Charles Townes Center Program
The Charles Townes Center (CTC) serves highly gifted and talented students in grades 3-8. Students are chosen from a three-tiered system designed to identify highly gifted students from throughout the district.
CTC Program Overview Video
CTC Core Values
Explore, Enrich, Excel
Explore: Students generate questions and delve into challenges that celebrate individual interests and academic risk-taking while fostering curiosity and personal responsibility.
Enrich: Student learning is enhanced through collaborative experiences which broaden global perspectives, develop interpersonal skills, and build confidence in a safe, cooperative environment.
Excel: Students begin an exceptional pathway towards autonomy, combining critical and creative thinking with evaluation and reflection.
Admissions
The Charles Townes Center is designed to have a capacity of 90 students per grade level for grades three through eight. Initial entry into the Center at the third grade is based on three student performance dimensions : reasoning ability as measured by nationally standardized aptitude assessments, achievement as measured by nationally standardized assessments, and classroom performance as a composite of four authentic student performance measures (Reading Fluency, Writing Benchmark, and first semester grades for Reading and Mathematics.) The student must meet the criteria in two of the three dimensions in order to qualify for admission to the Center.
Information on CTC Admissions procedures.
CTC Program Inquiries: Deborah Foulkes, CTC Program Coordinator, 864.355.4477 | dfoulkes@greenville.k12.sc.us
CTC Program Highlights
CTC Jr. Beta Club Membership Requirements 2023-2024
3rd Grade Curiosity Project
Curiosity drives people to pursue their own learning. In today’s world people can learn what they want when they want. From repairing a washing machine to purchasing the best car, nearly all the knowledge in the world is available at the touch of a button. However, young children still need to know how to digest, organize, and synthesize the information. The “curiosity project” allows us to teach time management skills along with evaluation of available resources and information, problem-solving strategies, and more all while carrying out INDIVIDUALIZED learning, and developing students’ talents!
During our Curiosity Unit children choose a topic about which they have a live interest, and they follow their own driving questions. The goal of this project is to provide modeling, structure and guidance for how to use natural curiosity to initiate learning, gather information, organize, synthesize, and share it. After the children present to classmates and families in a format of their choice, they take time to reflect on their learning. Self-direction is one of the main traits children must have as learners throughout their entire lives.