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Gifted & Talented Education · Mississippi

Gifted Education in Mississippi: Meeting the Gifted Education Act of 1989 with Instruction “In Addition to and Different From” the Regular Program

Mississippi mandates intellectually gifted programs in grades 2–6 for all public districts, requires a minimum of 240 minutes of gifted instruction per week, and uses a Local Survey Committee for eligibility decisions. Renzulli Learning supports every requirement — from enrichment delivery through annual program documentation.

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138
MS school districts, all required to serve IG students in grades 2–6
4
gifted program types: Intellectual, Creative, Artistic, Academic
240 min
minimum gifted instruction per week required by MDE
4–9
recommended class size for grades 2–8 gifted classes
Mississippi law

What Mississippi’s Gifted Education Act of 1989 Requires

Mississippi’s Gifted Education Act of 1989 (Mississippi Code §§ 37-23-171 through 37-23-181) and MDE Regulations for Gifted Education Programs (Title 7, Part 96) establish a clear framework that every public school district must follow. The law defines giftedness across four categories and sets binding requirements for identification, program delivery, class size, and annual accountability.

Every Mississippi district is required to provide a program for intellectually gifted students in grades 2–6. Optional programs — subject to State Board of Education approval — may be offered for intellectually gifted grades 7–12, creatively gifted grades 2–12, artistically gifted grades 2–12, and academically gifted grades 9–12. All programs must deliver instruction that is “in addition to and different from” the regular classroom. Students must receive a minimum of 240 minutes of gifted instruction per week. Each district must appoint a GEP Contact Person holding a valid gifted endorsement and submit an annual self-evaluation to MDE by June 30.

Four program types

Mississippi’s Four Gifted Program Categories

Mississippi defines giftedness across four distinct categories. Understanding which are mandated and which are optional is essential for every district coordinator:

Intellectually Gifted

Exceptionally high degree of intelligence documented through the identification process. Program outcomes defined in the Outcomes for Intellectually Gifted Education Programs Grades 2–8.

Mandated: Grades 2–6  Optional: Grades 7–12

Creatively Gifted

Exceptionally high degree of creativity and ability in the performing arts (music, drama, dance). A normed creativity measure score in the superior range is required for identification.

Optional: Grades 2–12

Artistically Gifted

Exceptionally high degree of creativity and ability in the visual arts. Documented through the identification process including portfolio and performance evidence.

Optional: Grades 2–12

Academically Gifted

Exceptionally high degree of demonstrated academic ability. Only designated “gifted” courses approved by MDE qualify; districts offering these must also provide comparable courses for non-identified students.

Optional: Grades 9–12 only
Real challenges

What Mississippi Gifted Coordinators Struggle With

These are the challenges we consistently hear from Mississippi teachers of the gifted and GEP Contact Persons:

240 minutes of meaningful content weekly

Meeting the 240-minute minimum with instruction that is genuinely “in addition to and different from” the regular program — every week, for every student — requires a deep, constantly refreshed source of above-curriculum, interest-matched activities.

Annual program documentation

Each district must submit an annual self-evaluation to MDE by June 30. GEP Contact Persons must document service hours, outcomes progress, and program evidence — a time-consuming process without integrated tracking tools.

Small class, individual planning

With classes capped at 4–9 students per teacher and a mandate to meet individual student needs, Mississippi teachers of the gifted must genuinely individualize — not just differentiate by group. That requires knowing each student’s specific interests and strengths in depth.

Equity in identification

Mississippi’s regulations explicitly address the need to identify gifted at-risk students and ensure referral criteria are nondiscriminatory. Neither classroom behavior, grades, nor achievement test scores alone may eliminate a student from the identification process.

Platform tools

What Renzulli Learning Provides: Feature by Feature

Each tool maps to a specific Mississippi requirement and produces a concrete, exportable output:

Enrichment Database: Over 40,000 curated, interest-matched activities organized by topic, skill, and grade level. Provides the depth and breadth of above-curriculum content Mississippi teachers of the gifted need to deliver 240+ meaningful minutes per week without building materials from scratch — week after week, student after student.
Renzulli Profiler: A 20–30 minute interest and learning style inventory generating a scored student profile. Gives the teacher of the gifted the individualized student data needed to plan instruction aligned to each student’s specific strengths — supporting the individual needs mandate in Mississippi’s Gifted Education Act and the Instructional Management Plan (IMP) outcomes framework.
Project-Based Learning (PBL) Tools: Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM)-based student investigations that generate authentic products — research papers, creative performances, visual art projects — aligned to the process skills and outcomes in Mississippi’s Outcomes for Intellectually Gifted Education Programs. These are exactly the kind of enrichment activities that satisfy “in addition to and different from.”
Personal Success Plan (PSP): A student-driven goal and project tracker. Generates exportable progress summaries that support annual program documentation for MDE — including evidence of individual student goal progress, enrichment activities completed, and program outcomes addressed.
Cebeci Test of Creativity (CTC): A validated, standardized creativity assessment producing a scored report in under an hour. Supports identification evidence for the Creatively Gifted program category — which requires a superior-range score on a normed creativity measure — and enriches the referral process for Intellectually Gifted identification.
Executive Function Assessment: Measures self-regulation, planning, and metacognition — especially valuable for surfacing gifted potential in at-risk students whose abilities may not be captured by traditional cognitive measures during the referral process.
Leadership Assessment: Identifies leadership strengths relevant to the referral criteria across Mississippi’s identification process, which may include leadership potential as a referral factor.
Requirement-by-requirement

Mississippi MDE Requirements & Renzulli Learning: Side by Side

MS Code § 37-23-171–181 MDE Regulations Title 7, Part 96

How Renzulli Learning addresses each core Mississippi requirement:

Mississippi Requirement Renzulli Learning Contribution
Mandated IG Program (Grades 2–6)
All districts must serve intellectually gifted students; instruction must be “in addition to and different from” the regular program		 The enrichment database and SEM-based PBL tools provide the above-curriculum, interest-matched instruction Mississippi’s mandate requires — activities that extend beyond standard content in depth, complexity, and creativity.
240 Minutes Per Week
Minimum gifted instruction time required by MDE (300 minutes recommended)		 40,000+ enrichment activities cover every content area, interest domain, and process skill. Teachers of the gifted can assign, track, and document student activity time directly through the platform — maintaining the weekly service log needed for MDE accountability.
Individual Needs Mandate
The Gifted Education Act requires programs to meet the individual needs of each student; class size capped at 4–9 students in grades 2–8		 The Renzulli Profiler generates a unique interests and learning styles profile for each student, enabling the teacher of the gifted to match enrichment activities to each child’s specific strengths — supporting genuine individualization within small-group gifted classes.
IMP Outcomes Framework
Instruction guided by the Outcomes for Intellectually Gifted Education Programs covering communication, creativity, thinking skills, research, and self-directed learning		 SEM-based PBL tools and enrichment activities are organized around the process skills — creative thinking, research, problem-solving, self-directed learning — that Mississippi’s Outcomes framework specifies as the foundation of gifted curriculum.
Creatively Gifted Identification
Superior-range score on a normed creativity measure required for Creatively Gifted eligibility		 The Cebeci Test of Creativity (CTC) provides a validated, normed creativity assessment — a school-administered tool that produces a superior-range scored report to support the Creatively Gifted eligibility determination.
Annual Program Self-Evaluation
Each district submits annual self-evaluation to MDE by June 30; GEP Contact Person reports twice yearly (February 1 and September 1)		 The PSP generates exportable student progress summaries and activity logs. These records document process skill development, program outcomes addressed, and individual student goal progress — providing the evidence base for the annual self-evaluation submission.
From Mississippi educators

What Implementation Looks Like in Mississippi Districts

What we consistently hear from Mississippi teachers of the gifted and GEP Contact Persons:

“The hardest part of the 240-minute mandate isn’t the time — it’s finding content that is genuinely different from what my students do in their regular classrooms. The Renzulli enrichment database solves that. I assign activities by interest area and the students are genuinely engaged in things they don’t get anywhere else in their school day.”
Teacher of the Gifted · Mississippi Delta school district
For the annual MDE self-evaluation The PSP’s exportable progress records and activity logs give GEP Contact Persons organized, student-level evidence of outcomes progress — directly mapped to the process skills in the Outcomes for Intellectually Gifted Education Programs that MDE evaluates annually.
For optional programs (Creatively Gifted, grades 7–12) Districts expanding beyond the grade 2–6 mandate need differentiated enrichment that works across middle and high school contexts. The enrichment database and PBL tools scale across grade levels, and the CTC provides the normed creativity evidence required for Creatively Gifted eligibility.
Frequently asked questions

Mississippi Gifted Education: Common Questions

Questions Mississippi gifted coordinators and teachers of the gifted ask most often:

Mississippi’s Gifted Education Act of 1989 (§§ 37-23-171 through 37-23-181) mandates that every public school district provide a program for intellectually gifted students in grades 2 through 6. Districts may also offer optional programs for intellectually gifted students in grades 7–12, creatively gifted students in grades 2–12, artistically gifted students in grades 2–12, and academically gifted students in grades 9–12 — subject to State Board of Education approval. All programs must deliver instruction “in addition to and different from” the regular classroom and must meet individual student needs. Students must receive a minimum of 240 minutes of gifted instruction per week.
Mississippi defines four categories: Intellectually Gifted — exceptionally high intelligence (mandated grades 2–6; optional 7–12); Creatively Gifted — exceptionally high creativity and performing arts ability (optional grades 2–12); Artistically Gifted — exceptionally high creativity and visual arts ability (optional grades 2–12); and Academically Gifted — exceptionally high demonstrated academic ability (optional grades 9–12 only, in MDE-designated “gifted” courses). A student with an Intellectually Gifted eligibility may be served in an Academically Gifted program in grades 9–12 without a separate eligibility determination.
Each district must establish a Local Survey Committee (LSC) responsible for determining gifted eligibility. The LSC must include gifted education teachers and administrators, and may include regular education teachers, school psychologists or psychometrists, and parents. A special education teacher should be included when a twice-exceptional student is being considered. Once a student is ruled eligible by the LSC, no re-evaluation testing is required for the student to remain in the program. An annual reassessment committee — including at least the teacher of the gifted and a designated administrative representative — reviews continued placement each year.
MDE regulations require gifted students to receive a minimum of 240 minutes of gifted instruction per week (MDE recommends 300 minutes). Classes in grades 2–8 should have 4–9 students per teacher; a class of 10 or more is considered by MDE to negatively impact program integrity. Classes in grades 9–12 should have 7–14 students. Gifted students may not be required to make up classwork missed while in the gifted classroom, though they remain responsible for demonstrating mastery on regularly scheduled tests.
Mississippi distinguishes between in-state and out-of-state transfers. Within Mississippi: a student with a valid Mississippi gifted eligibility ruling is accepted by all districts that offer a program in the student’s area — no re-evaluation required, just a copy of the student’s Gifted Eligibility Form and parental permission to serve. From out of state: an out-of-state eligibility ruling may be used to initiate the referral process in Mississippi, but the student must satisfy Mississippi’s eligibility criteria. There is no temporary placement while the district conducts its evaluation.
Mississippi’s central requirement — that gifted instruction be “in addition to and different from” the regular program — is the design principle behind Renzulli Learning. The enrichment database provides 40,000+ interest-matched, above-curriculum activities. SEM-based PBL tools generate authentic student investigations extending beyond standard content in depth, complexity, and creativity. The Renzulli Profiler identifies each student’s specific interests and strengths to match them to activities that genuinely extend their regular program — supporting the IMP outcomes framework Mississippi programs use to guide instruction.
Official sources

Mississippi Gifted Education Resources

All compliance decisions should reference these primary MDE sources. Renzulli Learning is designed to complement — not replace — your state’s requirements and local program plans.

Explore Renzulli Learning’s gifted education alignment for other states:

All States G&T Alignment Alabama Tennessee Louisiana Arkansas Georgia

Ready to See Renzulli Learning in Your Mississippi District?

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