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Gifted education (also known as Gifted and Talented Education (GATE), Talented and Gifted (TAG), or G/T) is a field of education centered on the identification and servicing of high-functioning students. There is no standard definition of what a gifted student is. In the United States, each state's department of education determines if the needs of gifted students will be addressed as a mandatory function of public education. If so, the state determines the definition of which students will be identified and receive services, but may or may not determine how they shall receive services. If a state does not consider gifted education mandatory, individual districts may, thus the definition of what gifted is varies from state or district.^[1]

In contrast with Special education, Gifted education is not regulated on a national level, although recommendations by the US Department of Education are offered. As such, funding for services is not consistent from state to state, and although students may be identified, the extent to which they receive services can vary widely depending upon a state or district's monetary resources.

Contents 1 History 1.1 BCE to the Renaissance 1.2 Sir Francis Galton 1.3 Lewis Terman 1.4 Leta Hollingworth 1.5 The Cold War 1.6 Marland Report 1.7 A Nation at Risk 1.8 Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act 1.9 No Child Left Behind 2 Definitions of gifted 2.1 Renzulli's Three-Ring Model 3 Identification 4 Programming 4.1 Gifted students in the regular classroom 4.1.1 Differentiated instruction 4.2 Programs designed for gifted students 4.2.1 Extracurricular programs 5 Special populations of gifted students 6 Emotional education 7 Controversies 8 External links 9 Bibliography 10 References 11 Relevant reading

[edit] History

[edit] BCE to the Renaissance

Gifted and talented education dates back thousands of years. In China's Tang Dynasty (circa 618 BCE), child prodigies were summoned to the imperial court for specialized education ^[2]. Plato (c. 427–c. 347 BCE) advocated providing specialized education for intellectually gifted young men and women.^[2] Throughout the Renaissance, those who exhibited creative talent in art, architecture, and literature were supported by both the government and private patronage.^[2]

[edit] Sir Francis Galton

One of the earliest western studies of high function in humans was completed by Sir Francis Galton, who between 1888 and 1894 developed and compiled measurements of over 7,500 individuals to gage their natural intellectual abilities. In his studies he determined that if a parent deviates from the norm, so will the child, but to a lesser extent.^[3] Galton believed that people could be improved through engineered heredity, a movement he named eugenics. He categorized people into gifted, capable, average, or degenerate and recommended breeding between the first two categories, and forced abstinence from the latter two. His term for the most intelligent and talented people was "eminence", and after studying England's most prominent families, determined that one's eminence was directly related to his direct hereditary line.^[4]

[edit] Lewis Terman

At Stanford University in 1916, Lewis Terman adapted Alfred Binet's intelligence test into the Stanford-Binet test, and created the term "intelligence quotient" (IQ). According to Terman, the IQ was one's mental age compared to one's physical age, as compared to a sampling of other people within one's age range.^[5] He defined intelligence as "the ability to carry on abstract thinking".^[6] The US Army commissioned Terman as a major during World War I, and for the first time, intelligence testing was given to a wide population of drafted soldiers. Using his own adaptation of intelligence testing, Terman developed percentiles and determined that the most gifted fell within the top 2% of scores from the Stanford-Binet. Terman undertook extensive longitudinal studies of 1,500 children in California who scored within the top 2% - a score of 140 or above - and continued to evaluate them throughout their lives. Subjects of these case studies were called "Termites" and the studies began in 1921, and again in 1930, 1947, and 1959 after his death. Terman's studies have to date been the most extensive on high-functioning children, and are still quoted in literature today. Common conceptions that highly intelligent children were prone to ill physical and mental health, that their intelligence burned out early in their lives, and that they either achieved greatly or underachieved were dispelled by Terman's studies. Instead, he found that there is little relationship to later achievement in life by highly intelligent children, and that weakness and insanity were not directly linked to high intelligence.^[7]

[edit] Leta Hollingworth

A professional colleague of Terman's, Leta Hollingworth was the first in the United States to study how best to serve students who showed evidence of high performance on tests. Although recognizing Terman's and Galton's beliefs that heredity played a vital role in intelligence, Hollingworth gave similar credit to home environment and school structure.^[8] Hollingworth worked to dispel the pervasive belief that "bright children take care of themselves"^[9] and emphasized the importance of early identification, daily contact, and grouping gifted children with others with similar abilities. Hollingworth performed an 18-year-long study of 50 children in New York City who scored 155 or above on the Stanford-Binet, and studied smaller groups of children who scored above a 180. She also ran a school in New York City for bright students that employed a curriculum of student-led exploration, as opposed to a teacher providing students with a more advanced curriculum they would encounter later in life.^[9]

[edit] The Cold War

One unforeseen result of the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union was the immediate emphasis on education for bright students in the United States, and settled the question if the federal government should get involved in public education at all.^[10] The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed by Congress in 1958 with $1 billion US to bolster science, math, and technology in public education. Educators immediately pushed to identify gifted students and serve them in schools.^[11] Students chosen for gifted services were given intelligence tests with a strict cutoff, usually at 130, which meant that students who scored below the 130 were not identified.^[12]

[edit] Marland Report

The impact of the NDEA was evident in schools for years after, but a study on how effective education was meeting the needs of gifted students was initiated by the US Department of Education in 1969. The Marland Report, completed in 1972, for the first time presented a general definition of giftedness, and urged districts to adopt it. The report also allowed students to show high functioning on talents and skills not measurable by an intelligence test. The Marland Report defined gifted as

"Children capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in any of the following areas, singly or in combination:

1. General intellectual ability,
2. Specific academic aptitude,
3. Creative or productive thinking,
4. Leadership ability,
5. Visual and performing arts, or
6. Psychomotor ability."

The report's definition continues to be the basis of the definition of giftedness in most districts and states.^[13]

[edit] A Nation at Risk

In 1983, the result of an 18-month-long study of secondary students was published as A Nation at Risk, and was an eye-opening declaration that students in the United States were no longer receiving superior education, and in fact, could not compete with students from other developed countries in many academic exercises. One of the recommendations the book made was to increase services to gifted education programs, citing curriculum enrichment or acceleration specifically. The US federal government was also urged to create standards for the identification and servicing of gifted students.^[14]

[edit] Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act

The Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act was passed in 1988 as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Instead of funding district-level gifted education programs, the Javits Act instead has three primary components: the research of effective methods of testing, identification, and programming, which is performed at the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented; the awarding of grants to colleges, states, and districts that focus on underrepresented populations of gifted students; and grants awarded to state and districts for program implementation.^[15] Annual funding for grants must be passed by US Congress, and totaled $9.6 million US in 2007,^[16] but the money isn't promised. Since becoming president, George W. Bush has eliminated the money every year, but members of Congress override the president to make sure the grant money is distributed.^[17]

[edit] No Child Left Behind

The most recent US federal education initiative was signed into law in 2002. The goal of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is to bring proficiency of all students to grade level, but critics note it does not address the needs of gifted students who perform above grade level. The act imposes punishments on schools, administrators, and teachers when students do not achieve to the plans designs, but does not address any achievement standards for high functioning students, forcing schools and teachers to spend their time with low achieving students. An article in The Washington Post declared, "The unmistakable message to teachers -- and to students -- is that it makes no difference whether a child barely meets the proficiency standard or far exceeds it."^[18] Gifted services have been recently eroding as a result of the new legislation, according to a 2006 article in The New York Times.^[17]

[edit] Definitions of gifted

In 1978, US Congress amended the definition set by the Marland Report by removing "psychomotor ability" from the list of exhibited gifted characteristics.^[19] Psychomotor ability was removed to focus any potential programming or funding on academic issues, as opposed to programs for the arts or athletics.^[20]

[edit] Renzulli's Three-Ring Model

The same year Congress changed the definition of the Marland Report, University of Connecticut's Joseph Renzulli criticized the Marland Report definition by pointing out that it makes no provision for motivation, the six areas are not independent from each other, and the categories are misused and misunderstood by educators.^[21] Instead, Renzulli suggested that giftedness is an event that occurs when students exhibit above-average ability, task commitment, and creativity at once. Renzulli developed an identification method to go with his definition. Critics of this definition claim Renzulli did not account for underachieving gifted students, or students who did not show task commitment, though displayed talent and creativity. By using Renzulli's definition and identification method, these students would be excluded from gifted services.^[12][22]

The US Department of Education, within the ESEA, defines gifted students as "Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities."^[16]

[edit] Identification

see main article gifted identification

[edit] Programming

[edit] Gifted students in the regular classroom

[edit] Differentiated instruction

[edit] Programs designed for gifted students

[edit] Extracurricular programs

[edit] Special populations of gifted students

[edit] Emotional education

[edit] Controversies

[edit] External links

National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)

[edit] Bibliography

• Colangelo, Nicholas, Davis, Gary (1991). Handbook of Gifted Education; Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0205126529
• Davis, Gary, Rimm, Sylvia (1985). Education of the Gifted and Talented; Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0132365979

[edit] References

[edit] Relevant reading