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The School District of Wisconsin Rapids does not exclude any student population (based on gender, socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity) from receiving gifted-talents educational services. We have strived to promote inclusionary approaches to increase equity and access to gifted education opportunities. These approaches include (but are not limited to): inventories and checklists, information from students, teachers, parents and counselors, interviews, testing/accommodations performed in preferred language, performance evaluation and IQ tests.
Furthermore, we embrace students that are twice exceptional are pride ourselves on meeting those unique needs as well. Twice exceptional individuals have a gift or talent as well as a disabling trait that affects learning due to cognitive processes, socio-emotional behavior, and/or other health impairment. Yet, they are often able to conceptualize rapidly, reason abstractly, and solve novel problems as autonomously high ability, non-disabled students do. In many cases, the exceptionally disguises the giftedness and conversely, some gifted students are able to mask their disability. Twice exceptional students tend to perceive themselves as deficient more frequently in the academic areas, which in turn increases their desire to avoid school tasks. This may result in behaviors perceived as carelessness, aggressiveness, disruptive classroom behavior, and deficiency in tasks involving memory and perceptual abilities, which may hinder gifted identification. History has shown a host of twice exceptional individuals who have struggled in an educational setting but are recognized for lifetime achievements. Inventors, leaders, actors, writers, and visionaries such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stevie Wonder, Helen Keller, Robin Williams and Emily Dickinson are just a few examples.
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