An indepth look into the ways that DeKalb County students are identified for the district’s gifted program has resulted in changes that have made the process more inclusive.

According to Dr. Norman Sauce, chief of student services for the DeKalb County School District, altering the frequency of screenings and changing the criteria by which potentially gifted students are identified tripled the number of eligible students.

Last spring, more than 2,092 students were identified for gifted testing, a 47 percent increase from the past year. In 2023, the system had 9,953 gifted students that included 1,497 newly identified candidates.

“The number of students identified using the former method [once-a-year MAP assessment] resulted in a stark disproportionality of students” who qualified for gi

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