The Kirkwood REACH/SOAR Programs are designed to support the learning needs of students who possess significantly advanced knowledge and highly developed learning capabilities.  These learners demonstrate the capacity to handle curricular content at a rapid pace and at advanced levels of abstractness, complexity, and independence, the desire to explore open-ended problems in significant depth, the tendency to ask difficult questions and to imagine new possibilities.  Such learners are found in all of our schools and in all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.  These students require rigorous and challenging curriculum and learning opportunities that match their advanced learning potential in order to achieve the personal goals and academic success of which they are capable.

Rationale

The primary purpose of our REACH/SOAR programs are to support high levels of student achievement as defined by the Kirkwood Curricula and the Missouri Show-Me Standards. The REACH/SOAR programs will address this purpose by facilitating opportunities for students with advanced learning capabilities to

•  engage in expert-like inquiry, research, problem solving, and creative production related to rigorous multi-disciplinary curricular content

•  explore personal interests, passions, and talents at a depth of knowledge beyond what can be experienced in the general classroom

•  develop an understanding of self as well as the similarities and differences among all learners .

Program Goals

¬Support mastery of district curriculum at a pace and depth appropriate to the capacity of advanced learners

¬Facilitate essential understandings of curricular-based systems of knowledge, macro-concepts, issues and problems that frame the external world

¬Develop advanced levels of  communication skills

¬Provide learning experiences which stimulate advanced levels of divergent thinking and critical reflection

¬Develop research skills and methods progressing toward professional expertise

¬Provide a community where advanced learners develop self-awareness of their unique social-emotional needs and learning passions

Eligibility

All students are considered in the screening process for REACH/SOAR.  Classroom teachers observe student performance both in and out of the regular classroom for signs of highly advanced readiness and learning potential. Grade level teams and REACH/SOAR teachers review available achievement scores and other examples of student performance to determine the appropriateness of further assessment in the areas of creativity, reasoning, problem solving, achievement, cognitive/mental capability, and gifted characteristics. Students who meet eligibility criteria in 3 out of 4 areas of giftedness are eligible to participate in REACH/SOAR classes.

Services

The REACH Program provides differentiated learning opportunities for students in grades K-5 who demonstrate highly advanced learning capability.  Services offered include REACH Challenge Classes, Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) and Collaboration and Differentiation Support for teachers of students with advanced readiness.

REACH Classes are designed for students who demonstrate exceptionally advanced capability in critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and depth of knowledge as well as a rapid rate of acquiring grade-level curriculum.

Screening and Evaluation Timeline

September - October – Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

October - November – Kindergarten

February – May – Grades 1, 2, 3, Kindergarten

4th and 5th grades who scored “advanced” and in the 96%ile in both the Communication Arts and Math sections of the MAP test will be considered for eligibility testing.

A variety of identification tools for accessing these four areas of giftedness will be used. Assessors will select assessment tools which best assess a student's strengths and may include the use of non-traditional measures with students whose giftedness can not appropriately be assessed using standard assessment instruments due to assessment issues related to poverty, race, or disability.

Once a student has qualified for REACH Challenge classes, he or she will not need to re-qualify annually in order to continue in the elementary REACH Challenge Program.