Established in 1946, The American Association for Gifted Children (AAGC) prides itself on being the nation’s oldest advocacy organization for gifted children. Relocated from New York to North Carolina 43 years later, the nonpro� t now calls Duke University home.

Af� liated with the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality (RNREI), AAGC strives to provide parents of gifted students with information that will assist them in raising their exceptional children.

Its mission is to foster a better understanding of the needs and capabili-ties of children with high potential and for those with unusual abilities. AAGC works everyday to ful� ll its mission by focusing on four goals:

> Develop and disseminate information about gifted education and promote equal access to services and programs for all children.

> Communicate the goals and services of AAGC to parents, educators, health professionals and the general public.

> Evaluate and promote the best curriculum resources and teaching practices for nurturing all children for academic success.

> Focus attention on developing the potential of all children through research-based programs and models.

People have to work together to transform educating all children for academic success in a complex global environment. AAGC develops alliances with parents, schools, communities and organizations to develop the potential for all children to learn by re-training educators in rigor and evidence-based practices. AAGC and partners will continue to scale-up the Bright Tomorrow model that is designed and rigorous enough to transcend the issues that surround low performing schools: poverty, race and ethnicity, background knowledge and skills of students. The Bright Tomorrow model successfully engages the family and the school faculty in developing the child’s interests, gifted intelligent behaviors and academic abilities by extending the rigor and range for academic success on state and national standards and assessments through a concept-based curriculum framework.

Mary Jane and Jerome A. Straka Scholarship

AAGC awards the Mary Jane and Jerome A. Straka Scholarship to students who are enrolled in the Talent Identification Program (TIP) at Duke University. TIP is an organization dedicated to serving academically gifted and talented youth. Internationally recognized as a leader in gifted and talented education, Duke TIP connects with students, families and educators to identify, recognize, challenge, engage, and help students reach their highest potential.

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Since 2001, AAGC and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) have collaborated to manage Project Bright IDEA: Interest Development Early Abilities, K-2. The project started as a pilot in 2001 and in 2004 was awarded a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which ended in 2010.

Schools districts are continuing to expand, under Project Bright Tomorrow, with funding from the Exceptional Children Division, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and local school districts.

Funded by the Javits Program of the U.S. Department of Education (2004-2010), Project Bright IDEA 2 was designed and implemented by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and AAGC. The project, introduced to students in kindergarten focused on empowering classroom teachers, principals and curriculum specialists to change their classroom environments to meet the interests, talents and learning styles of all children.

Students were challenged to use their full range of talents and intellectual abilities when addressing authentic and complex academic tasks. Teachers and principals were retrained to create scholarly environments that engage students in processes that are quite advanced for students.

Programs Project Bright IDEA 2 Resources> North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Exceptional

Children Division: www.dpi.state.nc.us/ec/

> UNCTV NOW Interview: Mary Watson, Director, Exceptional Children Division, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and Principal Investigator, Project Bright IDEA and William A. Darity, Arts & Sciences Professor of Public Policy Studies, Professor of African and African-American Studies and Economics at Duke University and Board Member of The American Association for Gifted Children discuss: Project Bright IDEA and the rationale for the research on NC Now, UNCTV on March 1, 2010. http://is.gd/a2vu3

> Increasing Opportunity to Learn via Access to Rigorous Courses and Programs: One Strategy for Closing the Achievement Gap for At-Risk and Ethnic Minority Students. A report prepared for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction by William Darity, Jr. and Karolyn Tyson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Domini Castellino, Duke University. Submitted to the State Board of Education, May 2001, the report was in response to State Law 2000-67, Section 8.28(b), which directed the State Board to study the under-representation of minority and at-risk students in Honors classes, Advanced Placement and Academically Gifted Programs.

> NC Statutes115C-150S - Article 9B was passed in 1996 to broaden the de� nition of academically gifted and to give school districts � exibility in determining how Academically Gifted students are identi� ed. For more information on NC Gifted Laws: www.ncagt.org

> Nurturing the Potential and Developing Talent in K-2 was a strategy designed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to implement one of the recommendations of the Darity Report and as a response to State mandates and Project Bright IDEA was designed to implement the strategy.

> In 2010, Project Bright IDEA was adapted in a strategic plan, under Project Bright Tomorrow for The Exceptional Children Divi-sion, NCDPI, to meet the needs of Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) and to align with Response to Intervention (RtI) strategies for special needs students. Pilot programs are underway with collaboration between AAGC and NCDPI.

> A number of local school districts have expanded Bright Tomorrow to grades K-5. Lenoir County started a new Bright Tomorrow Elementary School in 2009 based on Bright IDEA. http://schools.lenoir.k12.nc.us/northeast/

National Resources National Association for Gifted Children: www.nagc.org

National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt.html

Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted: www.sengifted.org

Davidson Institute for Talent Development: www.ditd.org

U.S. Department of Education: www.ed.gov

Duke University Resources The American Association for Gifted Children: www.aagc.org

The Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality: http://thenetwork.ssri.duke.edu

Talent Identi� cation Program: www.tip.duke.edu

Margaret Gayle and William Darity, Jr. Discuss Bright IDEA on Of� ce Hours with Duke University: http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/27130/margaret-gayle-sandy-darity-on

Project Bright IDEA-2 demonstrated a capacity to initiate and sustain a desired transformation in the dispositions of teachers and principals and produce a remark-able increase in the number of underserved students who become eligible for Gifted and Talented and Advanced programs. Bright IDEA is evolving into a national model program for transforming teaching and learning at K-2 levels and is expanding to other grade levels.

Results

Project Bright IDEA 2Interest Development Early Abilities

Historical Perspective

Project Bright Tomorrow

Project Bright Tomorrow is an expansion of Bright IDEA 2 and is becoming a model for Pre K-12 in local school districts. AAGC aims to nurture and treat each student as a gifted child that needs access to excellent teaching for them to reach their potential for a successful future.

In order to achieve this, the designers of Project Bright Tomorrow believe that teachers and principals need to become creative scholars of the subjects they teach and of the evidence-based educational theory and practice that is needed to develop academically successful students from all backgrounds.

For More InformationVisit http://www.aagc.org/

This brochure is funded by gifts to the Marjorie Craig Memorial Fund.Marjorie Craig provided years of outstanding leadership to AAGC.

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