Gifted & Talented

District Six Horizons-Academically Gifted and Talented Program

Spartanburg School District Six has a distinguished history of providing high-quality gifted and talented education. The Horizons Program is purposefully designed to address the unique academic needs of gifted and talented students. District Six remains steadfast in its commitment to challenging all learners to realize their fullest potential. The district’s gifted programming reflects a belief in offering a comprehensive continuum of specialized services that cultivate intellectual capacity and creativity. Horizons classes emphasize advanced critical and creative thinking skills within an interdisciplinary framework. Depending on the developmental level of each identified student, services may include interest assessments, exploratory learning opportunities, curriculum compacting and differentiation, process skill instruction, curriculum acceleration, mentoring, access to advanced technologies, and opportunities for in-depth research and inquiry.

Rationale for the Academically Gifted Program

The Horizons Program of Spartanburg School District Six provides comprehensive gifted and talented education designed to meet the unique academic and developmental needs of advanced learners. This program is founded on a shared belief in recognizing and supporting the distinctive nature, potential, and learning characteristics of gifted students through differentiated curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Aligned with the district’s commitment to fostering both academic excellence and personal growth for every student, the Horizons Program acknowledges that gifted students come from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. These learners possess exceptional abilities and potential that distinguish them from their peers, necessitating a qualitatively different educational experience. To nurture their intellectual and creative development, District Six offers programming that extends beyond the general curriculum in complexity, depth, and pace—challenging students to reach their highest potential.

The South Carolina State Board of Education recognizes the importance of providing gifted education services to identified students, stating:

“Gifted and talented students are those who are identified as demonstrating high performance ability or potential in academic and/or artistic areas. These students require an educational program beyond that normally provided by the general school program in order to achieve their potential.”

The mission of the Horizons Program is to deliver a differentiated curriculum and personalized support system that enables gifted learners to achieve district goals at a level commensurate with their abilities. Students are encouraged to apply their knowledge and skills in complex and advanced ways, fostering continued academic growth and intellectual curiosity. The program’s goals emphasize providing structure, guidance, and enrichment opportunities that promote problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking.

Ultimately, the Horizons Program seeks to equip gifted students with a strong foundation of knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to lead productive, purposeful, and fulfilling lives—as lifelong learners, contributors to the workforce, and responsible citizens within their communities.

National Association for Gifted Children - NAGC

NAGC’s Definition of Giftedness:

Students with gifts and talents perform - or have the capability to perform - at higher levels compared to others of the same age, experience, and environment in one or more domains. They require modification(s) to their educational experience(s) to learn and realize their potential. Student with gifts and talents:

• Come from all racial, ethnic, and cultural populations, as well as all economic strata.

• Require sufficient access to appropriate learning opportunities to realize their potential.

• Can have learning and processing disorders that require specialized intervention and accommodation.

• Need support and guidance to develop socially and emotionally as well as in their areas of talent.

• Require varied services based on their changing needs.

United States Department of Education - Gifted Characteristics

Cognitive Characteristics of Intellectually Gifted Students

• Process and retain large amounts of information

• Comprehend materials at advanced levels

• Curious and have varied and sometimes intense interests

• High levels of language development and verbal ability

• Possess accelerated and flexible thought processes

• Early ability to delay closure of projects

• See unusual relationships among disciplines or objects

• Adept at generating original ideas and solutions to problems

• Persistent, goal-oriented, and intense on topics of interest

• Form their own ways of thinking about problems and ideas

• Learn things at an earlier age than peers

• Need for freedom and individuality in learning situations

• High desire to learn and seek out their own interests

• Abstract thinkers at an earlier age than peers

• Prefer complex and challenging work

• Transfer knowledge and apply it to new situations

• May prefer to work alone

• May be early readers

• May possess high energy levels and longer attention spans

(Chuska 1989; Clark 2002; Silverman 2000; Winebrenner 2001)

Affective Characteristics of Intellectually Gifted Students

• Possess large amounts of information about emotions

• May possess an unusual sensitivity to the feelings of others

• Possess a keen or subtle sense of humor

• Possess a heightened sense of self-awareness

• Idealism and sense of justice appear at an early age

• Develop inner controls early

• Possess unusual emotional depth and intensity

• Exhibit high expectations of self and others

• Display a strong need for consistency in themselves and others

• Possess advanced levels of moral judgment

(Chuska 1989; Clark 2002; Silverman 2000; Winebrenner 2001)

Identification in South Carolina

Academic Screening Dimensions for Identification

The only acceptable measures are those specified in each dimension in Regulation 43-220. Private test results cannot be used for determining student eligibility, although they may be considered for referral purposes.

Dimension A: Reasoning Abilities Reasoning abilities are those higher-level cognitive processes that reflect general aptitude for thought – strategies such as inferring, analyzing, and problem solving. For the purposes of identifying students with high potential in this area, nationally normed individual or group aptitude tests must be employed. Students must demonstrate high aptitude (93rd national age percentile or above) in one or more of the following areas: verbal/linguistic, quantitative/mathematical, nonverbal, and/or a composite score.

Dimension B: High Achievement in Reading and/or Mathematics The term achievement refers to academic performance in the areas of reading and/or mathematics. Students must demonstrate high achievement in at least one of these areas as measured by nationally normed achievement tests or by South Carolina statewide assessment instruments. The term high achievement is defined as the 94th percentile or above on the nationally normed tests, or at or above the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE)- determined gifted cut scores for statewide assessments.

Dimension C: Intellectual/Academic Performance Intellectual/academic performance is defined as the student’s demonstration of a high degree of interest in and commitment to intellectual pursuits. Students may also demonstrate intellectual characteristics such as curiosity/inquiry, reflection, persistence/tenacity in the face of challenge, and creative productive thinking. The acceptable measure for placement in grades one through six are the verbal or nonverbal assessments of the South Carolina Performance Task Assessments.*

*For students entering grades six through twelve, Dimension C may also be met using grade point average (GPA) of 3.75 or higher on a standard 4.0 scale in the academic content areas (English, math, science, social studies, and year-long world language).

Elementary Gifted and Talented Program Model in Spartanburg District Six

The Spartanburg School District Six Elementary Gifted and Talented Program is designed to meet the unique academic, creative, and social-emotional needs of students identified as academically gifted. Students in grades 3–5 participate in a full-day pull-out program, attending gifted classes one full day each week with a certified Teacher of the Gifted and Talented. During this time, students engage in rigorous, standards-based learning experiences that extend beyond the traditional classroom curriculum through advanced content, inquiry-based instruction, problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and real-world applications.

Our program is intentionally designed to provide learning experiences that challenge gifted learners at an appropriate level of complexity while allowing them to learn alongside intellectual peers. Instruction emphasizes critical and creative thinking, research, communication, leadership, and innovation through interdisciplinary units, STEM investigations, social and emotional development, simulations, and authentic projects. Students are encouraged to ask meaningful questions, explore multiple perspectives, take intellectual risks, and develop the habits of lifelong learners.

The full-day pull-out model is recognized as one of the most effective service options for gifted learners because it provides uninterrupted time for meaningful exploration and advanced learning. Rather than limiting instruction to brief enrichment periods, a full day allows students to become deeply engaged in complex investigations, complete long-term projects, participate in collaborative discussions, and experience authentic problem-solving without the interruptions of a traditional school schedule.

This service model offers several important benefits:

Appropriate Academic Challenge: Students receive instruction that is differentiated in pace, depth, complexity, and abstraction, helping them reach their full potential.
Intellectual Peer Grouping: Learning alongside other gifted students encourages meaningful discussions, collaboration, and healthy academic risk-taking while reducing feelings of isolation that gifted students sometimes experience.
Depth Over Coverage: Extended instructional time allows students to investigate topics thoroughly, conduct research, design solutions, and produce high-quality products that would not be possible in shorter instructional periods.
Development of Higher-Level Thinking: Lessons are intentionally designed to foster critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving through authentic, open-ended challenges.
Social and Emotional Growth: Gifted students benefit from spending time with peers who share similar interests, abilities, and learning styles, supporting confidence, resilience, leadership, and positive peer relationships.
Connection to Real-World Learning: Students apply their knowledge to meaningful issues through inquiry, engineering design challenges, research, and community connections that prepare them for future academic success.

The Gifted and Talented Program works in partnership with classroom teachers and families to ensure students continue to excel both in their regular classrooms and in gifted services. Together, we strive to cultivate curiosity, creativity, leadership, and a passion for learning while providing an educational experience that inspires students to reach beyond expectations and maximize their potential.

District Six Horizons Field Studies

Field trips play a vital role in the Horizons Program by extending learning beyond the traditional classroom and providing authentic, real-world experiences that deepen understanding of grade-level content. These experiences are carefully aligned with academic standards and interdisciplinary units to enrich and extend students’ knowledge through meaningful application. For gifted and talented learners, field trips foster intellectual curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking by connecting abstract concepts to tangible, real-world contexts. Through these purposeful learning opportunities, students are encouraged to make connections across disciplines, engage in problem-solving, and develop a broader understanding of how their academic learning relates to the world around them.

Artist-in-Residence

The Horizons Program hosts two Artists-in-Residence each year to nurture creativity and provide students with opportunities to explore diverse artistic mediums. Through hands-on experiences and direct interaction with professional artists, students are encouraged to think creatively, experiment with new techniques, and express their ideas in innovative ways. These residencies enrich the gifted curriculum by integrating the arts with academic learning, fostering critical and creative thinking, and inspiring students to appreciate multiple forms of artistic expression while deepening their understanding of the creative process.

Guest Speakers and Interdisciplinary Learning

The Horizons Program incorporates guest speakers as an integral part of its interdisciplinary units of study. By engaging with professionals and experts from various fields, students gain real-world perspectives that deepen their understanding of complex concepts and strengthen connections across disciplines. These experiences enhance classroom learning by illustrating how knowledge and skills intersect in authentic contexts, inspiring students to apply critical and creative thinking beyond the classroom setting.

Snapshot of Horizons