Does My Child Need Services?
Bellevue Public Schools HAL Services
Nebraska State Vision for HAL Students:
All gifted and talented students in Nebraska have meaningful opportunities for academic and personal growth commensurate with their abilities as well as career development to actualize their full potential and become lifelong learners who are college, career, and civic-ready.
High Ability Learners (HAL)
The Nebraska Department of Education utilizes the term "High Ability Learner" for gifted and talented students. According to Rule 3, a "Learner with high ability means a student who gives evidence of high performance capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, or artistic capacity or in specific academic fields who requires accelerated or differentiated curriculum programs in order to develop those capabilities fully.
Ability vs. Achievement
Think for a minute about Michael Phelps. He is one of the most successful and decorated Olympians of all time with a total of 28 medals. Setting record upon record, he could very well go down in history as the best American athlete of all-time.
Michael Phelps was born with unique characteristics that give him an advantage in competitive swimming. Many attribute his success to four main characteristics: exceptional lung capacity, a large wingspan, relatively short legs, and a long torso.
He has a natural capacity to be an exceptional swimmer because of the way his body is built. However, he also had great coaches who pushed him to perfect his swimming technique.
This is similar to identified gifted/talented students. They may have the ability to learn faster or deeper, but they need a "coach" to help them reach their full potential.
Consider if you had the same coach as Michael Phelps? Would you have Olympic gold medals? Most of us do not have his capacity or ability. Having the same coach wouldn't guarantee we would become Olympic swimmers.
This analogy can be applied to the high-achieving students we have in our schools who do not qualify for gifted/talented services. While they may excel academically, they do not have a demonstrated need for specialized support.
Need for HAL Services
Because a school district is tasked with educating students, gifted/talented services are provided to students who have instructional needs beyond the scope of the general education classroom.
Sometimes that means adding more complexity or rigor to the core curriculum, like enriching a lesson or specific unit of study.
It might also mean that a student spends time throughout the week working on a variety of activities, including understanding who they are as gifted learners, conducting research, developing executive functioning skills, and fostering critical & creative thinking.
Students identified as gifted/talented in the U.S. make up approximately six to ten percent of the total student population, so by its very nature, only a small portion of students will be eligible for services.
More Than Grades
Receiving good grades in class does not necessarily mean a student requires HAL services. It isn't about the grades students receive, it's more about the types of learning experiences students need.
Service Needs
While many students may benefit from specialized services, Bellevue's service model is designed for students who have a demonstrated academic need.
Student Engagement
Bored is a term students often use to describe various feelings, including feeling disengaged, overwhelmed, or even disinterested. Such feelings do not necessarily indicate a need for HAL services.
High Ability Learner (HAL) vs. High Achiever
High-achieving students are often noticed for their on-time, neat, well-developed, and correct learning products. Adults comment on these students' consistent high grades and note how well they acclimate to class procedures and discussions. Some may assume these students are gifted because their school-appropriate behaviors and products surface above the typical responses of grade-level students.
While high achievers are valuable participants whose high-level modeling is welcomed in classes, they learn differently from gifted learners. In situations in which they are respected and encouraged, gifted students' thinking is more complex with abstract inferences and more diverse perceptions than is typical of high achievers.
Gifted learners demonstrate certain attributes (advanced language, analytical thinking, perspective, meaning motivation, sensitivity, sense of humor, and accelerated learning) more often, and to a greater degree, than their same age peers.
BPS HAL Services
Our vision is to effectively meet the academic and affective needs of high-ability learners through a variety of services based on student needs.
Bellevue Public Schools
2600 Arboretum Dr.
Bellevue, NE 68005