Referral and Screening

2024-25 Gifted and Talented Program Referral Calendar (PDF)

Referrals for the Frisco ISD Gifted and Talented Program may be made by parents, teachers, counselors, community members, or peers. Students may be referred for screening each year during designated grade level referral windows. Before requesting a referral, parents are encouraged to review their child’s prior district testing data and reach out to their child’s classroom teacher(s) regarding their child’s academic strengths. Yearly referral windows will be posted on the Gifted and Talented Department webpage. FISD does not offer assessment services to the general public, only students enrolled and attending a Frisco ISD campus.

Objective and subjective data assessments are used for Gifted and Talented Program placement. Assessment tools may include, but are not limited to, the following: ability tests, achievement tests, planned grade level products (elementary only), grades (secondary only), and observation inventories completed by teachers and parents.

Frisco ISD is unable to use assessments conducted outside of a school environment such as those conducted by a private counselor or clinician when making decisions for gifted and talented placement.

Frisco ISD does not support test preparation courses and/or materials as they frequently skew test results making it far more difficult to determine appropriate placement for each student. It has been observed in some students that "practicing" for abilities and achievement tests results in test anxiety on the day of the test. Parents are encouraged to relay to their children that the test(s) they are taking will provide information to the school district about how to best provide for their educational needs.

Frisco ISD does not provide any information that may potentially invalidate student scores or pertinent information obtained from assessing our students. We have an agreement with our testing vendor to keep contents of the assessments secure and confidential. Providing form numbers and/or levels will diminish the integrity of the tests that we use.

Gifted and Talented Elementary and Secondary Referral Information

Students will take both an abilities test and an achievement test.

*Ability tests measure students’ ability to learn.

The Abilities Test is a nationally normed, standardized test. This assessment involves an instrument designed to assess a student's reasoning and problem solving abilities relative to the national normative data.

*Achievement tests measure what students have learned.

The Achievement Test is a nationally normed, standardized test. This assessment involves an instrument designed to assess a student's current academic achievement level relative to the national normative data.

*Abilities and Achievement assessments are subject to change from year to year.