Education Dive – Tara García Mathewson
“Like many districts nationwide, the Orlando-based Orange County Public Schools long identified gifted students through a referral process. Parents or teachers who suspected children of being gifted would recommend them for screening, and the district would assign services accordingly. During the 2012-13 school year, however, the Orange County Public Schools began a shift to universal screening. It started in its high-poverty schools, where students had historically been underrepresented in gifted programs. That first year, the portion of students being identified as gifted grew 7% from the year before. The next year, it grew another 5.6%.”(more)