TJMS Advanced Academics & Talent Development

Now more than ever, we need students who can empathetically engage with each other in person. We need students who can thrive in a productive struggle and who can work through rigorous problems and assignments with confidence because they feel supported by the teachers and staff at TJMS. Our hope is for students to grow up and apply the skills we’ve taught them to the workforce, to support their families, and to better their communities.

Gifted services in Arlington Public Schools has a large focus on talent development, especially in middle school. This means we focus on student strengths and encourage them to develop in those areas. One practice that supports a talent development model in middle school is the implementation of open-enrollment  intensified courses. Open-enrollment intensified courses are based on student readiness and are not exclusive to gifted students. The curriculum is largely the same, with differentiation in pacing, depth and complexity, and leveled assessments.

There are few prerequisites, eliminating factors such as teacher bias, testing bias, language barriers, and parent information gaps. At TJMS, intensified courses offer students a chance to go deeper into content, without curriculum compacting or moving to the next grade level. Students may choose which content they feel most ready to be challenged in, which reflects the pillars of a talent development model. Teachers of intensified courses use resources designed for rigor and critical thinking frameworks to add depth and complexity to their courses.