Pasadena : Gifted to Get Help

Pasadena Unified School District has been chosen by Johns Hopkins University to inaugurate a nationwide program for gifted sixth-graders. In February, the first 40 students will begin the three-year program with special Saturday sessions. Next summer they will live for two weeks on campus at Scripps College in Claremont, where they will take special classes. The students will continue to take part in special education programs in the ninth grade. School board President Kathryn Nack said the students will be chosen on the basis of teacher evaluations and scores on Scholastic Achievement Tests. To qualify, they must represent the district’s ethnic and socioeconomic makeup and be identified as gifted but not performing up to their intellectual potential. Nack said the district will benefit because teachers will be trained for the program as well as having 40 students a year receiving an educational boost. She said Johns Hopkins chose Pasadena to pilot the program because it is an urban district with a “good ethnic and socioeconomic spread.”