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Gifted Services

Gifted and Talented


Creative Inquiry (Grades 3-6)
Creative Inquiry is a class for gifted students in grades 3 through 6. The goal of the Creative Inquiry class is for identified gifted students to improve problem-solving skills and develop creative thinking while working collaboratively with other gifted students on meaningful projects.

Middle & High School Opportunities
At the secondary level, 7th-12th grade, CCUSD offers a variety of honors programs that lead to our Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs at Cactus Shadows High School. For more information on programs, please feel free to contact the counseling department at Sonoran Trails Middle School or Cactus Shadows High School.

Gifted Testing

We qualify students as gifted based on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and determine giftedness by the percentile each student scores.  To qualify as gifted each student must receive a 97% in one of the three areas tested on the CogAT:  verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative reasoning.

  • Verbal reasoning include the child's ability figure out the context of a sentence, analogies or vocabulary.

  • Non-verbal test measures the child's ability of visual and spatial relationships and how they correlate to geometric shapes and figures.

  • Quantitative test measures the child's ability to reason numerically as well as problem solve.

Each year CCUSD blanket tests all second-grade students during the school day in the spring.  Referral testing for other elementary grades  occurs in our district three times per year [fall, winter, and spring].  Both teachers and parents may refer students for testing.  A child may not be retested on the same test within a 12 month period.

If you would like to refer a child for testing, please complete this form below.
 Gifted Referral Testing