TEXAS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS PROJECT (TPSP)
www.texaspsp.org
State Goal for Services for Gifted/Talented
Students
What is the Texas Performance Standards
Project (TPSP)?
Students who participate in services designed for
gifted/talented students will demonstrate skills in selfdirected learning, thinking, research, and communication as
evidenced by the development of innovative products and
performances that reflect individuality and creativity and are
advanced in relation to students of similar age, experience, or
environment. High School graduates who have participated in
services for gifted/talented students will have produced
products and performances of professional quality as part of
their program services.
The TPSP consists of research-based statewide standards and
an accompanying assessment system districts can use to capture
the high levels of achievement of gifted/talented students. The
goal of the TPSP is for students to create work that reflects
the professional quality that the Texas State Plan for the
Education of Gifted/Talented Students requires. Student
projects are TEKS—based and focus on the core content areas
of English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies
with interdisciplinary connections.
Source: Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented
Students
TPSP Tasks for Grades K – 8
A TPSP task is a comprehensive set of planned learning
experiences that result in a final, student-developed product.
Though tasks focus on the core areas of reading/language
arts, mathematics, social studies, and science, they are
interdisciplinary in nature. Each task consists of learning
experiences (Phase I) that help students build their research
skills and knowledge of the subject. Students then conduct
independent research (Phase II) that ends in the final
product, where students demonstrate their knowledge base.
Tasks:
K – Do Your Part for Art; Weather to the Extreme
Grade 1 – Animal Nation; It’s a Family Affair: A Study of
Culture and Tradition
Grade 2 – Who’s Who: A Study of Biography; The Ripple
Effect: A Study of Water
Grade 3 – Building a Business: Games and Toys; Mathematics in
Nature
Grade 4 – Gift of Age; We Are Texans; Innovation
Celebration; Enigmas; Math Around Town
Grade 5 – Story Quilt; Collectibles: Fad or Fortune
Grade 6 – Everyone’s a Winner: A Study of Conflict and
Mediation; Instant Millionaire
Grade 7 – Rites of Passage; Lifestyles of the Fit and Famous
Grade 8 – Analyzing Awesome Authors; Time Travel; Sudden
Impact; Challenging the System; Figure It Out
All Grades – In Pursuit of Passion
Schools and districts can use the results of this assessment to
improve their services for gifted/talented students. The TPSP
can also provide formative and summative information on an
individual student’s learning.
K – Grade 8 Student Assessment – Six Scoring
Dimensions
1. Content Knowledge and Skills (CKS) are the key facts,
concepts, principles, skills, themes, and methods of inquiry of a
discipline.
2. Analysis and Synthesis (AS) include advanced thinking
processes which enable students to make connections across
time, disciplines, locations, and cultures.
3. Multiple Perspectives (MP) include the consideration of
other diverse points of view in order to deepen one’s
understanding of a discipline or field of study.
4. Research (R) is the inquiry process used in the discipline
(includes defining the research problem, reviewing quality
sources of information, refining the research question(s),
developing the research design, carrying out the research
design, analyzing the results, and reporting the findings through
a product and/or presentation.)
5. Communication (C) is the use of appropriate written, spoken,
and technological media to convey new learning in the discipline.
6. Presentation of Learning (PL) is the coherence of a student’s
presentation of new learning. Presentation of learning includes
evidence of the student’s planning and reasoning.
Student performance on the tasks is evaluated in the research
process and the presentation of learning through the primary,
intermediate, and middle school assessment rubrics.
Source: Texas Performance Standards Project, www.texaspsp.org
Beverly Jeffcoat, Revised October, 2012
TEXAS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS PROJECT (TPSP)
www.texaspsp.org
Meeting the State Goal through the High
School/Exit Level TPSP
High School/Exit Level Assessment – Nine Scoring
Dimensions
At the high school/exit level, gifted/talented students garner
all the resources they have fine-tuned over their K – 12
education to design an independent project that is
individualized and based on a topic of their choosing. Over the
course of a year, students work with a mentor, who is a
professional in the chosen field of study, to create a unique,
innovative final product or performance that is of professional
quality. The TPSP provides opportunities for students to
explore their areas of interest and passion to an extent that
is not often possible in school. Such an in-depth study may
impact students’ future studies and career plans.
1. Knowledge and Skills is the sum of what has been learned,
including new understanding and abilities, related to the topic of
study. In this system, knowledge and skills are based on the
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
2. Innovation and Application is the creative use of knowledge
and skills learned in the course of the project as demonstrated
in the final product.
3. Analysis and Synthesis are the thinking processes in which
whole topics are separated into their constituent parts for
study and reconstituted to form a new, coherent whole.
4. Ethics/Unanswered Questions include the development of a
project in alignment with rules or standards of conduct
governing the field of study. Additionally, this dimension
considers the student’s awareness and treatment of issues
related to the study that lack a consensus among professionals
in the field.
5. Multiple Perspectives encompass the ability to examine an
issue from more than one point of view, including the ability to
separate one’s own point of view from those of others.
6. Methodology and Use of Resources cover the use of
principles, procedures, practices, and references of the field of
study to guide, but not limit, the project.
7. Communication is the use of written, spoken, and
technological media to convey new learning.
8. Relevance and Significance include the potential impact of
the project on the individual student and other social groups, as
well as the field of study.
9. Professional Quality is the nature of the project that
suggests that the skills and knowledge demonstrated in the
product are comparable to those of a person engaged in the field
of study as a livelihood. (Expert Level on Assessment Rubric)
High School TPSP Tasks
The high school tasks provide the requisite rigor in the
research process to prepare students for the exit level TPSP.
Even though the tasks have specific content area designations,
they can be adapted to multiple disciplines.
Tasks:
In the Community: A Study of Culture (ELA, SS)
We’ve Got a Problem (ELA, Math)
The Comedic Lens: Analyzing a Society through Its Use of
Comedy (ELA, SS)
What’s the Diagnosis? Historical and Physical Impacts of
Disease (Science)
So You Have Issues – Now What? Policy Explorations (SS)
Candidate Z (Technology)
In Pursuit of Passion (Interdisciplinary)
Student performance is evaluated in the research process and
presentation of learning with the high school/exit level
assessment rubric.
TPSP Resources
-Assessment Rubrics
-Guides for Success
-Evaluation Reports
-Promotional Materials
-Continuum of Learning
Experience Framework Charts
(COLEF)
-Walkthroughs for
Administrators
-Management Forms
-Sample Projects (Fourth,
Eighth, and Exit Level)
-Instructional Strategies and
Resources
-G/T Teacher Toolkits
-Awareness Training: Real
World Impact on Students,
Communities, and Schools
-COLEF Chart Training:
Roadmap to Success
-Assessment Training:
Assessing for Growth
Exit Level Delivery Options
Because of the heavy emphasis on individualized projects, the
TPSP lends itself to many delivery options at the high
school/exit level. Students may develop projects as a class
assignment or as part of an independent study course. Each
district has the flexibility to determine the best avenue to
deliver instruction and schedule students so that they have the
necessary support to complete their projects.
Source: Texas Performance Standards Project, www.texaspsp.org
Beverly Jeffcoat, Revised October, 2012
TEXAS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS PROJECT (TPSP)
www.texaspsp.org
Source: Texas Performance Standards Project, www.texaspsp.org
Beverly Jeffcoat, Revised October, 2012