B.C. Education Programs for Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Students
Educational opportunities for gifted and twice-exceptional students in British Columbia’s public education system are at best a patchwork of programs concentrated in Vancouver and a handful of other school districts in the Lower Mainland, such as Coquitlam and Surrey. In many school districts across the province, there are no formal programs for gifted students at all.
Click here for a sample directory of educational programs for gifted and twice-exceptional students in British Columbia arranged by school district. Most of these programs are not exclusively for gifted students and are open to other academically-motivated or high ability students.
Where programs do exist, they can be found at both public and independent schools. Within B.C., our research has uncovered only two independent schools that are specifically designed to meet the learning needs of gifted/twice-exceptional students: Madrona School in Vancouver and Choice School in Richmond. Choice School has been designated by the B.C. government as a Special Education School.
Amid a dearth of formalized programs for gifted and twice-exceptional students, many students engage in a patchwork of classroom, school or district level educational adaptations across their years in grades K-12. Some classes will work for some students but not for others. For example, for students who are gifted visual spatial learners and have one or more challenges (possibly dyslexia or attention deficit disorder), programs such as acceleration, advanced placement and International Baccalaureate (IB) may not be a good fit. Instead the freedom of choosing electives such as visual arts, woodwork or graphic design can be very enriching and help provide a meaningful path through school.
Please note that programs as well as criteria for selection into the programs differ between school districts.
Very broadly, education options for gifted students generally include one or both of:
a) one or more of the 20 different types of acceleration (For further information, see an article on these types here, or a full publication called “A nation empowered”)
b) in-depth learning called “enrichment” (For an article explaining enrichment and also best practices with enrichment and acceleration in gifted education, click here)