are we serving our kids in those areas specifically? And then what does that look like? How are you are our students demonstrating those skills and those self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication by the development of innovative products and performances? Cuz I know that it is that season coming up also. You're getting ready for those fairs. I've been invited to judge one this year. So, I get to go and
004see some students uh present. So, what are our high school students doing? They're getting ready to graduate, but do they have those professional quality products that you or performances as a benefit of the services that you have provided over the years in their uh that they've been with you for their community uh as a part of your educational services. So hopefully we can say yes. And so we're going to go get rolling and our always our our resident uh uh invited members. Uh I see Kristen Graham is on to give us some highlights, some updates, and some information. So Kristen, thanks so much Monica. Um hi everyone. I'm Kristen Graham. I'm the deputy director for the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented or TAGT as you may have uh come to know it as.
005Um TAGT is your professional association. Um we are your um home for ways to connect with your uh peers and colleagues from across the state. Um I'm a former uh teacher, former GT coordinator um uh and a a longtime TGT uh member before I came on staff um and got to participate in um so many of the things TGT has to offer um uh before I now on this side of it. And I can truly say when I first started off um in my GT coordinator role in a a rural district in East Texas, um TGT was my lifeline. It was the thing that helped you know me connect to so many people that I now know from across the state through conferences and other programming through serving on committees and um doing you know
006participating in lots of other ways. And so, um, if you're maybe found your way to this call, um, you know, this is your first time or maybe a few times and you're still trying to find your way, um, I would highly encourage you to, um, check out TGT. We, um, have a leadership conference coming up just this next weekend. Um, and so it might be too late, but maybe not. Um if there's any way uh that you can um swing attending coming um there's probably lots of people on this call who can attest that um it's one of the events a year that is just so valuable because everyone that you're sitting next to in a session at lunch um you know talking to exhibitors with everyone's in a very similar role as you. um
007they're they're making decisions and and um you know trying to solve things for um their campuses and districts. And um uh we're really looking forward to this weekend um uh to getting everyone together. Um, and we have some special opportunities um for you during the event to be grouped with people in similar district size and type and uh to get to talk about um uh topics from the state plan and other things that um will hopefully help you feel like you're leaving the event not just having gone to some great sessions and heard some great things, but feeling like you've really expanded your network and have even just a few more people that uh you've got their cell phone number now and um you know you've got their email and and and you're building your
008um really just professional cohort. Um I know I had those people in in my phone and in my inbox um that I would reach out to and just say, "Hey, what are you doing about this?" Or, you know, "Are you having this issue too?" or "What did you do?" Um so um the TAGT and the leadership conference coming up are both just really amazing opportunities for you to continue to grow your network and um just become better together um across the state of Texas. So um highly encourage you check us out. We would love to have you there. Um we have lots of other ways for you to engage as a TGT member outside of our in-person opportunities. Um we have um webinars for members. um we have opportunities for other members to come share
009what they're doing. Um most recently um Amanda Smith um and one of her colleagues from Alvin um shared about how they're um stacking a couple of different AP courses to create more flexibility in room uh in in student schedules at the secondary level. Um lots of lots of other things for you to uh learn about and and connect with each other on um uh throughout the year. We do book studies and and lots of fun things. Um, so anyway, I dropped the link in the chat uh for you to check out in case you still need to register. Um, also the schedule the app is there. So I that second link that I posted is or third link actually uh is the link to our app so you can view it like on your computer
010and then download it on your phone so you can browse the sessions. Um uh Todd who's here is going to be on the call today. Uh Todd Cutler is one of our keynote speakers on Tuesday um talking about how um you can just really reimagine what gifted and talented education can look like in your district. Um, and then, um, uh, closing the conference, actually, uh, Meredith Austin, I'm not sure if she's on here right now, but, um, she will be helping lead and facilitate a session on going through the most recent updates to the state plan, talking about implementation. Um, and also you're going to be grouped uh in uh similarsized district groups based on the topic you want to dive into and um work on some action plans um for how to address uh
011areas where um you may be a little out of compliance. Um but uh you'll have a cohort there where you can work with together and chat with uh to to see how um uh you can uh move things in the right direction. So, um again, hope everyone can make it to uh the conference in RoundRock, but if not, um engage as a member, ask questions on Connect. Um we, uh we love our community. So, um that's what's coming up for TGT. Uh oh, I didn't mention GT awareness week. Uh the week after, um the week of April 7th through 11th, uh is GT awareness week, and I'll put the link in the chat. That's basically a platform and avenue for you to um celebrate and bring awareness to gifted and talented education in your district.
012We also offer a free webinar on Tuesday uh April 8th at 6:30. Um Joy Lawson Davis is going to be uh with us on uh Tuesday evening talking about um how how you can help students advocate for themselves. um how to help uh give students uh uh voice and choice and all those things. Um and so you can register for free. Um when I was a GT coordinator, I would host a parent night at um one of my campuses and we'd have a live watch party and um we provide a a facilitators guide. And so you can um use that as a great opportunity to connect with parents, community members um uh at your campus and um or you can uh if next uh if Tuesday the 8th doesn't work, we record them and they're
013available on the website and you can pick a date and time of your choosing and uh show the recording and still have a great conversation. So um anyway, I put some of these links in the chat. Um thank you again, Monica, for giving me a few minutes. Um, and see so many of you this weekend. All right. Thank you. Have a great one. Uh, but I know you'll stay on for a little while. All right. And so I'm going to stop sharing. I have uh Peggy Watts from TA and our financial compliance and she's going to talk about what everyone's questioning. I got one today on GT a lotment. Peggy, welcome. Thank you, Monica. Let me figure out how to share my screen. Um, she have a little green button. It's somewhere on the bottom
014of your or it might be under more. Yeah. Um, now I have to find which screen one screen two. Okay. Okay. Hopefully I'm sharing my screen. Okay, everybody. U anyway, my name is Peggy Watts. I'm work in the financial compliance division. I'm one of the managers here at TEA. And Miss Brewer, she invited me to come by and say a few words to all of you about our GT aotment program. Okay. So, Peggy, if you uh we see you, we do not see a second screen. You do not see a second screen. Um, it's showing that this. So, you don't see the screen that says uh gifted and talent to pick 21. No. No. Okay. How about There we go. Okay, there it is. That you guys. No problem. You live and you learn, right?
015Okay. Um, so anyway, like I was saying, uh, my name is Peggy Watson. So anyway, I'm here to talk to you about our, uh, GT aotment program, and this this going to be short and sweet, I promise you. U, anyway, I'm just going to give a brief overview on the GT aotment, uh, go over a couple FAQs, and then let you know where you can find additional information. Okay, so let's get started. There we go. Uh anyway, the GT aotment uh this is established by our state legislators and it's used to assess students and provide those GT services to meet the needs of those students, you know, and this is beyond just your basic education program. Um so anyway, the the chart and this chart comes from the FASRAG. Uh anyway, it shows what costs
016can be included and what it won't cover. For example, uh like your AP courses that are designed as part of your uh GT program, uh you know, those costs can be coded to your PIK 21. However, your AP courses that are not designated as part of the GT program, those need to be coded to your PI 11. All right. Uh and this is my favorite slide. This is my favorite slide to add to any presentation I do about aotment programs. Anyway, all of these supplemental aotment programs should be um only used for cost in addition to just your basic education a lotment which is you know your pick 11. So, uh before you spend any money in on any of the a lotments programs, you need to ask yourself some questions. Um, and and the
017there's a couple questions on the screen, but basically you're asking, okay, uh, is this something that the school has to provide anyway? If the answer is yes, then you're probably running the risk of supplanting, so you should not be coding any of those costs to the supplemental a lotment programs. Okie dokie. Let me get this thing to move. There it goes. Okay. As far as spending compliance, uh some of the a lotments, you know, have a 55% spending requirement whereas others have a 100% and GT is one of those with the 100%. Um, you know, of course, like over the years now, GT uh you know, the the percentage of spending requirement has changed for GT. Uh it used to be 55% several years ago. Um, and then with House Bill 3, uh, in the
018back in the 86th legislative session, it sort of moved GT under the basic aotment. Um, and then in the 87th legislative session with House Bill 1525, it was moved back to its own standalone uh, aotment with a 100% spending requirement. And that's where we are today. Uh, what our legislators do in the 89th legislative session, I'm not sure. But uh today anyway we're at 100% spending requirement and also uh this testing calculation we only look at your direct cost. So as far as you know what are your direct cost anyway I included um this slide here that has um you know the different functions that are considered uh you know your direct cost and which functions are considered indirect cost. And as far as like uh you know your account codes, we it it pretty
019much you know includes all your 61 to 6400s and it also includes uh some of your debt service um accounts that that are related to those um oh what are the uh the right to use assets like your right to use leases, your uh subscriptionbased information technology agreements, things like that. But other than that any other uh like deer debt service cost or uh capital outlay your 6600s you know those would be excluded from the calculation. And as far as like your fund codes yeah we look at uh you know your general fund we look at 199 uh 420 if you're a charter. Um and we also include four of the ESSER funds uh 266 281 282 and 283. Those are the only ESSER funds that are included in the calculation. Uh so like your
020T-class program, uh those costs would not be included in our calculation. Okay, let's get to there it goes. Okay, so here's sort of an example of what our testing calculation looks like um to see if a school's meeting uh their spending requirements. Uh we look at your summary of finance. We look at the allotment, you know, the aotment revenues. Uh we look at your expenditures and we do a calculation to see, you know, u what percentage um you know is being spent. And so in this particular example, uh and this is for the uh school's uh GT program for this particular school um for their summary of finance, they um you know, it was about $55,000 uh GT aotment. Uh, as far as spending, you know, they spent about $27,000. So, as far as percentage-
021wise, you know, they only spent like 50% of their GT aotment whereas, you know, GT has a 100%, you know, requirement. So, anyway, they they were short on their spending. So, if you know in this case, you know, uh, what what you can do is you can look at your summary of finance reports and I've got an example of that on the right hand side of the screen. Um as you can see like their um legislated projected estimates initially you know uh they were projecting you know a GT aotment of about $46,000 and then you know at year end we've got like u almost $55,000 aotment. So you know so why did the allotment increase? So to find out why the allotment increased um you can go down in your summary of finance report and
022I'll go on to the next slide here. Uh yeah anyway just scooch down in your summary of finance report and you'll come to a line that uh says total cost of tier one there will be a link to the tier one detail report. So anyway, you'll click on that link and that's will open up a a new report a tier one detail report and there's example on the right hand side of the screen and anyway and you can see like initially um and oh and in in the tier one report it's it's got like a detail of all the a lotment programs. So scooch down to the uh you know your GT program and and it it'll show like initially uh they were projecting like 108 students you know uh to be participating in the
023GT program whereas by the end of the year they had they actually uh served 128 uh GT students. So anyway, that's the reason why the aotment went from 46,000, you know, all the way up to 55,000 because they had an additional 20 kids. And something else that you can also uh consider looking at to see why the um the aotment amount changed uh you know, whether it increased or decreased, uh you can look at your uh you know, some of your PES reports. Um I've got a couple of them on on the screen. I mean, these are are from your summer um PE submissions. And you can also look at your school six weeks reports, you know, to see um you know, how many students, you know, for each of the different programs are, you
024know, are were being reported. Okay. So, let's go. Okay. Um, as far as like the the testing calculations, uh, you know, to test for, uh, compliance with the aotment programs, uh, TEA does a rolling three-year average. So, um, with that, what I mean is like with each review cycle, we'll drop off the oldest year and then we'll pick up a new one. Like for instance, last summer, we looked at FY 21, 22, and 23. So this summer when we look at it, we'll drop off uh FY21 and then we'll add FY24. So with that uh what we do is we look at the summary finance. We do uh you know a three-year average of that. We look at your expenditures that were were reported and your midyear PE submissions. Um and we do a three-year
025average of those and then we come up with the percentage spent. So, uh, like on the chart on on this on the screen anyway, for this particular school, uh, their summary of finance, they averaged about $250,000. Uh, their expenditures that they spent on average over those three years, uh, $225. So, they were short on their GT spending because remember this is a 100% spending requirement. So, they were short $25,000. And so they only, you know, expended like 90% instead of the 100. So in cases like this, uh anyway, um if if a if a a school's not in compliance anyway, uh there's an expectation that the school will number one increase their spending, you know, to make up for the shortfall. Uh but also to um that the school should verify, you know, their coding.
026Uh make sure that the the costs are are are being coded to the right PI code. Also check your coding for for your student attendance and and how you're coding your teachers. Um, and one thing that you can do to help prevent non-compliance is, and always I always recommend monitoring your summary of finance reports, your expenditures, and doing so on a regular basis, preferably monthly. Uh, that way you have time to make those adjustments before the year ends. Uh, because, uh, by the time your external auditor shows up the the following fall, the year's already passed. So, you know, that ship's done sailed, so it's too late to find, you know, some more uses to to spend the money on those funds. And oh, before I go on to the next slide, anyway, yeah. Um,
027as far as like monitoring your any of your a lotment programs, uh, TASPO has an awesome tool on their website that you can use to help with the calculation. Um, anyway, I I'll see if I can put a link in the chat for you in a minute after I finish my presentation. But uh but anyway, yeah, with this uh tool, you pretty much just enter in your six-digit county district number. Um and and all the previous year's datas is is is pretty much in there. Uh all you have to do is is enter in like uh you know the information for this current year for FY25 and it'll calculate you know your compliance with the different aotment programs. It this is an awesome tool. So yeah, I I'll put it in the uh a link
028in the chat for you. Let's see what's the next slide. Okay. Uh yeah, this is the results of our testing um from from last year and uh anyway and we look at all the public schools. We look at all ISDs, all the open enrollment charters. So we looked at over,200 schools and of the,200 schools uh like the chart shows only 94 were were not meeting compliance. So, this means uh well over 90% of you are doing an awesome job. So, so kudos to all of you. Okay. And see, there go FAQs. I don't really have a whole lot of FA get receive a whole lot of FAQs about um you know, the GT program. I think it's because the uh DA's GT uh program team does such an awesome job on providing information on their
029web page. Um but I do have a couple that's related to teachers. So I'll go ahead and share those with you. Okay. Question number one. Uh must 100% of the students in a class be identified as GT for the teacher salary to be an eligible GT expense or is there some sort of a threshold? And what this is asking is like for for example um I don't know you have an an AP course and it has both GT and nonGT students but um maybe only 90% of the class are RGT students. So in that case uh no there's no threshold. So so anyway yeah that portion of the teacher salary can be coded to your pick 21. Okay number two. Uh what if the school gave their GT teachers some extra duty pay? Uh maybe
030they were taking on some additional responsibilities for GT uh got some extra uh GT training. Is that allowable? And also is it okay to you know uh aortion off part of their um you know allocate part of their benefits like their um TRS uh pension, their healthcare benefit, stuff like that. Um but anyway, yeah, all of those all those costs can be coded to pick 21. That's allowable. That'd be okay. Okay. Additional information. Okay. This is our uh state a lotment programs web page. This is this is an excellent resource that that I highly recommend uh you checking out. Anyway, there's information about all the aotment programs. Uh there the we have the education code for each one. We've got videos. Uh there's a a FAQ PDF that that I update frequently throughout the entire
031year. Um it's also got information about um the annual financial reports J4 schedule and um but the J4 schedule only includes information about state comped and bilingual education aotment. But I thought I'd mention it in case, you know, there's some CFOs or, you know, some some accounting and finance staff that that oversee all the a lotment programs. Um, but at any rate, yeah, this is this is a great resource and I'll, you know, try to put this link to to this one as well in the chat. Okay. Other resources. Yeah, like I said, um, THGT team, uh, they have an awesome website, uh, the Fazrag, um, you know, the F appendices. This is the first place that I always look to whenever I get questions about, you know, spending, you know, can I can we
032spend money on this, that, you know, I always look in the F appendices, um, are our, uh, FAQs. Um, you know, you can look at those. Like I said, I update those frequently. And also, here's a a the code section for the GT alignment program. Okay, that pretty much wraps up my my presentation. Uh if you ever have any questions about GT or any of the aotment programs, um you can send us uh email us a question to state aotment programs at tea.t texas.gov. And with that, if you have any other questions right now, I'd be happy to entertain them. Let's see. So, we got one in the chat. Um, try to find the chat. I'll read it for you. Um, so you mentioned that approved resources must be specifically for DT. Is there are
033some gray areas regarding uh resources that are targeted for DT learners, but that can be can benefit all learners. Uh so here's the example and then Blake might have to come off uh mute to talk about what is beast academy but uh for example a district oh okay uh invest in something like beast academy that can be great for gifted learners but also benefit high ability students and for students who would practice skills. Would a subscription to something like beast academy be denied if it's open only if it's open only to GT students? If it's only open to GT students. Sorry, I think I meant that the other way. If it's open to everyone. I edited it a couple times and didn't change that. I apologize. Yeah. Uh, okay. So, so it's open to some
034of the some of them are GT students, but but some not. Right. Right. Okay. Yeah. I would uh I would uh Yeah, that would be a gray area. I would go ahead and maybe allocate, you know, figure out how many uh GT versus nonGT students and allocate the cost that way. Okay. So, that kind of answers Dr. German's question, too. Okay. All right. So, here's the next one. If we can have a school within a school, so zone students and GT students are bus, can utilities, electricity, water, etc. be coded to pick 21? uh well your facilities uh uh function 51 it it is one of the direct cost so um I don't I don't know how many but that's usually like I'm thinking of like uh career tech usually does that um but but
035it but it's a standalone school maybe I don't understand the So it's like a neighborhood school, but then they have a school within the school where the GT students are coming in that's also housed at that campus. So you got your regular school, but then you got like a little subset of GT students that are housed in that building uh that come for instruction. So but and I'm I'mma also throw a lifeline out there. I'm going to say also there's there's other funds out there before you get to electricity and water from your GT services, right? Uh we should be the last end all. It should not be the first all. I will put it that way. Correct, Monica. Correct. Yeah. For GT, uh yeah, utilities, I usually don't see that many costs for GT.
036uh as far as utilities go. Okay. So, the next one is um if you have a accelerated student, so that a student is going to an advanced math class or something uh a higher level class at another campus and this one is a high school. Uh can can they use PI 21 for Transportation. uh it transportation would be a a function 34 and uh that function is excluded from the calculation. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. To kind of back it up too because I I I just kind of want to have clarification on this one. if um GT if if resources are are trying to be are being provided on a title one campus or um or okay let's say let's start with t title one and we have funds there plus
037we have GT but there we're going to pull part of the title one sources to also uh cover resources with GT um is that allowable And part of those sources honestly would be used for part of the title one, but it' also be split with GT as well. And so can you combine funds? I'm not sure what you mean by combined fun. Okay. Let's here let me just give you let's say that that there's software that was going to be purchased for a campus. Okay. Okay. And so part of those students are going to be uh GT and then there's going to be a portion that are also title students. Um so can we combine funds to in order to um concert our efforts and and try to um you know purchase software? Okay. Yeah,
038I think I know what you're saying. Yeah. As far as like the software um and it would be like that that subscriptionbased information technology agreements something like that, right? Right. Yeah. then then yeah you could allocate you know figure out how many you know GT students you have versus non-GT and uh you know that portion of the cost you can you can code that to pick 21. Okay. And could Okay, because this is actually a real life example and part of what they're wanting to be able to do is mostly use it for GT. Okay. But if if there are kids that are accelerated but not necessarily identify GT then that they could also have access to that. Yeah. And then that way they could use their their other funds for that. Yeah. Yeah, that'd
039be fine. Okay, thanks. Okay, so last question and then because we do have two more and then but we'll take your we'll keep your questions and then uh I will also share and then I think Peggy will come back one more time. uh in May. I think she had uh I think she had another date that she can come back in May if we had questions. So um uh for the GT funding that is embedded in the basic aotment. So basically uh Peggy, you know the history and then you we had that GT funds in the basic aotment which is I call it the allocation. That's how I Yeah, too. Yeah. Um, and it is it assumed 100% spending, but there's no calculation available in TA or monitor to confirm compliance. Um, I'm going to
040start out and then Peggy, you can correct me how uh if you need to. So with that DT allocation that's out there in the basic aotment that was under the the way that was laid out there was a that was total local district uh control on how that money was spent how much they spent. So it could go from $5 to $1,000 $110,000. So it's it's a local district decision. Um no uh TA at once we moved out of that to the aotment. No they uh we got our a lotment back. TA TA decided our finance not our the other side of finance decided not to develop print out that calculation. So no that calculation is not there. Um, now I'm not sure how the monitoring is working on that to confirm compliance cuz Yeah,
041I'm going leave that one alone. That's side of the street law. Yeah. No. Uh, the only thing that we're monitoring now is the compliance with with with the pick 21 that the actual standalone um GT aotment. I Yes. Yeah, that was that was kind of confusing and yeah, thank goodness that Yeah, they they they put it back as it own it is own standalone. Yes. So, yes. Yes. Uh so, thank you, Peggy. Thank you for some great information. And I do have her deck. So, yes, you will be getting a copy of it. Uh and is everything is out there on the website also. And so our next presenters is uh Mrs. Pat Hardy and Carla Sheshire talking about um Teach America Texas America 250. I'm going to stop share. I will put the bitly
042if you did not put it in your link uh for you uh Carla, but um there you go. She put it in there. So um and thank you for your questions. As I said, we'll uh if we have time, if Peggy stays on, we can come back to them at the end also. So Dr. uh M. Yeah. Ready? Ready. All right. Well, first of all, uh Peggy, I'm sorry, but you sure been bring back bad memories of working in the school for 47 years. I'm so glad that I've retired. Everybody look forward to it because you don't have to hear all those numbers again. But uh Monica, I want to say thank you to you for for allowing me to be a part of this. My friend uh and I call her my partner in
043crime is Carla Cheshire and she's a uh someone that worked with me in the district on GT stuff for a number of years and worked wonderfully. I mean, she was so fantastic. It was great to work with her on that and and she knew I was working with I'm on the commission for the Texas 250 and she said, "Oh my goodness." She was looking at this and I think and she thinks this is going to have a lot of opportunities for you to to write your programs for the next years or so. And uh uh I'm kind of curious as to how many of you that are on this uh Zoom meeting right now even know what I'm talking about when I say Texas America 250. Would you do so by raising your hand? Oh,
044good. I like to know that I'm needed here then. So, America 250, Texas America 250 is a celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States. And I'm looking at this group and I don't think many of you were around in 1976, but in 1976 we did the uh uh the 200 year anniversary of our country. And in n in 2026, we're going to do the 250th year of our celebration of our country. So, I'm going to let you see a little uh a few minutes of a program of of explaining this to you and then we'll I'll give you some more information on that. So, we're going to have a a a short or brief video. After 247 years, you could say I've seen some [Music] things. Building a democracy from scratch, it isn't
045easy. or being home to hundreds of millions from everywhere on Earth. Fact is, there have been challenges since the very beginning. Uphill battles, setbacks, and injustices. But you know, Americans, we cut grid. We fight for what we need. and what's [Music] right, what we want for the next generation. We take care of each other when it gets rough. We inspire each [Music] other. Innovate together. Get the job done. and create so much opportunity. Heck, it's probably why folks have been inspired to come here for so long. And now we've got a pretty big anniversary coming up, the Big 25. So, in honor of that, we're launching America's Invitation. A chance to share your thoughts on our past, the heroes you love, and your dreams for the road ahead. Because your dreams will be our future.
046Your story is the American story. [Music] Okay, this is the um 250th year of the declaration. of independence and that's what we begin as the 4th of July uh is the celebration for the declaration of independence the beginning of our country the mission of Texas America is to celebrate and commemorate that 250 years and make the whole state of Texas aware of its role in the formation of the state of Texas and in our country and you'll see there uh u you will have this program to be able to to reach back and get the America Texas America 250 website. So that's what you have on the uh on the screen there. Okay. One of the things that comes up is what are the goals of this econ of this event? Number one, if some
047of you know me from uh my role in the state board of education, you know that I'm very high on the idea of civic education and social studies. And one of these goals is to to increase our civic education. One of the things that I think about when I think of that is the patriotism and love of country and so forth. And so that's going to be one of the main goals, but they have other goals. We'd like to encourage Texans to unite in commemorating the sim quincentennial. I can't ever say that, but that's 250 years of of our history of our country. to promote scholarship and research that illuminates Texas's role in the formation of a nation, recognize the service and sacrifices of veterans who have protected our liberties and independence for future generations,
048and to share information about Texas events and activities planned in your community for the 250th celebration. And that's where it really comes in for the GT program because a lot of things will be uh offered or created by your GT students throughout the this next year and things I hope that will stay around for years to come. There are a lot of different groups that are taking part in this. As I said, there's a fiveman, fiveperson commission, but many of these things are involved with it. Uh, one of the things that was just added today was the scouting of America and the the formerly known as the Boy Scouts. But all these different museums and different uh organizations, excuse me, historical organizations as well as museums and so forth are participating in this uh celebration.
049[Music] Everybody's slow today. So, what can you do? What we'd really like to see you do is gather leadership from your community and discuss opportunities for celebrations and commemorations and then let us know about it. And there's the contact information once you've come up with whatever you might be doing for your school district or your community. Uh we would like for you to send that to us and we'll keep it on the website so we can share and make sure everyone knows what what's going on in in your particular area of Texas. These are some of the things that have already been started. This is actually a program. This says GT all over it to me. It's called the Americas Field Trip and unfortunately the deadline for this year is April the 16th, but this
050same program will be going on for next year. So, I'm hoping that some of you will see this and in incorporate this in your GT programs because it is a great opportunity for kids to do some individual thinking and uh creative thinking. all those things like the poetry and the uh music and so forth can be added into these things and some really cool prizes to it. So a family trip and everything and there'll be uh students there'll be a number of them given away. So keep your eye out for that if you're too late to do it for this year and hopefully you'll do it for next year. Another one which everybody can participate in and I love this. This is nominate America's unsung champions. Our American story is is an oral and visual
051storytelling project aimed at collecting and preserving our nation's stories. This is your opportunity to nominate a living person, a friend, a family member, neighbors, community leader whose story you think needs to be shared and preserved. Every story is worth sharing and that's the address to where you will share that and it'll be kept on the website. So, uh this is a uh ongoing project. We hope for years to come that people will be able to refer back to this. Okay. Um, this is something that if any of you are still out and about in the next two weeks, I know most of you probably already had your spring break, but the American Revolution Experience is a traveling exhibit and it's found right now in Kurville, Texas until April the 4th. So, this is something that
052you as an individual or you might want to take a small group down to Kurville to see that as a part of the 250 U celebration. I'm hoping there'll be some more of those coming and and you'll be able to find it on the website if they we get more of them here in Texas. Some of you are familiar with a group called T Texas Law Related Education and they are right now along with some other different uh uh groups working on lesson plans that directly go back and are focused to the Declaration of Independence and this is grades K through 12. So, uh these will be available in uh about the time school starts in 2025, August of 2025. And my My envisionment is to see all of you with you guys taking the
053lead since you're the first people to hear about this. Uh to to work this in your schools and in your local community so that this will be a year celebration building up to July 4th, 2026. And hopefully it will develop enough interest and and uh love of country that this will continue on in a positive way. These are some of the things that can be done. Uh the very first one says paint a fire hydrant. Well, when I have asked people if they remember they're more my age or not quite my age because I was actually teaching school back in 1976. But these people would say, "Oh yeah, that was when we painted the fire hydrants in all the cities and towns across the state. They had uh groups, whether it was the Boy Scouts
054or whether it was, you know, campfire girls, whatever. They decorated the fire hydrants in in uh these little towns and and cities and so forth. And when they were younger, that's what they remembered as something that they participated in. But look at all these things. These are so so GT. Uh, film a video, write an original song or play, create sculptures, paints, uh, choreograph, dance. Doesn't that sound like it would work into any of your programs and your schools? So, there are a number of things it the the choice is up to you and and your students what how you'd like to present that, but we want to know about it. We want to see about it and and and advertise it on the website. Okay. My name is Pat Hardy. Oh, first of all,
055does anybody have any questions? No questions. Oh, that's a good sign. I explained it. Okay. Uh, my name is Pat Hardy and I'm one of the commissioners for that and I've given you my uh email and phone number if you would like to call and ask me about something or or have any questions or concerns about it. Um, we in the state of Texas, I know this is hard to believe, but the legislature did not set aside funding, but we're trying to get the funding. And if we do that, if you'll keep up with the website, we're we're going to be trying to get u small grants so that cities or groups could ask for a grant and help uh the financing of whatever celebration you're going to be doing for the 250th birthday. I
056believe that's my last slide, isn't it? Yep. So now my friend Carla Cheshire is making the connections directly to the GT program and I'm going to give her my chair. Thank you Pat for giving me the chance to tie this all in to our with our GT students. My video is not working on my computer, my camera. I'm not sure exactly what's wrong, but we're sharing a computer today. So, if you will, Pat, if you'll go to the computer and be my clicker today. Pat's going to be my clicker. But like Pat said, whenever I was, she and I were talking about America 250 and Texas America 250, and there were she was talking about all of the activities that they would like to see happening. I told her, I said, "This is just totally
057GT all over." And so even though this is really what we really envision is for communities to be involved with this, it could start in the classroom in your districts with your GT leaders because we all know that they love these leadership opportunities. It's aligned with our state goal. Most of you, all of you in here know what our state goal is and Monica showed it earlier that they will create um innovative products. They will perform in performances. they will um also your high school students will have created advanced products and performances. So that is aligned what they can do with this Texas America 250 is aligned with that. Also what's also interesting is that in some of the standards in our Texas state plan these are aligned as well. And so if you look
058at the curriculum and instruction, I've listed a few of the accountability standards that I felt like that could help you meet these needs with our Texas America 250. One of them is in 4.2 where they pursue areas of interest of selected disciplines through guided and independent research. This America Texas 250 is definitely going to require some research. And so what better way to tie the two together while you're serving your GT students. The 4.3 talks about those advanced level products. And so that also is aligned with it. And then 4.4 and 4.3 talk about the Texas performance standards projects. We're going to talk about that in just a minute. But if you're not familiar with those and you're not using those in your district, I want to encourage you to use this time to take
059a look at those projects. They're called task. They're lesson plans if you're not familiar with them. Lesson plans that were created specifically for GT students, but you know, you might use them with any student that needs that extra um challenge in in your classroom. And so this Texas America 250 is a great way to incorporate and tie in some of these TPS projects. Click. [Music] Um, also family community involvement, the accountability column. This also includes products and performances that are shared with the community. So with America uh Texas America 250, you can share these projects with your community and also work with the community. Most of you are familiar with the accountability standards in our Texas state plan, but there's also exemplary standards that are provided for those students, the districts, the districts that want
060to create a more robust um excellent program for their GT students. And so some of the exemplary pro uh standards are community volunteers are organized and provided an orientation about working with our GT students. This would be a great time to bring together your community members and let those GT students be the leaders in in guiding them along maybe planning and working together. 6.10 is also um where they can work together making liaons with business and community organizations. Um and then there's another one on the next slide please. Um there's a couple uh under the exemplary column in family community involvement presentations are given to the community groups and organizations to solicit their involvement. So you could think I'm thinking that you could have your GT students actually create presentations of things that they would
061like to see in their community and work with those community leaders. And then a datab bank of resources is compiled for use by their uh students. And um so they can you can have that also as well. I think so. Just click off of that. There you go. All right. Up there, click the slideshow again up at the top right hand side. That That's it. Just click it. Don't do anything there. Just click. You're going to click like you're selecting it. So with your left, it's left, but with your right finger, click off of that. Okay, I'll come help you. Sorry. Okay, we're back now. Sorry that for that little um I would say also Carla um you know if you if you still have difficulty we can uh we also have your deck so
062we can share that. So yeah. Okay. Okay. Uh we should be okay. We only have a couple of more slides to go. What I wanted to but thank you Monica. We we might have to take you up on that offer. Um, one other thing of this last part of this, uh, section of our slide deck, I wanted to just show you some of the Texas performance standards projects that I found. These are task that I found that I felt like align themselves perfectly with the Texas America 250. Um, one of them is pursuit of passion and that's in K through 12. That's all grade levels. And that is a task that guides the students, takes them through the research process. And so this would be perfect for any type of Texas America 250 um project
063they wanted to work on. Uh notice too in second and fourth grade these lessons, some of them are available in Spanish. In sixth grade, this particular task is culture shock and it specifically says country, but it doesn't have to be country. If you want to adapt it to state, county, or city, you could do that. And even with all of these, if the if it's not a grade level that you specifically teach, you might adapt it from from fourth grade to third grade or from fourth grade to fifth grade. They're aligned with the TEACS. That's what's the great thing about these Texas performance standards projects. If you're not familiar with them, they're statewide standards and assessments system which includes not only the instructional materials, they're aligned with the TEACS and they're designed to pro provide
064assistance with our districts as they meet the state goal for our GT students. It's referenced the Texas performance standards project is referenced seven times in our uh Texas state plan for the education of the gifted and they are also endorsed by our commissioner. He has a letter of endorsement in that state plan. Um, four more of these that I found are seventh grade um and eighth. Okay, it's okay. It's all right. Um, but just take some time. You have access to this presentation. I put the link to the uh the bit.ly in the um in it uh several times in the chat box. So you have access to this presentation. Take some time to look at the TPS projects and see which task might fit you best and see what you can do with your
065students and how your students can take the lead on um um initiating and having the Texas America 250 activity in your in your districts in your communities, cities, towns. I think it would be a great opportunity. Monica, thank you for the opportunity and thank you for putting up with me once again with technology. No problem. No problem. Thank you, Carla. Thank you, uh, Miss Hardy, for sharing today. Uh, and and we have one more presenter, Dr. Todd Kettler from Baylor Baylor tip techn, uh, talent and identification program if I can speak today. Welcome Todd. Uh, and you are free to share. Can you see my shared screen, Monica? We can see your uh we see your shared screen. Well, you're not in presentation mode, but we see your screen. I'm trying to get there. Is
066that better? Yes. All right. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here with you guys uh and hear these uh great opportunities that have already been shared today. I'm going to share a little bit about our Baylor tip program uh here in Waco. Uh we're pretty excited about the the work that we've uh been uh been doing and we've just come ac uh just finished doing our seventh grade talent search identification for the uh current year. Just want to start with why we do it. uh Baylor Baylor tip is meant to provide uh life-changing opportunities to talented adolesccents and uh I believe that we've been accomplishing that goal uh based on the students uh testimonies uh and reflections after being in our programs. Uh we also create caring communities for adolescents uh uh
067with high academic abilities so that they can uh meet friends and peers that they feel like are similar uh to them in interest uh and academic uh capabilities. Um, and we also engage in quite a bit of research and development so that we're constantly uh seeking to uh provide better tools, better models, uh better uh ways to develop uh student talent. So just a little bit about the foundation of why we do what we do if you will. We uh uh we started with this idea from uh Paul Oeski Cabilius that uh we want to we care about optimal growth uh and for optimal growth uh gifted students need uh three things in combination. They need strong school services. Uh and within those school services we uh seek uh comprehensive programming meaning that uh we
068have uh uh all curriculum areas uh of the core curriculum available across all those grade levels uh very comprehensive uh in that regard. But that's not even enough. The third element is what we call supplemental learning opportunities. uh and those include things like weekend and summer programs uh online courses, contests, competitions, clubs, and so forth. Uh and I I would like to make a quick reference if I could back to the state plan uh in the service design section three uh in 3.2, too. One of the uh the state plan elements is that districts would share information regarding these type of out of school uh learning opportunities or recognition uh opportunities uh and summer camps and programs and so forth. And then also if you if you notice in uh the same section 3 3.6
069Six out of school options are relevant to the students area of strength are provided by school districts whenever possible and those options in the exemplary column col column would meet the needs of the students on a continual basis. So that's how we see ourselves at Baylor tip. We see ourselves is that partner to help you with those out of school options uh for your uh gifted kids and we do it throughout the entire school year. Uh we uh I would say summer is our biggest heaviest time but we provide opportunities throughout the year. Uh at Baylor we have three levels of services. Uh all of them are quite advanced. Uh so even just beginning with our academy level uh our academy students uh when they meet the qualification to be in uh Baylor tip uh
070through the testing and assessment program uh they are demonstrating college readiness. So typically we're looking at kids that are in seventh grade that are demonstrating college readiness uh at that time. So when we provide uh programs uh for those students, those programs are roughly uh undergraduate level curriculum. Uh so it is quite advanced even at the academy level. But as the students are participating in academy and they come back uh you know for multiple opportunities multiple years they start moving up and taking on more rigorous learning through our lysum classes and then ultimately our highest level of the podia classes uh as well. So we do have a a uh quite a quite a bit of room for students to grow when they become involved in our Baylor tip program. Uh just a little bit
071of history of how we came uh to this point. Uh in 1983 uh an instructor at Baylor named Linda Cox started a program called University for Young People. So that uh program is continuing to operate today. Those are our first, second, and third graders today. It was for uh all you know all the grade levels early uh prior to uh a few years ago. Uh but we have a 42-year history of providing outstanding summer programs and weekend programs uh for students. uh eventually in 1999 the center for gifted education and talent development was formed at Baylor. uh so we have a 26 uh year history of the center and our center has done multiple things from teacher training uh testing and assessment we've done program evaluations even recently we've been working with some schools uh
072to uh provide some consulting on how they could ramp up their gifted education uh program designs. Uh we have an annual gifted uh parent conference. In fact, that's coming up on Saturday this weekend. We do it every year in the spring. Uh and we do quite a bit of research on gifted students and talent development. Uh we publish papers, uh write books, chapters, uh give conference presentations, all those things that go along with uh the research. Uh one of the the main principles of the talent development model that we use at Baylor TIP uh is from the classic uh talent um search model that was developed originally by Julian Stanley. So we we start with above level testing. Uh the above level testing is uh used to identify what kids know but also what they
073don't know. uh uh so that with the above level testing we have plenty of ceiling uh to see what they uh don't quite know yet and we can actually make uh customized plans on where they should go from here based on what uh how they score on those tests. Uh we match their u uh curriculum and learning opportunities to their uh talent levels. Uh we provide beyond school learning opportunities. Most of those are on campus at Baylor. Uh we are also um uh providing some online opportunities now as well. And uh we've just recently gotten final approval for a satellite site. So we're going to start offering programs at the University of Dallas, the Catholic University uh in Irving. So that'll be our first satellite uh site to begin offering programs and we'll have those
074coming up uh this uh fall semester of 2025. Uh and then the uh one of the other things we do is provide guidance in education for educational and career planning. So we do some interest assessments, values assessments, and then we also have some specialized counselors that provide counseling uh services for how to develop four-year plans uh with the specific intent of aligning to the types of majors the students are interested in at uh highly competitive and select uh universities. What are some of the reasons? People ask me quite frequently why why would my kid want to participate uh in a program uh like Baylor Tip? Uh well, Baylor Tip is building uh on the shoulders of some of the giants who have come before us, particularly uh John's Hopkins programs and the Northwestern University uh
075programs that have been around for uh close to 40 years. uh through those programs they've done quite a bit of research on what's the value what's the benefit of participating in these types of talent searches. We break the those benefit down into two areas. The first one is self-concept. What we see is when we compare the students who are admitted and participate uh in talent uh development uh to the students who were admitted but actually don't ever come to the talent development opportunities. Uh so the truth is we have students that get admitted and then they don't come to the programs. So when we compare the two or when Johns Hopkins and Northwestern compare the two the two groups the ones who are admitted and participate ones who are admitted and don't participate these are
076the benefits we see. We see that the ones who participate actually have a better understanding of their academic abilities over time. Uh they have increased positive self-im images. Things like academic self-concept, academic self-efficacy. uh for instance, we do measure those uh quite a lot with our students. They report higher educational and career aspirations. Uh they're more likely to accelerate in their area of academic strength. They show greater participation in extracurricular uh curricular math programs in particular, and they're more likely to pursue STEM careers. STEM programs are our most common program that we offer through Baylor TIP. And I think you would find that that's quite consistent at Johns Hopkins um and Northwestern uh as well. Then we look at the uh academic outcomes that we see for participation. The same uh type of participation. Those
077who participate uh after being accepted compared to those who were accepted and don't. Uh the students who participate tend to earn more honors and awards while they're in high school. They are more likely to earn national merit commendations uh including national merit semi-finalist and finalist commendations. Uh they are more likely to graduate uh early from high school than their peers. Uh they earn entrance uh to more selective colleges and universities. And the one that the parents uh that I speak to quite regularly uh find uh most important is they maintain higher GPA in college than their peers. So in other words, not only they demonstrate college readiness before they enter our programs, but I think we do a really nice job of developing their talent so that they're quite uh prepared when they enter college
078to be successful. Uh just some basics of how we do uh do our work here. Uh we use an above level testing uh uh program. We've worked for several years to develop a test that we call the indicator of academic readiness. It's very similar to SAT or ACT. We like to think of it as kind of a combination of SAT and ACT. We also have an 89 version. Uh so we use those uh test for uh students who are applying to be admitted. Uh we give a score report in English uh uh specifically reading and writing and then also math and science. Those score reports are available to parents immediately uh after the testing. And our testing is anytime any place testing. It's highly secure online testing environment. So if a sing a family uh
079just registers individually uh we'll send them a link within a a day or two and with that link they can complete the testing at home and they'll get a score report uh immediately through a portal uh after they've completed the test and those score reports include educational recommendations as well. Uh the IR is a test of college readiness. The score range is 0 to a,000. So it's 500 possible points in math and science as well as in reading and writing. It's considered an on-level test. So we did some of our norming with onle collegebound students in grades 11 and 12. That's how we determined what the college readiness uh benchmark uh was with from those collegebound 11th and 12th graders. Then we used it as an above level test for kids uh in grades 7
080through 10. In fact, we just completed our our seventh grade talent search uh admission process. students can still be admitted, but they wouldn't be invited to the recognition ceremony. We're going to be admitting 305 new seventh graders this year. So, we're really excited about that. And those students come from uh most uh a number of states around the US, mostly from Texas, but we also have quite a few students from Mexico and Central America also in our uh class of seventh graders this year. Uh the 89 version is designed to be taken as a predictor of college eventual college readiness in eight in the end of eighth grade or beginning of nth grade. We use it as an above level assessment for our students seeking admission to Baylor tip intermediate which are our students uh
081who test in grades three through six to start participation as rising fourth through seventh graders in our uh tip programs or TIP intermediate programs. We also gather some interesting uh data on uh some motivational variables. We measure students psychological strengths uh when they also when they complete the I uh we specifically measure motive academic uh and achievement motivation uh intellectual dispositions and creative self-efficacy. And what we found is all three of those psychological strengths are associated with long-term achievement. Uh so we are actually uh conducting longitudinal studies to see if those patterns of association with achievement are holding up with our uh students as they mature and move through educational levels. Our seventh grade talent search is the one that we just finished. We have a recognition ceremony coming up in the spring. Uh we've
082got a good problem and that problem is that we have more students who qualified this year than we have space. So we're trying to find larger space uh for our recognition ceremony. But we always hold the uh that in April. Uh as soon as students uh uh are admitted, they can go ahead and enroll in our Baylor tip programs. Um after testing our application, the students will receive decisions of whether they were admitted within one month. We do holistic assessments. So we look at a number of variables uh from the psychological strengths to the uh uh independent areas of the assessment uh as well as to the types of educational opportunities students have had over time. Uh so as soon as students are admitted they can start signing up for programs. In our Baylor programs
083we break them down uh across these seven categories. Uh not all seven categories are built out at this time. I'll show you some timelines of how we're continuing to build those out. Um uh one of the most attended programs we have are super Saturday programs. We offer these on a number of Saturdays throughout the fall and spring. Uh those Saturdays have are three-hour morning classes and three-hour afternoon classes. Students can do both morning and afternoon or they can do either one or the other. and we break them down. So, they're available for students as young as first through third grade uh and also all the way through our uh students who are in high school as uh all the way up to uh 11th and 12th graders. Uh so those programs are offered across those
084core domains of STEM, humanities, the arts, social sciences, and business. Uh those are uh like I said, we offer multiple versions of those every fall and every spring. summer programs. We like to think of this uh as like our our flagship program, our summer residentials. Uh and the residential programs are only for students in grades 8 through 12, but they live on campus here in Waco. Uh we have one and two week options. Uh when they come for either of those one or two week options, uh they live in the dorm. They uh eat in the uh cafeterias on campus. They take what like I described earlier is roughly undergraduate level curriculum taught by either professors or advanced doctoral students. Um and those uh those students uh study intensely just one course. So like if
085they take uh for instance we had a uh we last summer we offered anatomy and physiology uh and we get a lot of students interested in premed and STEM uh type programs our most common. So uh some of the students that we surveyed after the anatomy and physiology said that uh in that one week of that course they learned more about anatomy and physiology than they learned in an entire year of uh the same course in high school. Uh so they do get a rigorous intense level of learning uh through our summer residential programs. We alo also offer day programs for our tip intermediate kids in grades four through seven. Those are commuters. So, we don't provide uh overnight uh accommodations. Uh but I can tell you that last year the average distance students came
086for those day programs was 109 miles. So, we had students that would commute daily. We also had families that would stay in an Airbnb for a week or maybe in a hotel. Uh sometimes they would carpool with other families from their communities. Uh we get a lot of students from the greater Houston area and the greater DFW area, which is not surprising considering those are our most populated areas uh in uh in Texas. Uh we are building some academic competitions that we're going to launch starting in the fall of 25. We've been working on those for uh a little while and uh should have those ready for fall 25 launch. Our Baylor tip talent advising is one of our uh topshelf programs. uh the students who participate in the talent advising uh through in grades
0878 through 12, they get a personal adviser. They review assessment results. They develop uh personalized uh plans for high school uh and how to combine high school with out of school learning opportunities like online courses at either Baylor or other places. Then we also uh do some career planning with them so they get a sense of where they're headed as a career and how they how they could and should select colleges and majors based on those uh career aspirations. We do bail tip online courses. We had a great one this year in on engineering disasters. Uh we do some young courses that the engineering disasters were older older kids. We have some uh advanced math courses for kids as young as first through third grade. Uh some those are blends of synchronous and asynchronous models
088and we try and we make them age appropriate. Uh like I said, we work with young the youngest kids as well as older middle school and high school students. U one of the things that I find quite fun and I'm actually the leader of one of these. We have what we call clubs and societies. These are uh interestbased groups. So they're uh students group based on strength and interest. Uh I'm actually the developer and the leader of the Stratford on Odon Literary Society. Uh in that uh literary society uh we read books, we talk about books, we talk about literary traditions. I've been introducing the students to the concept of literary criticism and they actually read professional uh literary criticism on some of the texts that we're studying uh in the program uh and and
089just have a fantastic time. I think it's probably one of the most fun things I do is leading the literary society. We also have a great creative writing society led by someone who is a professional writer. She does a fantastic job teaching students to build their skills as creative writers. We're going to be launching the math to the max program. We've already launched some of the courses in it, but the club uh will launch uh soon. uh clubs are 4 through 7, societies are 8 through 12, and then we're we're working toward the third good Marshall society for law and juristprudence to come out in 2026. We also have quite a number of students who say they're interested in pre-law approaches uh when they want to go to college. Just some basic understanding of our
090timeline. Uh we start communicating with districts in the early fall and uh our goal is to form a district partnership. Uh when we work with uh districts, it's easy to become a district partner. The online form takes about five minutes or less to fill out. Uh when you become a district partner, then you're eligible for a couple of interesting benefits. One thing is you will do a online or a face-to-face presentation for your parents to explain why they would potentially want to uh have their kids uh apply for Baylor TIP. Uh and then we'll we also are launching a something brand new uh this uh summer and that is if you're a district partner and we do a parent presentation for you and you have at least one kid test, we will provide you free
091online 30-hour training. Uh I I'll say that one more time. We will provide you free online 30-hour training uh that's already developed. Uh it's asynchronous, easy for you to make available for your teachers. uh we've designed it uh with a lot of integrity about what is expected uh in terms of the teacher standards for gifted students. Uh but if you are a district partner with active testing uh you will get free opportunities for the 30-hour training. Uh our online testing uh begins in September and it ends in March. That's why we just uh are finishing in March and about to have our um recognition ceremony which is like we advertise late spring and then the programs will begin for those students who just qualified in the summer. We do not the only two months of
092the year we don't test are July and August. That's usually when we're uh reviewing all of the item level data from a year of testing. And any items that don't work well on the test, we uh either modify or replace with uh better uh items. Uh so when as we build our partnerships uh we like to think of if you go back to if you think about the early slide I said optimal academic development requires uh multiple facets. The schools do a great job but we think of ourselves as a partner to actually achieve the optimal development for high ability kids. Uh our optimal development includes personalized plans, career and uh interest development uh and helping those students see their pathway from uh finishing high school into colleges and to careers. Uh one of the
093things that we do here at the uh at Baylor TIP and I'll be actually talking about this quite a bit in my keynote at TGT leadership uh next week and that's the science of exceptional performance. We think of gifted education as uh the science of exceptional performance. How do we learn uh this the uh details of how to take a student from potential to competence to mastery domain expertise and then exceptional performance uh in a domain. Uh time and intensity are what we think of as educational dose. And uh uh the theory of time and intensity uh is that the more time you spend uh the better you become at something, the more expertise you develop. And also combining that with the intensity of the curriculum, the more challenging and rigorous it is uh the
094more intense it is. So when you add time and intensity together, that's what leads to exceptional academic performances. Then you can see across the top the four factors that tend to uh influence how much or whether a student develops toward exceptional performance. Uh I'm super excited to work with a great team uh here in Waco. Uh we uh have we go all over the state uh putting up our Baylor tip uh booth. We've been at some school districts recently. We frequently go to conferences. We'll be at TGT leadership uh this weekend. and look forward to meeting you guys there. You're always welcome to come up and ask us questions. We love talking about our programs. Uh if you want cutting edge information, you can always go to our website. It's easy to find with a
095simple Google search. Uh but uh we also have a Facebook page for the Baylor Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. And our Instagram is BEu Gifted. And then you are uh you can also search up our hashtag Baylor tip. and that'll give you some uh uh you can see some things on X as well. But thank you Monica for letting me have a few minutes today just to talk about what we do. And I want to reiterate that uh the state plan says uh you should make sure you share these opportunities with parents and students in your community. That's what we ask when we create partnerships. We'll give you all the information so you can share uh with your families about what we're doing at Baylor. And if you become a district partner, we'll
096actually give uh online or in-person uh parent uh sessions so your parents can make informed decisions if they think it's a good opportunity for their kids. But thank you very much, Monica. It's great to see a lot of familiar faces here today and get to just share what we're doing. Like I said, our goal is to uh create transformative opportunities for kids. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Todd. Great information. And I have one last share information and this is kind of going back to what uh uh Peggy mentioned earlier is it's coming up on our summer PE submission. We just finished uh your uh spring submission with your end of February 1, March 1 uh date. So at this time make sure that your coordinators, your PES coordinators working with them, but also looking
097at making sure everyone is putting the GT coding into the uh SIS platform. So it's not necessarily your district's use uh system, but really what is being reported through PS through that platform. Make sure everyone is there, everything is up to date, all correction. So you might have a furlow student that was f that came off furlow in de in January. Have they been updated in the system? So making sure everything is moving correctly uh so that by the time the June report comes cuz we don't want anyone to lose funding y'all. Uh and as you saw from her example, 20 kids made a difference in their uh funding. So think about that as you're cleaning up your systems and your preparation for the fall uh for the summer and in June. But I want
098to say thank you for um those who are still with us and who are still here. And that is it for today. Our next meeting is in uh May because I know next month is testing and everyone might be everywhere in on your campus doing all kinds of roles and responsibilities. Um and then we also have GT leadership. So thank you for staying with me for a little longer than we typically do, but uh I think everyone got some beneficial information. I will be posting uh all of the uh provided information that I have uh so that you can get that at a later date. So have a great day, great weekend, have a great rest of your week and thank you for joining us today. Bye everyone.