Gifted & Talented Programs
The Richmond Public Schools Programs for Gifted and Talented enables students to become independent, self-directed learners who use their knowledge, understanding, and high achievement to build rich and productive lives as individuals and members of the greater community.
The instructional vision of the RPS Programs for Gifted and Talented is to help students become innovators within their communities. The programs provide resources, enrichment opportunities, and services to develop strengths, interests, and gifted behaviors. This is achieved by supporting students through:
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Encouraging gifted behaviors, creative and critical thinking for all students through early talent development.
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Allowing students to lead their own investigations with meaningful action projects related to local and real world issues they are interested in, that affect their schools, neighborhoods, and communities.
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Providing opportunities for students to engage in problem-solving situations that place learning in the context of their daily lives moving beyond textbooks.
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Employing higher-order thinking and analytical skills to ask probing questions, examine information from multiple perspectives, and build conclusions based on evidence.
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Participation in a rigorous college preparatory academic environment
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Preparation for tomorrow's workforce with early career planning
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Enrollment in advanced courses across all levels and content areas.
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This continuum is accessible to all students beginning in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Levels of Services
Spatial Reasoning
Engineering 101
Programming Ozobots and Spheros
Patterns & Sequential Reasoning
SPACE Parent Inventory Portal
Your child may be a candidate for participation in Richmond Public Schools’ Special Program for Academic and Creative Excellence (SPACE). Students who exhibit higher level thinking skills and the potential to demonstrate exceptional ability and performance in multiple content areas will be provided with differentiated curriculum suited to their abilities, readiness, achievement, and their interests.
The student’s eligibility and placement decisions for SPACE rely on multiple criteria and not solely on either test scores or recommendations. The SPACE teacher may administer verbal or nonverbal aptitude assessments, achievement tests in math and reading, creativity tests, and score rating scales based on observations and recommendations. Please fill out the following information on the portal and submit. All 2nd grade students will be tested in the spring. All other grade levels will be tested in the fall. The parent inventory survey portal for all other grades will close on November 15, 2023 and will reopen April 15 - 2024.
Parent Survey for Potentially Gifted Students: SPACE
Special Programs for Academic and Creative Excellence
Gifted Program Links
Maggie L. Walker Governor's School
Appomattox Governor's School
RPS Gifted Education Plan: 2022 -2027
Center for Gifted Education, College of William & Mary
Virginia Association for the Gifted
National Association for Gifted Children
