Cutting Edge Programs for Talented Students

Cutting Edge Programs for Talented Students

The Gadsden Elementary School District is beating the odds and taking their student population to new heights due to the efforts of a teacher and counselor at their middle school. School counselor Homero Chavez and Math teacher Jesus Arrizon in 2006 began to prepare young students to take the ACT test in an effort to get more of the students in their district to be college ready after high school. 

Mr. Chavez said, “We did it because of the perception teachers had about our community. A lot of people were not appreciative of our kids. If we could go back out into the community and do something for the kids to get community support, we were going to do it. If we couldn't do it in the school, we were going to do it in the community. 

Ray Aguilara, superintendent of the Gadsden Elementary School District said, "These guys started the program on Saturdays and nobody knew they were doing it. I showed up and wondered what all of these guys were doing here. I got them a little bit of money and the rest is history. This program now brings in $550,000 of scholarships for these kids per year."

Mr. Chavez and Mr. Arrizon began tutoring students in sixth through eighth grade to take the ACT test and later began tutoring students in the second through sixth grade to take the SCAD test for gifted students. This helped them to identify students who were gifted and the students who may have been a false negative when given the initial tests. 

The goal of having the students take the ACT and pass it early on was to qualify them for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Program. This three-week residential program takes place during the summers and Gadsden Elementary District sends an increasing number of students to the program each year. 

In the seventh and eighth grade the students are eligible to test for placement in college level courses at Arizona Western College. Mr. Chavez said, “We hope to have them start college-level courses in the sixth grade soon, then they will graduate from eighth grade with calculus.” 

The kids in the program and throughout the schools are encouraged to take the ACT every year from seventh to the twelfth grade. By the time the students take the test as a senior they have already taken it at least five times. Mr. Arrizon said, “At first kids were just getting 16 on ACT. Now students average 20-24 on ACT in the 8th grade. One student got 31 on a recent ACT.”  

The students of this program have been very successful in going into the engineering and medical fields. The teacher and counselor proudly showed the students who have gone on to universities such as Stanford, Princeton, MIT and others. Mr. Arrizon said, “These are kids whose families do not have high school diplomas. Many are migrant children, do not speak English and have family across the border. This program is about providing opportunities for people to believe in the kids and for the kids to believe in themselves to get it done.”

ASPRA reporter Sarah Pacheco, Sierra Vista Unified