Identification Criteria:

Our mission at Mann is to equitably identify students who show outstanding promise in academic and creative areas.  To do this, we collect the following data on each student:

• NNAT Assessment- This is the new test that is given to all kindergarten and 2nd grade students in the district or any students new to the district or recommended by his/her teacher or parent in grades 1, 3, 4, or 5.  It provides a culture-fair and language-free means of determining students' nonverbal reasoning and problem-solving ability.
• MCA Scores - These scores measure traditional areas of academic competence in a nationally normed test.  Mann School and the Saint Paul Public Schools do NOT support using standardized test scores as the sole criteria for identifying gifted and talented students; however, this data does provide insight into student academic strengths.
• Teacher Nomination - Our teachers have experience in recognizing student ability and measuring each child against a backdrop of age-appropriate norms.
• Student Interest and Initiative - Some students have a certain passion or area that they are interested in studying.
• Parent Nomination - Parents can at any point during the school year nominate their child for the Gifted and Talented Program.

The staff takes in all this information and decides how to best meet the needs of each student.  Services are then offered to students. Identification is a continual, open-door process, which means students can be recommended to participate in the program at any time during the year.