The state Board of Education today will consider a new process for identifying "gifted" children and beefing up the monitoring of gifted programs, steps advocates say would help provide a mind-stretching education for the state's top students.

Under the current law, students are classified as gifted if they score at least 130 on an IQ test and meet other criteria, such as performing one or more years above grade level and excelling in one or more subject areas.

The proposed change would classify students as gifted if they meet the IQ threshold or meet multiple other criteria. Advocates said the change is needed because IQ tests don't always flag gifted students, particularly those from disadvantaged homes, children with disabilities and deep-thinkers who don't do well on timed tests.

"There are many school districts that will look at that and say, 'If you do not have the magic number, you are not in,' " said David Mason, president of Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education and a retired York County school administrator.

Advocates said they didn't consider the potential change a watering down of eligibility criteria or something that would swell the ranks of gifted students. About 70,000 of the state's 1.8 million school-age children receive gifted services, according to the state board.

Another proposed change would give school districts less time -- 60 calendar days, as opposed to the 60 school days now allowed -- to review a student's application for gifted services, said Bonnie Dyer, curriculum and instruction coordinator for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.

Officials still are working out details of other changes, including monitoring of programs, teacher caseloads and class sizes.

Board members will review the proposals today and may vote tomorrow, Education Department spokeswoman Leah Harris said. The changes then would have to undergo a regulatory review process, including approval by the state House and Senate education committees, she said.

A growing number of states are moving toward multiple indicators of giftedness, said Nancy Green, executive director of National Association for Gifted Children in Washington, D.C.

J. Kaye Cupples, executive director of support services for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, said the district already uses a lower IQ threshold -- 115 -- in determining giftedness among students receiving free and reduced-price lunches.

Some city parents have accused the district of going in the other direction -- tightening eligibility guidelines -- by rejecting IQ tests from private psychologists and insisting children take district-administered tests.

Dr. Cupples said the district isn't trying to limit enrollment in gifted programs, only trying to make sure services go to students entitled to them. In a handful of cases, he said, the district found the private tests to be inaccurate.

The district is planning an overhaul of gifted education; details will be provided at the school board Education Committee meeting next month.

State officials voluntarily monitor gifted programs in a handful of districts each year, but Dr. Mason said the proposed changes for the first time would make monitoring a legal requirement for the state.

The change would be welcomed by Michelle Ciora, a resident of Penn, Butler County, who hopes monitoring will improve the quality of gifted programs. Currently, she said, some programs are little more than busy work.

"They are not designed to meet the needs of the child," said Ms. Ciora, president of Pennsylvanians for the Education of Gifted Students, who home-schools her three children because of dissatisfaction with gifted programs in public schools.

Some advocates want the federal government to assert the same central authority over gifted programs that it has with education for disabled students. Ms. Green said she believes gifted students have received little attention in recent years because of the No Child Left Behind Act's efforts to move lagging students to proficiency in math and reading.