Elementary Integrated Cluster

In our Integrated Highly Capable Cluster service delivery model, students who receive highly capable services are clustered in groups of at least seven students with grade level peers in classrooms at their neighborhood school. This allows the teacher to provide small group differentiated instruction for the group of students who qualify for highly capable services. In a differentiated classroom, the teacher routinely performs quick, formative assessments to determine the ongoing needs of the student and where the instruction might be modified, if necessary, to enhance student learning. Instruction is designed to meet students’ cognitive and academic needs at the appropriate level by accelerating and enriching the standard curriculum. Academic growth and social/emotional safety have the highest priority.

We follow four guiding principles for highly capable services:  

1. Whole child focus:  Support for academic, creative, and social-emotional development fostering a growth mindset.
2. Not “one size fits all”:  Highly Capable qualified students have diverse needs and unique challenges, in addition to high cognitive capability and/or academic achievement.  Often this requires the collaboration of teams across programs to meet the needs of individual learners.
3. Not more work, different work:  Developing innovative, creative, and critical thinkers through access to advanced learning standards with appropriate depth and rigor.

Equity:  Equitable access to HiCap services for all students who qualify.  Ability and talent are equally distributed, opportunity is not.  All students, regardless of race, income, culture, special needs, or support program, have the potential to qualify for advanced learning services when given equitable opportunity with culturally and linguistically accessible instruments and an unbiased qualification system.

Students who qualify for highly capable services in math will continue to receive accelerated math instruction. Math services may be implemented via a math rotation, walk-to model, or online program with support from an NSD teacher. Students who qualify for highly capable services in reading receive a combination of whole group and small group instruction. Students have access to above-grade level texts while being taught standards-based curriculum. Additionally, students participate in skill based, flexible groups to support development of spelling and phonics skills.

Teachers continue to participate in ongoing professional development in the areas of differentiating math and ELA instruction to support highly capable students. 

The Integrated Highly Capable Cluster service model is offered at nearly all neighborhood elementary schools, and we are working towards offering it at every neighborhood elementary school soon.

Please visit the Services Models webpage to learn which schools and grades offer the Integrated Highly Capable Cluster service delivery model.