ELP is an acronym for Extended Learning Program. It is a program designed to serve the needs of identified students. In other districts, it could be called TAG, or the Talented and Gifted Program.

Every school in the district offers gifted and talented services.

The same criteria is used across the district to identify our students who receive yearlong services. Enrichment services that are building-specific are offered for grades 3rd through 6th for buildings that have not identified at least 5% of their population for the yearlong Tier 2 services. Students qualify through assessment scores, classroom work, and recommendations from the classroom teacher.

If a new student has previously received gifted services, the family should ask the office to notify the building's ELP teacher. The student's records will be reviewed for eligibility of receiving ELP services. If the records do not include assessment data that is comparable to the data collected for evaluation in the Iowa City Community School District, the student may need to complete additional assessments for consideration.

Students in grades K-2 may receive enrichment services through flexible groups that may change throughout the year, but are not “identified” for regular placement in ELP.  Students in kindergarten through 2nd grade may receive enrichment focusing on students’ strength area(s) in language arts, math and visual spatial. Students are pulled from the regular education classroom to meet with the ELP teacher once a week for 30 minutes. Enrichment cycles last 8-10 weeks. Families will be notified by the building ELP teacher if their child has been selected for enrichment services.

If a student takes the CogAt in the spring, parents will be notified via email of the results in late May/early June. If you do not receive notification of your child’s results by the end of June, please contact Dr. Darcie Kress at kress.darcie@iowacityschools.org.