F.O.C.U.S. - Program for Gifted Education

Shannon Forest is pleased to offer a program to meet the challenge needs of high ability learners.  The F.O.C.U.S Program provides enrichment for 1st and 2nd Grade students as an inclusion program meeting once each week. These students will benefit from this program without additional cost.  Instruction for 3rd through 6th Grades is a pull-out program for qualifying students (criteria is listed below photographs). Students  meet twice a week for two and one-half hours. The cost of the pull out program is $2,200 per year.  Qualifying students may be admitted to the program at the beginning of each semester.  Please contact Julie Sellars at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or 678-5119 if you have any questions.

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1st Grade F.O.C.U.S students Brooke Johnson and Gracie Goin share ideas on how to create a picture out of a simple circle and rectangle

5th Grade F.O.C.U.S. students Noah Rothman and Ryan Flynn use notebooks to write poems

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Caroline Stewart, 5th Grade, works on a poster of pictures of significant events in her life

 

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Ryan Flynn, 5th Grade, displays his poster of life events

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5th Grade student Noah Rothman working in SFCS’ Celebration Garden

 

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6th Grade F.O.C.S. students Ladson Ellis, Conner Breazeale, Sawyer Norman and Cole Braash are proud of the bulletin board they create illustrating cyclic change of the seasons.

Entrance Criteria

SINGLE FACTOR QUALIFER
A student with an ability index at or greater than 96% from the Otis-Lennon or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC IV) gains automatic entrance into the program. Otis-Lennon is administered in school as a part of the Stanford Achievement Testing. Scores will be taken from current year tests and tests that are one year old.

MULTIPLE FACTOR QUALIFIERS
A student meeting two of the following three dimensions gains entrance into the program.

  • Reasoning: ability index at or greater than 93% from the Otis-Lennon or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC IV). Scores will be taken from current year tests and tests that are no more than one year old.
  • Achievement: achievement at or greater than 94% in Total Reading and/or Total Math on the Stanford Achievement Tests or other nationally recognized achievement tests such as IOWA or California. Scores will be taken from current year tests and tests that are no more than one year old.
  • Performance: successful classroom performance with a 3.5 overall GPA on a 4.0 scale. GPA for students entering in the fall will be taken from the total grades of the prior year averaging the core subjects. (*See below). GPA for students entering in the second semester will be taken from the average of the first semester core subject grades. (*See below).

Any student who qualifies with Dimension A and B with a classroom performance of 2.75 or less will be admitted for a probationary period of 9 weeks. If the GPA does not improve to a 3.0 after nine weeks, the student will be dismissed from the program.

Any student qualifying for the program using Dimension C (successful classroom performance) who drops below a 3.0 GPA at the end of a nine weeks will be placed on probation. The student will be dismissed from the program if GPA does not increase to a
3.0 at the end of the next 9 weeks and 3.5 the following nine weeks.

A student holding a D grade in a core subject will not be admitted to or retained in the program.

*Core Subjects are Reading, Spelling, English, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

Mrs. Julie Sellars serves as FOCUS teacher and can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .