Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)

  • Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) supports high ability and intellectually gifted students by providing testing and identification, information resources and enrichment activities.

    To learn more about our GATE program, please visit the GUSD website.

    Identification of Students

    Multiple measures are used to identify gifted and talented students. Students in 4th, 5th and 6th grades who achieve a specified benchmark in Mathematics and/or English Language Arts/Literacy on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) are invited to participate in further testing to determine whether they meet the gifted and talented criteria established by GUSD.

    Students who meet the CAASPP benchmark are invited to take the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, Eighth Edition (OLSAT 8). This test assesses a student’s ability to reason abstractly using verbal and nonverbal skills. The test is based on a student’s innate ability to reason: no preparation or instruction is necessary prior to testing. A student must score in the 92nd percentile or higher on the OLSAT in order to receive gifted and talented designation within GUSD.

    School-level Activities for GATE Students

    Although identification of GATE students is managed at the District level, programming and activities for gifted students are managed at the individual school level.  Individual school programming includes differentiated instruction in the regular classroom and/or before/after-school enrichment opportunities.

    District-level Activities for GATE Students

    Invention Convention – Glendale Unified School District (GUSD)

    Each fall, GUSD hosts an Invention Convention open to all GATE-identified fourth- through eighth-grade students. Students are invited to use their problem-solving and creative thinking skills to invent new products. Students display their inventions at the annual Invention Convention. Inventions are judged by a panel of community members, which in the past has included staff from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Awards are given out by grade level.


    Parent Meetings

    GUSD holds two meetings each year for parents of students who have been identified as meeting the District’s GATE criteria. These meetings feature guest speakers who have expertise in topics related to the education of gifted and talented students. Meetings are typically held in October and May.