Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) aims to provide gifted and talented students with educational opportunities that match their abilities.

Program Model
In elementary and middle school, the program model for GATE is differentiation within the mainstream classroom. Teachers enrich and extend the core curriculum for gifted students, giving them the opportunity to understand the curriculum in greater depth and complexity. Advanced math courses are available for the first time in 7th grade and continue through 12th grade. In high school, gifted students are able to take advanced, honors, and advanced placement courses in a wide variety of subjects.

Identifying Gifted and Talented Students
Multi-measures are used to identify students as gifted and talented–teacher judgment, information from parents, standardized test results, a non-reading test of cognitive processing skills (the Ravens Progressive Matrices), identification of behaviors associated with giftedness and multiple intelligences. Differentiated curricular opportunities are available to all students who benefit from additional challenges as well as to students who are formally identified (formal identification begins in 4th grade).

GATE Resources for Parents and Students

A list of resources for gifted children used by Palo Alto parents and teachers includes: