GATE Program The San Mateo-Foster City School District offers a special-day class for gifted students.  This program is located at College Park. In addition to meeting the social and emotional needs of gifted students, the core curriculum is compacted and introduced at a highly accelerated pace so that learning experiences are developmentally appropriate to the special needs, interests, and abilities of students in the program. The differentiated curriculum includes instructional strategies that promote inquiry, self-directed learning, discussion, debate, metacognition, and other appropriate modes of learning. Additionally, it includes depth, complexity, novelty, and rigor, reinforcing abstract thinking, big ideas, and cross-curricular connections of the content area. The accelerated instructional pace of this program allows the students in the GATE classes to take advantage of the array of electives offered at S.T.A.G.E.