![]() During the era of segregation in the US-and even in the decades after-white parents pushed for their kids to be enrolled in these overwhelmingly white programs black kids, meanwhile, rarely had the same opportunities. Some schools offered full-day enriched instruction to students who had been identified as gifted, while others would offer it only in particular classes or in after-school activities.īut for decades, gifted education has been criticized for perpetuating inequality. Though the first school for gifted children opened in Massachusetts in 1901, much of the foundational research about gifted education happened in the 1920s and 1930s, paving the way for an explosion of gifted education programs in the post-Sputnik panic of the late 1950s. They don’t like school, they aren’t as intellectually engaged as they could be, they’re not developing their creative and innovative skills-all things that our culture and workforce desperately need,” Plucker says. “If we’re not finding ways to get them more challenge, they kind of zone out. Providing these children with more rigorous classwork isn’t just for their benefit, but for society’s, as well, says Jonathan Plucker, a professor of talent development at Johns Hopkins University and the president of the board of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). Educators try to identify these gifted children early in their academic careers, often by the third or fourth grade, because they are still young enough to have that talent developed, but not so young that it’s difficult to administer the assessments (i.e., they can sit still and read on their own). “If we’re not finding ways to get them more challenge, they kind of zone out.”Įxperts disagree whether giftedness is something that children are born with, but most agree it’s something that can be cultivated. The terminology used to refer to these students-talented, accelerated, or in need of enriched programs-varies by state or by educational philosophy, and many states and individual school districts follow their own definitions. “We’re trying to make sure all students are exposed to a rigorous curriculum.” “We don’t have students grouped together and separate from other students,” Fuller says. The hardest part was the scheduling, since administrators didn’t want gifted kids to feel like a separate community from the rest of the school. Galway Elementary, in Silver Spring, was one of the pilot schools for the policy, which has since been rolled out across the district.Īt Galway, the shift wasn’t too disruptive, says Dorothea Fuller, the school’s principal since 2013. Instead of requiring families to identify what students would be tested, the district instead evaluated every student in second grade or older for abilities in reading and math fourth- and fifth-graders who needed more enrichment were enrolled in accelerated classes with curriculum set by the district. ![]() “What we’re talking about is reconceptualizing what ‘giftedness’ means in K-12 schools.”īut starting in the 2016-17 school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) rolled out new policies around gifted education.
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