Parents of current Northshore School District sixth- and seventh-graders are invited to attend an information night about the new Advanced Academics Program for junior high students at 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the Woodinville High School Performing Arts Center. The program is being developed for students in seventh and eighth grade in the fall of 2014 that meet the “highly capable” designation in math, science and humanities through a tiered assessment and selection system. AAP provides an altered and accelerated academic program with a faster pace, greater depth and complexity in a peer group of similarly capable students.
The program is an addition to current junior high program offerings. Challenge courses will continue to be offered at each junior high school as a self-select option for all students. Double acceleration in math is also available at all junior high schools through the assessment and selection process Northshore uses each spring.
The Advanced Academics Program will be implemented incrementally by grade level over several years.
Seventh grade AAP
Current sixth-graders who scored 90 percent or higher on the ITBS will be invited to do further testing to qualify for the program. Sixth grade Elementary Advanced Placement students will automatically roll up into seventh grade Advanced Academics Program and are not required to participate in further testing. The program will be located at Leota and Northshore junior high schools. Transportation details are still to be determined. Qualifying students who do not want to participate in the program can choose to attend their home junior high school and receive highly capable program services through cluster grouping in accelerated math and challenge courses.
Eighth grade highly capable program services
Current seventh-graders can qualify for highly capable program services as former EAP students or through a tiered assessment and selection system. Interested seventh-graders can submit an application for highly capable program services testing. The application will be available on the district Web site on Jan. 24, and is due in the Administrative Center, 3330 Monte Villa Parkway in Bothell by 4 p.m., Feb. 7. Identified students will remain in their neighborhood junior high schools for the 2014–15 school year. Highly capable program services will be offered through cluster grouping in accelerated math and challenge courses.
The characteristics of highly capable students include:
• Capacity to learn with unusual depth of understanding, to retain what has been learned and to transfer learning to new situations.
• Capacity and willingness to deal with increasing levels of abstraction and complexity earlier than their chronological peers.
• Creative ability to make unusual connections among ideas and concepts.
• Ability to learn quickly in their area(s) of intellectual strength.
• Capacity for intense concentration and/or focus.
Students should test for the Advanced Academics Program if they:
• Score 90 percent or higher on the sixth grade ITBS Reading and Math.
• Generally score in the top 2-4 percent on standardized assessments.
• Have unusual strengths in at least one core subject: math, science and humanities.
• Are fast learners.
• Will benefit from learning alongside peers with similar capabilities.
The Woodinville High School Performing Arts Center is located at 19819 136th in Woodinville. For more information on AAP, please call (425) 408-7723 or email aap@nsd.org.
