Got Gifted?

Imagine having 10 percent of your student population qualify for gifted education services, yet not having a teacher to serve them. Unfortunately, many districts in Missouri face this challenge right now. In fact, a startling 60 percent of Missouri school districts do not have a state-approved gifted education program. Rather than seeing gifted opportunities expand, as they should, we’ve seen entire programs dissolve. Opportunities for hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of students have been lost.

Launch is here to help. In alignment with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Launch offers virtual gifted education opportunities for students in grades 1-8. Turn the page to learn more about what DESE requires districts to offer students and how we can help your district serve this special population.

first things first

Appropriate screening can help ensure you identify all gifted learners in your district.

Who is the gifted learner?
That depends who you ask! Ask any Grandma, and they’ll promise you their grandchild ranks at the top of the class. But in the state’s eyes, it looks a little different.

Section 162.675, RSMo, defines gifted children as “those children who exhibit precocious development of mental capacity and learning potential as determined by competent professional evaluation to the extent that continued educational growth and stimulation could best be served by an academic environment beyond that offered through a standard grade-level curriculum.”

Now, we know what you’re thinking—you need to be gifted to understand the above, right? To help us out, the state also broke it down, stating that a gifted learner is one who:

Exhibits precocious capacity and learning potential;
Is identified by competent professionals; and
Needs an academic environment beyond standard grade-level curriculum

How can you identify the gifted learners in your district?
To best serve your district’s gifted population, you have to identify all qualifying students. This process begins with universal screening, ideally for grades K-12. Next up, districts should consider 10 to 20 percent of their student population for further evaluation, and then approximately 10 percent should be evaluated individually. For the final step, approximately five percent of students should be selected to participate in gifted programming.

As for what screenings and tests your district should utilize, you have options. Find a complete list of DESE’s approved tests, as well as additional information on the above process, in Appendix G of DESE’s Gifted Education Program Guidelines (available for download at dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/gifted-education)

how launch can help

As districts work to find solutions for these new laws, Launch is here to help.

A Band-Aid. While no one expects your district to develop a full-fledged gifted program overnight, your students shouldn’t have to wait. Start your screening process as soon as possible, and enroll students in Launch’s gifted courses until you get your own program established.

A Gap-Filler. Perhaps your gifted program is in the process of being built—you have elementary offerings, but you haven’t quite figured out your middle school programming yet. You can pick and choose which courses to offer virtually to accompany the courses you have available seated.

An Entire Solution. Maybe you know there’s no way you can build out gifted programming—or at least, not this year. That’s okay! We have openings, and you can enroll all of your gifted students with us for grades 1-8.

legislation station

We spoke with Christine Nobbe, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Director of Gifted Education, to learn the latest legislation updates for gifted programming.

What Once Was
Gifted education opportunities first became available to Missouri students in 1973. And while a 50+ year history of providing programs is—in many ways—a blessing, the original state statute was in dire need of an update. “In the past, there were financial incentives for districts who offered gifted programming,” says Christine Nobbe, DESE’s Director of Gifted Education. “But in the 2005-2006 school year, gifted funding was folded into the foundation formula.”

Following this change (and despite efforts from the Gifted Association of Missouri and the Advisory Council on the Education of Gifted and Talented Children), districts started dropping their gifted programming. And the problem kept getting worse. In fact, a startling fact came to the surface in recent years—60% of Missouri school districts do not offer gifted programming. It is time for change.

Changes in the Law
Beginning with the 2024-25 school year, Missouri’s updated gifted programming legislation has two major changes. The first change reads: For the school year 2024-2025 and all subsequent school years, if 3% or more of students enrolled in a school district are identified as gifted, the district shall establish a gifted program.

The word “shall” is important here, as this portion of the legislation used to read “may.” With this change, gifted programming is now required to be offered for students in districts where more than 3% of learners are identified as gifted.

The second major change in the law regards the certification of gifted teachers. Prior to the updates, the law said that teachers instructing gifted programming must be certified as gifted teachers. Now, the law reads: for 2024-2025 and beyond, any teacher providing services in a district with average daily attendance of more than 350 students must be certified for gifted, however, teachers in districts with attendance of 350 or fewer students do not have to be certificated, but should annually focus on six hours of development related to gifted programming.

This change allows smaller districts to offer gifted programming without dedicated, certified gifted teachers. “At the time this was passed, we had 217 districts with 350 or fewer students,” Nobbe says. By partnering with Launch, these smaller districts can still offer students courses with a certified gifted teacher.

a teacher's perspective:

Launch gifted teacher Kristen Wiggam shares a few benefits of Launch’s gifted courses.

Social Emotional Development. “Schools offer social emotional lessons with their counselors,” Wiggam says. “We take a lot of those same topics—empathy, communication, those types of things—and we tailor them for the gifted brain.”

Student Connections. “These courses give students statewide the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals,” Wiggam says. “Those relationships are so important for—maybe even crucial—for their development.”

New knowledge. “We work to pick topics that are interesting and provide students with a wealth of knowledge about them,” Wiggam says. “We’re giving them access and exposure to things they may otherwise never know about.”

launch's gifted offerings

We spoke with Christine Nobbe, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Director of Gifted Education, to learn the latest legislation updates for gifted programming.

Program Overview
Launch began offering gifted programming in Fall 2021. The courses are written by a team of Launch instructional course developers and gifted educators from the Phelps Center for Gifted Education in Springfield. And there’s a lot of passion behind the process. “Gifted education is an intervention, similar to Special Education courses,” says Dr. Lenae Lazzelle, Gifted Education Director for Springfield Public Schools. “Our courses are intentionally designed to tap into each student’s unique strengths through acceleration, differentiation, and talent development. These courses are crafted to serve students’ cognitive, behavioral, and affective needs.”

Dr. Lazzelle is particularly excited about Launch’s ability to help districts as they work to meet the new state legislation. “While Launch has the ability to provide high-quality gifted services to districts statewide, our part is particularly important in those small districts of fewer than 350 students,” Dr. Lazzelle says. “Those districts are not required to hire a teacher certified in gifted, and the fact that we can help them to serve their gifted population—that is huge.”

Launch Liftoff!

Do you have students who don’t qualify for gifted services, but could still use an extra challenge?

Launch Liftoff provides learners in grades 1-5 virtual enrichment opportunities designed by Springfield Public Schools gifted faculty and delivered by Launch Virtual Learning!

When: Courses start September 16. Students can participate independently during the school day, or outside of school hours.

Where: Online, of course!

Years of Experience

Now a freshman, 14-year-old Brianna Chay has been a full-time Launch student since sixth grade—and she’s taken Launch’s gifted classes the entire time.

Bright, bubbly and a budding author—in fact, she just published her second book—Brianna Chay describes her experience with Launch gifted courses as both positive and enjoyable. “We studied advanced material, and at the same time we were presented with new challenges,” Brianna says. “Each time, it was a very nice experience that I really enjoyed.”

Brianna says she likes how the courses have new themes each semester, as they present her with new topics that ‘expand her mind.’ “My most recent course was Cryptography,” Brianna says. “I liked that in this class, I was able to work as much or more on paper than on my Chromebook.”

But it doesn’t stop there. “Really, I have found that these classes every year are just as much about analysis,” Brianna says. “Through this analysis and learning to analyze, we are expanding our brains, and we are growing our brains, and we are teaching our brains to learn in different ways. Really, this is helpful in so much more than gifted classes—this is helpful in math courses and science courses and all of our other courses—really, it is helpful in all aspects of life.”

An Online Addition

Conrad, a full-time second grader at Springfield’s Hickory Hills Elementary School, engaged in Launch’s gifted class after hours.

While Conrad spent his school days sitting in a traditional classroom at Springfield’s Hickory Hills Elementary last year, he took a deeper dive into learning after hours with Launch’s 1-3 gifted course. “He’s a bright kid, and Launch gave us an easy way to enrich his educational experience,” says Conrad’s mom, Brittany Allen. “The program provided additional challenges for him in fun and engaging ways.”

As Conrad thinks back on his time in Launch’s gifted classes, a few things stand out. “My favorite thing about it was logging into the live Zoom meetings,” Conrad says. “I liked them, because we’d get to be with other kids on the call, and we would all get to do stuff together.”

Conrad was in second grade during his gifted class experience, and his favorite activities usually involved playing games—particularly a game called “Rush Hour.” “That game really fed his interest in logic and puzzles,” Brittany says. Conrad agrees. “It was really fun,” Conrad says. “I want to do it again next year.”

Out of the Gate

Pranavi, a rising fifth grader at Fort Zumwalt’s Pheasant Point Elementary School, took Launch’s gifted courses in their inaugural year.

Pranavi, a rising fifth grader at Fort Zumwalt’s Pheasant Point Elementary School, enrolled in Launch’s gifted courses the first year they became available. “She really enjoyed it at the time,” says Padma, Pranavi’s mom. “They learned so many interesting things—they learned everything from math concepts and science concepts, and they even had activities like handwriting analysis and crime scene investigations.”

Pranavi also has fond memories of the class, with her favorite experiences being the times she got to exercise the creative parts of her brain. “We had to make up a funny story about a crime scene, and then discuss how something went missing from that crime scene,” Pranavi says. “And you had to draw clues of who could be the thief.”

Pranavi is now back in traditional school full-time and attends gifted courses through Pheasant Point, but both she and her mom were happy to have Launch’s gifted courses available when Pranavi was not attending in-person classes. “It was great for us at the time,” Padma says. “She had a very great experience.”