Champaign Unit 4 will soon conduct testing for placement in gifted classes for the 2016-17 school year, including private school students.
Applications are available for students who are in first grade through fourth grade. Students must be residents of Champaign and must have completed an application. (All first grade students in Unit 4 were tested earlier this year and results were mailed to parents last week.)
Private school students should contact Unit 4’s gifted department for an application.
Jaime Roundtree, director of teaching and learning for Unit 4, said entrance in the district’s gifted classes will be determined through testing. Private school students will test at the Mellon Administrative Center and will notified by mail for the time and date of testing following receipt of a completed application.
“Qualifications are based on the results of the gifted testing,” Roundtree said. “In the past we may have had other things happen, but for the most part we always look at the criteria for the test.”
Last year 31 private school students took the test and 12 were accepted into the program. The previous year 27 were tested and 10 qualified for gifted classes.
The gifted program for grades 2-5 takes place at these schools in the district: Booker T. Washington, Dr. Howard, Kenwood, Garden Hills and Stratton.
A gifted program information meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Mellon building at 703 S. New St. All current and private school parents are welcome.
Deadline for applications is Jan. 8. They should be submitted to Roundtree at the Mellon Center.