The district provides an opportunity for students to be screened regardless of gender, socioeconomic, linguistic, cultural background, or disabilities.  Students in grades 3 and 4 may be referred for GATE evaluation by parents and/or the classroom teacher.  Students who are recommended for GATE will be assessed with the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT8).  Test scores, classroom work products, intelligence assessment tools, teacher evaluation, and parent questionnaire responses will be used to determine GATE eligibility. Once identified, students will be clustered in GATE classes throughout their elementary school experience.  All students, regardless of GATE identification, have access to Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes at the middle and high school levels. 

 If you are interested in requesting GATE testing for your child, please ask your child's 3rd grade teacher for a form at Goal Setting Conferences in October.  The test is administered to 3rd graders in February each year.  Parents of 4th graders may request testing from their child's teacher or contact our site GATE coordinator.   Parents will be notified of results by mail in late April/early May.

In San Marcos Unified School District, students are tested for GATE in 3rd grade.  Please wait until your child is in 3rd grade to receive the application for testing.  Applications are given out during parent teacher conferences in October.

Students in 4th grade may be referred by parents and/or classroom teachers at the beginning of the year.  This is a good conversation to have at parent conferences if you are interested in having your child tested for GATE.   4th grade testing is administered in March of each year.  If students qualify, they will be part of the program in 5th grade.

Students in 5th grade cannot be tested. We must do all testing the year before as a budget is created based on the number of students enrolled in the beginning of the school year.

Results from your child's test will be mailed home in late April/early May.  If you have not received the results by mid-May, please contact our site GATE coordinator Susan Smith at susan.smith@smusd.org.

 If your child recently qualified for GATE, services will begin next school year.  In the fall, students are provided an interest survey and a Parent Night is held in October.  Our programs are built around input from students and families and occur throughout the school year.

There are two parts of our GATE program at LCM.  Most of the differentiation your child will receive will take place within their regular classroom.  GATE students are "clustered" in a classroom with a GATE-certified teacher.  This means the teacher is specially trained and has the skills, strategies, and tools to help meet the needs of their GATE students.

In addition, GATE students will have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities that take place before and after school, or at lunch.  All of these activities are optional and are planned according to student interest.  There isn't a specific GATE class during the school day.  Students are not pulled from class for special learning classes.  Information about these enrichment activities will be shared at the Parent Night and emailed to parents as they become available.  

All GATE students are clustered into groups and placed in a classroom with a GATE certified teacher.  On average, we have about 30-40 fourth and fifth graders in our GATE program each year.  At LCM, we do not make a class of only GATE students.  Instead, GATE students are placed in classrooms with other students, and the teacher implements a variety of creative strategies and appropriate instructional techniques to address the needs of their GATE students.  GATE students can build on their leadership skills as they become mentors to their peers while still collaborating with fellow GATE students. 

ALL students at LCM benefit from flexible learning groups and differentiated instruction based on individual student needs, beginning on the first day of school.   Sometimes the differentiation isn't even noticed by the students.  Some teachers group their GATE students together for reading/math rotations or offer enriching and challenging projects to help engage and stimulate them.   Difficulty of text or math problems are leveled for students while addressing the same learning standard.  Some students are offered individualized learning contracts based on pre-assessment or enrichment work once mastery is shown.

One of the common signs of a gifted student is boredom with typical classroom tasks.  Along with gifts and talents, GATE students often have their own challenges.  A common goal for gifted students is to work on the life skill of being able to complete tasks. In order to work ahead or receive higher instruction, students must first be evaluated on their mastery of required standards.  If they don't complete their assessed work "because they're bored", they will need to continue work on that skill until mastery is shown. By working through what they perceive as tiresome, they open the door to more interesting opportunities for learning.  If they ARE showing mastery and still feel like they aren't being challenged, have your child take the initiative for their own learning.  What would they like to do for learning?  Have your child take the initiative to propose a project to work on in class when they finish their required work.  Teachers and parents are often overwhelmed trying to challenge and interest their gifted children; when students propose their own ideas of interest, they benefit from being able to work on something they will enjoy and the teachers and parents won't have to guess at what will excite them.

We highly recommend that if your child has qualified for GATE services, that they be part of the program. This will provide opportunities to attend enrichment activities that are not open to all students.  Their 4th and 5th grade teacher will also have proper documentation to differentiate learning activities within the classroom.