“Why even bother,” School Board Chairwoman Jennifer McKeever said. “Why don’t we just use criteria that will indicate that 100% of our children are gifted?”

Catlin said the school system consulted with state officials and the division attorney about how they could move forward with identification and support the new model. The state said the division had to identify students and use multiple measures.

That’s what they are continuing to do with the new program, Catlin said, adding that she expects other Virginia school systems to take this route as well.

“We want to let our kids fly,” Catlin said in an interview. “And that’s all of our kids and not some of our kids.”

To gauge success of the new model, Catlin said the division will use staff, student and parent input, including a survey of fourth-grade and CHS students.

McKeever said those measures were anecdotal and that she wanted more data.

“The question needs to be asked what are we in fact looking at to measure our success,” McKeever said.

Board member Lisa Larson-Torres agreed.

“This community is data hungry,” she said. “I think it would be a great conversation for us, maybe at a retreat, to talk about what is important to us and if we really want to focus on data, or is it more important to be looking at those qualitative changes in our students and how they see each other.”

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