BATON ROUGE — The East Baton Rouge Parish School System invited families to a two-day event designed to identify students who could benefit from gifted and advanced academic programming. 

The annual Gifted Screening Blitz allowed students entering kindergarten through 12th grade to be screened for placement in the Scholastic Academy or Great Scholars Academy programs, allowing them to qualify for gifted services. 

"The Gifted Screening Blitz helps us identify students who may benefit from advanced learning opportunities and connect them with programs that challenge and support their growth," Harelda Wallace, gifted curriculum resource coordinator for the Gifted and Talented Department, said. 

The academies offer students a complex accelerated curriculum, reduced class sizes and highly trained and qualified teachers certified in Gifted Education.

Students who are admitted into the program must achieve an 84% or higher IQ composite score on a district-approved intelligence test or hold a national percentile rank of 84 or higher in two subject areas on a recent standardized test in Reading/ELA, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies administered within the last year.