Academically Gifted

Eligibility for AG services is determined once the student has officially enrolled in Guilford County Schools (GCS).  After your child’s enrollment, contact the school’s chairperson of the Team for Academically Gifted (TAG).  At the elementary level, the TAG Chairperson is the school’s assigned AG Teacher. Upon enrollment, be prepared to present the following to the school’s TAG Chairperson:

• Current grades
• Most recent aptitude data from a nationally normed assessment administered within the past 36 months
• Most recent summative reading and/or mathematics achievement data from an assessment that was administered within the past 12 months

Other parameters that are considered:

• For students transferring from another NC public school district, GCS offers reciprocal AG identification provided the student was identified in the 3^rd grade or later. 
• For students transferring from a NC charter school, reciprocal AG identification is available only if (1) the NC charter schools have an approved AIG Plan on file with the NCDPI and (2) the student was identified in 3^rd grade or later. 
• For students transferring from an out-of-state public school, eligibility is determined upon a review of the student’s academic record.  The AG Department will consider the data from current assessments that were administered by the student’s previous school as long as the score is reported as a percentile score that compares the student to either national norms or state norms for the state in which the assessment was administered.
• For students transferring from private schools or home schools, eligibility is determined upon a review of the student’s academic record.  The AG Department will consider the data from current assessments that are: (1) nationally normed; (2) reported by the test publisher; and (3) administered in a secure group setting in which the parent, close family, or close family acquaintance was not the test administrator.

For all newly enrolled students, if the AG Department is unable to determine the validity of the test data that is being reviewed for AG eligibility, the department reserves the right to wait until the next AG assessment window to either administer assessments or review the data from summative assessments administered by GCS.  In most cases, private testing for AG eligibility is not an option until the student has had the opportunity to take the corresponding GCS-administered assessment.  However, at the discretion of the AG Department, a student may be approved for private testing based on the data the parent/guardian shares from assessments administered by the student’s previous school.  All questions regarding private testing should be directed to the school’s TAG Chairperson.

The VS program is the district’s self-contained, full-time service for students who highly academically and intellectually gifted.  VS services are available in grades 4 – 8 and are offered only at the Academy at Lincoln. To receive VS services, the student must meet the following criteria: 

Applications to the VS Program are accepted annually during the district’s Choice Schools Application Window.  Due to the additional testing that may be required to determine a student’s eligibility for VS services, the deadline to apply for the VS Program may differ from the district-wide Choice Schools Application window.  The deadline for VS applications will be stated on this page as well as the VS @ The Academy at Lincoln webpage. 

To express your interest in determining your child’s eligibility for VS services, please click on one of the links below to access the electronic form being used to gather interest. 

• Click here to submit a request for VS eligibility determination to be conducted during the district’s Choice Schools Application Window (October 9 - November 15, 2024).  

• Click here to submit a late request for VS eligibility determination to be conducted after the close of the district’s Choice Schools Application Window (after November 15, 2024). We anticipate that this link will be active beginning May 13, 2025.

When a request is received, the AG Department will work with the child’s parent/guardian to obtain data from the child’s current school that can be used to determine their eligibility for VS services.  All data from the child’s current school must be submitted directly to the AG Department by the child’s current school.  The AG Department will not accept data that has been submitted directly by the parent/guardian.  All data must be received by the deadlines that will be communicated to the parent/guardian.

• For students currently enrolled in an NC public school or NC charter school: The AG Department expects that the child’s school will be able to share information regarding the child’s performance on the most recently administered state required assessment (i.e., all End-of-Grade assessments; Beginning-of-Grade 3 Reading).  When the school is unable to share such data, a representative from the school must provide notification regarding the school’s inability to provide the data.  In these circumstances, the AG Department may decide not to move forward with the request for VS eligibility determination.  In GCS, the results of the NC Check-Ins and/or the results of MAP NWEA assessments are NOT used for academically and/or intellectually gifted identification. 
• For students currently enrolled in other settings (i.e., home school, private school, out-of-state):  The AG Department will accept any summative data for an assessment that was administered by the school and reported on a document generated by the Test Publisher (not a document generated by the Test Administrator). For the purposes of academically and/or intellectually gifted identification, the AG Department does not accept MAP NWEA data. If the child’s home/private/out-of-state school is unable to provide data that is accepted by the AG Department, at their own expense, the parent/guardian may have to obtain ONE private test (see more details below). 
• For ALL students (regardless of school setting): At a minimum, the AG Department expects that the child’s current school will be able to provide details regarding the child’s current school performance as evidenced by the child’s current grades when compared to the grading scale used by Guilford County Schools.  If the child’s current school is unable to provide current grade performance information, the AG Department will not move forward with the request.

All requests, for the VS Program, received after the close of the district’s Choice Schools Application Window (after November 15, 2024) will be considered late requests.  For late requests, the AG Department may not have the capacity to provide additional testing.  For this reason, the department’s ability to accept late requests into the VS Program will depend on the following: (1) evidence that the student meets ALL criteria for entry (as listed above) without the need for additional testing and (2) available seats in the program. 

Any student accepted into the VS Program after the district has finalized all decisions for the Choice Schools Application Window will be considered a late enrollee.  As such, bus transportation for late enrollees may not be available for the first 15 school days.  The availability of bus transportation for late enrollees will be determined and communicated by the district’s Transportation Department.  

After consulting with the AG Department, it may be determined that a private test will be needed to determine the child’s eligibility for VS services. In these cases, parents/guardians can use the Private Testing Prior Notification Form  to request the use of a private test score.  The completed form can be submitted to the AG Department sing the email address, aig@gcsnc.com. Please note that our current policy states that prior approval to use a private test score is required AND the department only accepts ONE private test score.  For VS consideration, this means that the AG Department reserves the right to approve the use of a private test that was completed at the parent’s expense in ONE of the following areas: Aptitude, Math, Reading, Science, or Social Studies.

If you have questions regarding VS services, please contact Kelly Woody, AG Coordinator, at (336) 370-2358 or at woodyk@gcsnc.com.