Advancing GATE January 13, 2026

It has been good to be back in schools since winter break and to see students engaged in learning. Classrooms feel focused, and the learning communities you continue to build are evident. As testing windows approach, this is a good time to use the remaining instructional weeks intentionally.

We look forward to seeing you later this month for Professional Development.

As a reminder, this Friday, January 16 is the last day to submit testing recommendations for the Spring term. Due to testing earlier this year, we will be unable to extend this deadline. Please ensure recommendations are completed by Friday.

As a reminder, testing schedules are due this Friday, January 16. Please submit on the Testing Schedule Template through the Testing Schedule Submission Form.

UCT recommendations are being processed as they are submitted. Once students appear on your testing list, you may begin scheduling them for testing. Thank you for working with teachers at your school to submit recommendations in a timely manner!

We are looking forward to seeing you again during Professional Development later this month.

• Elementary GATE: January 21, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

• Middle School GATE: January 22, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Both meetings will be held at Robertson Academy. Agendas will be shared in next week’s Advancing GATE newsletter.

If you need to attend on the alternate date due to your school schedule, please send us a note. The content will be the same on both days.

Preparation Tasks for This Week

Please complete the following tasks before Professional Development.

1. Infinite Campus access
   Confirm that you are assigned as the teacher of record for your GATE courses in Infinite Campus. Your school master scheduler or administrator can assist with this. We will be reviewing data and want to ensure you can access student information.

2. Padlet access
   Please confirm that you can access Padlet by responding to the test Padlet linked here. Some participants experienced access issues at the December meeting. If you are unable to access Padlet, submit a help ticket as soon as possible.

3. Celebrations submission
   You may submit celebrations beginning today by emailing Andrea. The submission window will close on Friday, January 16. Please share photos or examples of classroom work you would like highlighted.

Please bring any materials that need to be returned to the GATE library—or that you’d like to return—to our meeting on January 21 or 22.

Ms. Smith pushed students to think more deeply about identifying and categorizing interactions during instruction. This helped students move beyond just naming things to critical thinking about their work.

Ms. Argo’s first grade students worked on developing early writing skills. We learned that creative writing for first graders was challenging, and are excited to see where they go next!

Take a sneak peek into Ms. Spears' classroom as her students collaborate together to determine how to solve a problem. These valuable interactions support both collaboration and active listening.

Last weekend, elementary and middle school students participated in the Spring 2026 Debate Tournament, while teachers joined the workshop. At the event, students received feedback from Vanderbilt debaters as they refined their speaking and argumentation skills while competing for trophies and medals. Congratulations to our winners!

Thanks to Julia Miner for sharing this video, which pairs perfectly with Lesson 1 in the Interactions with Ecology unit. It opens the door to a great debate about whether Jim was making the right choice—and how his boss’s perspective might differ from the animals’. Julia’s students even explored how all the animals could realistically live in the beard and began brainstorming what a “beard housing model” might look like.

Encourage your 8th Grade students to begin their applications for the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) soon!

Save-the-date for an information session on Tuesday, January 20 from 5-6 PM on Teams. More information will be sent next week to those who visit the SSMV website to sign up for more information and updates! You'll find here information and FAQ. Information is also available in Arabic and Spanish.

Contact amanda.dixon@vanderbilt.edu if you have questions. Students may email aldixon2@mnps.org with any questions.

The Rube Goldberg Celebration will take place on April 11 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Tulip Grove Elementary. Additional details will be shared soon.

Acadia National Park (yes, you read that right!) is accepting applications for summer teaching fellowships. The application deadline is January 24.

To help publicize all of the great opportunities available to GATE students, we will be developing a GATE Event Calendar which can be publicized for students, families, teachers, and administrators. Please submit any events that you are involved with or you think would benefit GATE students to the GATE Calendar Submission form.

Repeat Information (this information is repeated from prior Advancing GATE Newsletters)

Please see important testing dates below. *Please note that this procedure is different from years past. You can train your teachers now, but they cannot submit any UCTs until January 5 as the list of 90th percentile and above students will be provided on December 12. Please emphasize this during your training.

In Progress

• Dec 2–Jan 16 GATE teachers train teachers on the UCT to recommend students for testing. *No submissions will be accepted prior to January 5.

Up Next in Testing

• Dec 19 (Updated!) August 90th %tile lists are uploaded to Teams (download these lists for distribution to your teachers)
• Jan 5–16 UCT submission is open for grades K-7. Teachers recommend students for GATE testing who were not already qualified through FastBridge scores.
• Jan 16 Teachers provide draft testing schedules to principals for approval using the Testing Schedule Template.
• Feb 2–Mar 5 GATE Teachers test K–G7 students. Grades 3 and 4 will be prioritized earlier in the window. See Spring Testing Guidelines for details.
• Mar 16–27 Early Learning Center (ELC) CogAT Testing for PreK.
• ~May 18 PK–7 decision letters will be sent to families.

Links to support your work

• Spring Testing Guidelines
• UCT Power Point for Training Teachers
• Testing Schedule Template to complete with your schedule

Teacher Absence Form

GATE Sharepoint with Digital Testing Resources

GATE Shared Folders

GATE Event Submission Form
GATE Student Photos with Photo Releases

December 5 - January 16: GATE Teachers train school staff on UCT
January 9: Family and 7th-8th grade student nominations for GATE Family Advisory Council due

January 16: Teachers submit testing schedules to principals and GATE office

January 16: Last day for teachers to submit UCTs

January 21: Elementary GATE Professional Development @ Robertson

January 22: Middle School GATE Professional Development @ Robertson

February 2 - March 5: K-7 CogAT Testing
February 10-11: Professional Development CANCELLED

March 16: Professional Development @ Martin

March 16-27: PreK CogAT Testing

May 11: Professional Development @ Martin

January 5, 2026

December 16, 2025
December 9, 2025
December 2, 2025
November 19, 2025