HOT SPRINGS — The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Talent Identification Program has expanded to include Arkansas students from the sixth, seventh and eighth grades in its second year.
ASMSA-TIP provides gifted students, parents and educators with resources and guidance that are tailored to support a child’s educational, social and emotional development. Such programs empower students to reach their full potential while helping parents and educators make the best educational decisions for their students.
Seventh- and eighth-grade participants will receive a voucher to take the ACT as an “above-level” test, a standardized assessment that is designed for a higher grade level, as well as support leading up to taking the ACT, help interpreting ACT scores and identifying activities for talent development. All participants will receive monthly e-newsletters with specific content for gifted and talented students and their parents, access to webinar sessions with Gifted and Talented (GT) professionals, and access to a variety of in-person and virtual programming designed to enrich students’ learning and develop their talents.
This is the second year of the program. For the 2023-24 academic year, the program only included seventh-graders, but strong interest in it led ASMSA-TIP to accept sixth- and eighth-graders for the 2024-25 cohort. Registration for this year’s program is open at https://asmsa.me/asmsa-tipregistration24.
Interest in the first year of the program was strong as it served 232 middle school students from 38 Arkansas counties. Participants came from 60 schools, and 48 also attended a Summer@ASMSA camp. The top three students in the AMC 8, a math competition organized by the Mathematical Association of America that was held at ASMSA in January, were TIP scholars. Hicks said the first-year success confirms the need for this kind of program in Arkansas.