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by Eric Jones and W. Thomas Southern

Academically Gifted and Talented

REFLECT UPON

• How is giftedness defined and classified?

• What are the primary behavioralcharacteristics of students with gifts andtalents?

• How prevalent are students with gifts andtalents, and what causal factors areassociated with these characteristics?

• How are students with gifts and talentsidentified and assessed?

• What educational practices are used forearly intervention, academicenhancements, and transitions to adultlife for students with gifts and talents?

• What are the major issues confronting theeducation of students with gifts andtalents?

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Special Education for Today’s Teachers: An Introduction, by M ichael S. Rosenberg, David L. W estling, and Jam es M cLeskey.

Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Julie Lenner is a teacher of students identified asgifted in the Sandusky city schools in northwesternOhio. She has been on the job for 5 years. She hascompleted a master’s degree in gifted educationand has recently become a part-time instructor ingifted education at a local university.

Julie became interested in these children al-most by chance. As an undergraduate elementaryeducation major, she frequently sought out op-portunities to volunteer in a wide variety of educa-tional settings, including summer camps andcommunity programs. During the summer follow-ing her junior year, Julie was hired to serve as acounselor in a summer program for students withgifts and talents. Her curiosity was piqued by theenthusiasm of the students and the range of thechallenges they pursued. During the followingsummer, she not only participated in the sameprogram (this time as a residential director) butalso took graduate classes in the field of gifted ed-ucation. At the same time she was looking for ajob. Jobs in elementary education turned out to behighly competitive. However, she noticed a postedopening in Sandusky. While she had not com-pleted her licensure in gifted education (requiredunder state of Ohio law), she applied. Julie hadstudent-taught in this district, and staff membershad already expressed interest in her.

Julie’s initial appointment was wide-rangingand intense. She met with students identified asgifted. In addition, she was expected to developcurricula for the program in language arts and

mathematics, provide counseling for students andconsultation with students’ general classroomteachers, meet with and counsel parents, developindividual written plans for each student, and as-sist in identifying students for the following year.Julie describes her first group of students as“great.” She was concerned about some identifiedstudents who were experiencing difficulty andworried about whether or not she was providingappropriate experiences. Since her district has aculturally diverse student body, she struggled withthe issues of identifying students with inappropri-ate instruments and dealing with students whomight be missed by the district’s policy. And therewere other challenges. Some students seemed un-connected to the curriculum, even when their abil-ities and precocities were evident in nonacademicexchanges. Some were confrontational; otherswere too quietly compliant or behaviorally diffi-cult (challenging her initial assumptions thatgifted students would accept and rise to chal-lenges). She also noted that classroom teacherswere often unaware of the kinds of difficultiesgifted students experienced in educational set-tings. They seemed to feel that these kids couldmake it on their own with little problem and thatthe services they received were not as essential asthose provided in the general classroom.

My Profession, My Story: Julie Lenner

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410 www.prenhall.com/rosenberg

Julie’s typical day starts with meetings with general education class-room teachers at 7:30 A.M., planning the logistics of the day. From 8:00to 11:10 she meets with students in math and language arts in the uppergrades. She also meets with grade-level groups of five or six students eachfor 40 minutes. During the lunch hour, she eats with the building staff tokeep up with what’s going on in the school and chat about students, hashout ideas, and so on. Julie has a 35-minute planning period, but it is fre-quently taken up with administrative and parent concerns. She also hassupervisory duty (recess, lunch, etc.) or a demonstration lesson for whole-grade groups of students. From 1:00 to 2:15 she repeats the morningschedule with other grades and students. Then until 3:30 she has dis-missal duty and meeting and planning responsibilities with peers, admin-istrators, and parents.

Julie Lenner is an excellent example of a teacher who realizes that it isimportant to take care of herself in order to take care of her students. Todo this, she participates in professional organizations and accesses pro-fessional development opportunities often. From time to time the pres-sures of external mandates and difficult performance expectationsintrude on a teacher’s ability to provide conscionable instruction. In giftededucation, this is amplified by the attitudes of some of the general edu-cation staff and administrators, who are unaware of the difficulties andneeds experienced by students who are gifted. She deals with these pres-sures by finding peers at building, district, state, and national levels tosupport her.

One basic reason students come to schoolis to learn things that they do not already

know. Of course, time is needed to refine andimprove certain skills. Certainly, it is also im-portant for students to become socialized intheir schools, make friends, and learn to dealwith authority. Academic achievement is,however,the primary reason that students areexpected to attend school. While some stu-dents have difficulty profiting from our bestefforts to teach them, others demonstrate ex-ceptional abilities to gain impressive levels ofcompetence rapidly and appear more insight-ful and creative than their peers. These pre-cocious students appear to learn with verylittle effort; however, their exceptional apti-tudes often challenge the talents, skills, andpatience of their teachers.

Certainly children and youth with high in-telligence or impressive talents are likely to

have advantages coping with the challenges of learning and socialization.However, it isa mistake to assume that they can be left to their own devices. It is a bit of popularmythology that students with gifts and talents will thrive without special attention fromtheir teachers, counselors, and parents. Overlooked and unfulfilled geniuses are such

It is a myth that students with giftsand talents will thrive withoutspecial attention; the population isvery diverse and their needscomplex and varied.

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411Chapter 15: Academically Gifted and Talented

common themes that we have proverbs, novels, and feature-length films about them.Nonetheless, students whose capacities to learn and achieve are significantly greaterthan those of their peers (and sometimes greater than their teachers and other adults intheir lives) require special interventions.Despite the many stereotypes of giftedness,thepopulation of students with gifts and talents is very diverse and their needs complex andvaried (see the “FAQ Sheet”). While it may seem that persons with exceptional poten-tial to learn do not need special education,there is broad agreement among parents andeducators that such services are needed.

Reflective Exercise #1Although students with gifts andtalents can learn very rapidly, theyoften share emotional maturitiesand interests similar to those oftheir age-level peers. They oftenchallenge our abilities to provideservices that meet theireducational needs and theirsocial/emotional development. Doyou have the temperament towork with children and youth whoare precocious learners?

FAQ Sheet

STUDENTS WITH GIFTS AND TALENTS

Who are they?

• Children and youth in some states who meet a threshold inIQ or achievement

• Children in some states who far exceed peers in learningpace or attainment

• Children who have demonstrated performance abilities athigh levels in visual or performing arts, creativity, orleadership

What are typicalcharacteristics?

• Academic or creative performance that vastly exceeds thatof their age mates

• Ability to understand complex and abstract ideas at agesearlier than expected

• Socially well adjusted at early ages but with concerns aboutlater socialization

• High levels of task commitment• Advanced language skills and development• Advanced sense of humor• Advanced vocabulary and sophisticated use of language

What are thedemographics?

• Between 5 and 20% of the population• Roughly equivalent numbers of males and females• Nonproportional lower representation of African American,

Hispanic, and Native American students• Lower-than-proportional representation of economically

disadvantaged students

Where arestudentseducated?

• Most are educated in inclusive settings with smallernumbers educated in resource room pullouts, self-containedclassrooms, and special schools for the gifted.

What are theoutcomes?

• Most are successful in school, though evidence indicates thatmany underachieve.

• Identified gifted students graduate from college and achieveadvanced degrees in greater percentages than do nongiftedpeers.

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DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA FOR GIFTEDNESS

DEFINING GIFTEDNESS

Attempts to identify the concept of giftedness have resulted in an assortment of defi-nitions. A central theme in all the conceptualizations of giftedness is the concept ofhigh ability.Beyond that,however,concepts of giftedness vary widely.Some definitionsconsider a wide spectrum of different abilities, such as intellectual abilities, creativethinking, artistic talents, or social leadership. Others are primarily concerned with in-tellectual abilities, motivations, attitudes, and personal dispositions. Still other defini-tions focus on demonstrated achievement,while others are concerned with potentialabilities. Ironically, the educational needs of students with gifts are not directly ad-dressed in most efforts.

Definitions have changed as views of intelligence, talent, and motivation havechanged. Often these changes have been influenced by changes in the technologiesfor measuring those traits.Cultural,societal,and historical factors have also influencedassumptions about the appropriate goals for both general education and gifted edu-cation. We focus on three commonly accepted definitions of giftedness.

The Marland Federal DefinitionThe most widely cited definition of giftedness was originally developed by Marland(1972) as a guide for federal funding of education programs presented to the U.S.Congress:

Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualifiedpersons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high perfor-mance. These are children who require differentiated educational programsand/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school pro-gram in order to realize their contribution to self and society.Children capa-ble of high performance include those with demonstrated achievementand/or potential ability in any of the following areas:• General intellectual ability• Specific academic ability• Creative or productive thinking• Leadership ability• Visual and performing arts• Psychomotor ability (p. 5)

The Marland (1972) definition (and its subsequent modification in 1979) is sig-nificant for several reasons. First, it stressed the complexity of the concept of gifted-ness.Second, it stated clearly that giftedness may be identified by either demonstratedperformance or demonstration of potential for ability. Third, and perhaps most im-portant, the report called for special education services for students with gifts and tal-ents beyond those provided to students in general education programs.

During the past 20 years, several important alternative definitions for giftednesshave been proposed.Generally, they reflect varied perceptions of the importance andnature of intelligence and their relationship to talent and nonintellectual traits such aspersistence and self-esteem.

Renzulli’s Three-Ring Conception of GiftednessRenzulli (2002) defines giftedness as behavior that is the result of the combination ofthree ingredients: well-above-average ability, task commitment, and creativity. The in-terlocking rings in Figure 15.1 illustrate the relationship among the three ingredientsof gifted accomplishment. In developing this definition of giftedness, Renzulli (1977)addressed two major problems with the Marland (1972) definition. First, the Marlanddefinition did not include motivational factors.Renzulli considered task commitment,or the motivation to persevere with a task,as an important attribute of giftedness.Sec-ond, the Marland effort included several traits that seemed to overlap in their effects

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High ability

TaskcommitmentCreativity

FIGURE 15.1

THREE COMPONENTS OF RENZULLI’S SCHOOLWIDEENRICHMENT MODEL

Source: From Renzulli, J. S. (1986). The three ring conception of giftedness: A developmentalmodel for creative productivity. In R. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness(pp. 53–92). New York: Cambridge University Press.

on performance. Renzulli contended that sometraits such as creativity or leadership do not ex-ist apart from the performance areas in whichthey are applied.For example,a creative jazz mu-sician is not necessarily expected to demon-strate creativity in areas such as writing, debate,or science.

According to Renzulli’s model, well-above-average ability can be defined by performancesthat indicate either general intellectual abilitiesor specific talents. General abilities include ab-stract thinking, spatial relations, and logical rea-soning. These abilities are considered importantand are frequently measured by intelligencetests. Specific abilities may be shown in areassuch as academics, art, or social behavior.

Renzulli (1986) observed that task commit-ment is a trait that has been consistently associ-ated with giftedness.People are not characterizedas having gifts and talents because of occasionalinstances of insight or superior performance. Hefound consensus among studies of accomplished and talented people that motivation towork hard and to persevere through difficulties to meet high personal expectations forquality are dependably associated with giftedness. Thus, motivation to learn and pro-duce is an essential ingredient in his conceptualization of giftedness. Task commitmentis most frequently observed when students identify their own target for study,usually in-dividual or small-group projects.

Renzulli’s review of studies of productive and talented persons supported the in-clusion of a third ingredient—creativity. Genius has usually been recognized becauseof creative productivity. Originality, constructively ingenious problem solving, and di-vergent thinking are considered to be traits of creativity.Unfortunately,as he observed,they are traits that are difficult to assess in everyday situations.

Reflective Exercise #2 Compare Renzulli’s model forgiftedness with the Marlanddefinition. Which model hasgreater importance for educators?

Task commitment is a trait thathas been observed consistentlyamong students with gifts andtalents.

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Reflective Exercise #3What is your opinion of the theoryof multiple intelligences? Do youbelieve these specific areas exist?Do you believe that intelligencecan be reduced to eight specificareas? Explain.

1. Linguistic (sensitivity to the meaning and order of words) 2. Logical-mathematical (ability in numbering/reasoning and other logical systems) 3. Musical (ability to understand and create music) 4. Spatial (ability to perceive the visual world accurately and re-create or alter it)5. Bodily-kinesthetic (ability to use one’s body in a skilled way—e.g., a dancer)6. Interpersonal (ability to perceive and understand other individuals)7. Intrapersonal (ability to understand one’s own emotions; self-knowledge) 8. Naturalist (ability to discriminate among elements of natural world; knowledge of nature)

Also see http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm for a summary of Dr. Howard Gardner’s re-search; discussions of multiple intelligences, including additional intelligences that he has consid-ered; references, and links to related sources.Source: From Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. Multiple intelligences for the 21st century.New York: Basic Books.

Gardner’s Definition Using Multiple IntelligencesGardner and colleagues (e.g., Gardner, 1983; Gardner & Hatch, 1989; Walters & Gard-ner,1986;Ramos-Ford & Gardner,1991) believe that intelligence and giftedness are notgeneral traits and therefore should not be viewed as the general factors that IQ testspurport to measure.Consequently, they developed a theory of multiple types of intel-ligences in which intelligence is defined as “the capacity to solve problems or to fash-ion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings”(Gardner & Hatch,1989,p. 5). In their view there are eight areas of intelligence: logical mathematical, linguis-tic, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.Figure 15.2 lists the eight intelligences with examples of roles and abilities generallyassociated with each. Gardner (1983) allowed that the list may not be exhaustive andthat other intelligences could be identified. However, it does include a set of compe-tencies that, although they may usually operate in combination, are capable of func-tioning individually. Thus, each talent may be studied, identified, and developed apartfrom the others.

CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING GIFTEDNESS

The two most frequently used classificationsystems in the education of the students withgifts and talents are (1) types of gifts and (2)levels of giftedness.

Types of Gifts and TalentsWhen students are classified by type of gift ortalent, criteria from the Marland (1972) fed-eral definition are used. For example, generalintellectual ability refers to scores on IQ tests,and specific academic aptitude refers to highabilities in content-specific areas (most fre-quently mathematics, science, social studies,reading,and writing).Creativity describes stu-dents who have numerous, useful, and origi-nal ideas. Leadership describes students whoare natural or developing leaders. Students

with talents in visual and performing arts excel in instrumental or local performance,two- or three-dimensional arts, dance, or theater.

Some students with gifts andtalents excel in the visual andperforming arts.

FIGURE 15.2

GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

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Another distinction among the types is what some researchers characterize asgifts versus talents. Intellectual and academic performances were often referred to asgifts, while the others were labeled talents. Many theorists view this distinction as in-valid (all observed behaviors are manifestations of gifts) and portray the talent areasas less important or remarkable. For example, Gagné (1999) suggests that initial giftsin the individual become recognized talents after opportunity, instruction, environ-ment, and chance factors contribute to their development and exposure. This moreecological view appears to be winning approval in the field.

Levels of GiftednessThe notion that giftedness should be sorted into levels arose with the study of indi-viduals with high IQ scores.Hollingsworth (1940) suggested that individuals with IQshigher than 180 are very different than those with lower IQs still in the gifted range.Other researchers attempted to determine if bands of intelligence might have differ-ent characteristics and needs. This led to a designation of levels of giftedness:

IQ 130–145: GiftedIQ 145–160: Highly giftedAbove IQ 160: Profoundly gifted

Still, many are not pleased with this classification system. They feel that IQ aloneis an inadequate measure to accurately classify types of giftedness and that the per-formance of students at each level is not that dissimilar.Nonetheless, there are still ref-erences to such a system in gifted texts, and research into the profoundly gifted is stillbeing conducted (e.g., Gross, 2004; Silverman, 1990).

PRIMARY BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH GIFTS AND TALENTS

As we have seen, the term giftedness suggests a range of different patterns of behav-ior. We first consider some of the early stereotypes of students with gifts and thenidentify empirically derived characteristics.

EARLY CONCEPTUALIZATIONS

Early written accounts of students with gifts and talents presented a variety of physical,cognitive,and affective characteristics.Lombroso (1891),a 19th-century writer,describedthem as being near-sighted, physically weak, and oversensitive. He claimed that geniuswas a force that burned the body’s substance and put sanity at risk. The cliché that “ge-nius is separated from madness by a fine line”was originally one of Lombroso’s assertions.

Terman (1925) conducted a study of the characteristics of more than 1,500 stu-dents with IQs above 140 in order to investigate Lombroso’s characterizations.He con-cluded that students identified as gifted were physically larger and healthier, morelikely to mature into adults who were also highly productive,and had superior mentalhealth compared to their average peers. Terman’s and Lombroso’s characterizationsare contradictory, but they are both represented in current stereotypes of giftedness.Neither characterization is adequately supported. Terman’s more scientific study wasflawed because it was based primarily on white middle-class students from advantagedbackgrounds. The characteristics he found might not be typical of students whodemonstrate exceptional abilities in today’s diverse multicultural communities.

CURRENT VIEWS

Students with gifts and talents vary greatly in physical, cognitive, and affective charac-teristics.Some students exhibit traits that can be viewed quite positively.For example,some students show high degrees of empathy for others,task commitment,motivationto excel,or desire to fulfill teacher expectations.On the other hand,high-ability studentsmay exhibit behaviors that are viewed negatively. They may display impatience with

Reflective Exercise #4How much influence should IQtest scores have in thedetermination of giftedness? Whatother factors should be part of theclassification system?

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Questioning rules and authority, a trait associated with creative students, may alienate someteachers and peers.

peers’inability to rapidly learn information,question authority and become rebellious,or express distaste for tasks that require drill and repetition.

Some students with gifts and talents are disorganized and appear flighty and un-focused. Ironically, some traits associated with creative students may actually interferewith their being selected to participate in gifted education programs (Richert, Alvino,& McDonnel, 1982). Unusual responses may be considered flaky and off-the-wall.Questioning rules and authority may be viewed as rudeness or sarcasm. A high degreeof risk-taking behavior may result in the adoption of attitudes and behaviors that os-tracize the student from peers and teachers.

Developmental FactorsThe characteristics of students who are gifted also vary according to developmentalage. As these children go through school, more and more specific sorts of talent de-velop. Young children may be well developed in all the school tasks. They may be ableto accomplish most of the learning in early grades with apparent ease. However, bythe time a student reaches middle grades, preferences, strengths, and comparativeweaknesses become more apparent. Some students excel in mathematics or science,while others express high achievement in writing or history.Some of these differencesarise because, in later grades, content becomes more specific and directed.

Cognitive,affective,and physical development is not uniform.For example,young chil-dren may display very large vocabularies or advanced problem-solving skills. They mayalso engage in temper tantrums and emotional displays common to other children theirage. When students with gifts and talents enter school,their school-related fine-motor skillsmay not match their cognitive development.Faced with tasks such as handwriting and col-oring, they may experience frustration. Young boys often express impatience with thecumbersome process of handwriting,even developing strong dislike for the entire writingprocess.Students who enter school early or skip grades are not as apt to participate in var-sity athletics as their chronological-age peers. While they may continue to participate insports, lower levels of physical maturation may disadvantage young students if they haveto compete with grade-level peers.Many students will pursue other interests and choosenot to compete or participate in interscholastic sports (Olenchak & Hebert,2002).

AdolescenceAdolescence is perhaps the most challenging period of development for high-abilitystudents.Buescher (1991) describes adolescence as a time of personal redefinition forall youth. The role of “good student” and “high achiever” may be questioned in the

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light of the intense physical and emotional changes occurring during this period.Some students begin to distrust their ability and question whether they really havegifts and talents. Others may change priorities and acquire greater preferences for re-lations with peers that conflict with goals for advanced achievement.For females, thiscan sometimes include rejection of mathematics and science as a course of study (Reis& Graham, 2005). For males, it may result in adopting more rebellious and noncom-pliant roles.It is important that teachers remember that these changes are more a func-tion of adolescence than of giftedness (Buescher, 1991) (see “Can You Help Me withThis Student?”).

As students with gifts and talents progress further in school, a major task fac-ing them is the selection of training and career options. For many students, inter-ests and abilities have been channeled for some time. They have identified careerchoices (or an area of knowledge to pursue) early and clearly. For others, thesechoices are more difficult. Some students with gifts, particularly those with multi-ple talents,experience difficulties making decisions about which options to pursue(Berger, 1994).

Postsecondary education is the time when students redefine themselves,this timeas young adults with different responsibilities. At this point they may, and frequentlydo,change career aspirations and goals. For instance, students who might have identi-fied a long graduate educational course may change their minds and choose a moredirect career path.

Reflective Exercise #5What were your initial thoughtsregarding the characteristics ofstudents with gifts and talents?How do the empirically derivedcharacteristics compare with yourinitial thoughts?

Can You Help Me with This Student?

ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF A GIFTED CHILD

Wes’s mother was annoyed.Once more the 3-year-old hadpulled volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia from theshelf and was paging through them. He never seemed toharm them, but it was an irritation for her to have tocontinually replace them. As she walked over to him, helooked up, pointed at a picture caption, and asked,“What’s this word, Mommy?”She told him and then askedwhy he wanted to know. He replied, “Because I can readall the other words.”Without instruction, Wes had taughthimself to read at the age of 3.

When he entered school, achievement tests indicatedthat he was reading above the sixth-grade level.Some of theschool officials wanted him to skip kindergarten, but thekindergarten teacher was adamant that he would missvaluable skills and that gaps in instruction would laterlimit his progress.The parents and school officials opted fora 6-week trial in kindergarten with a review of placementat the end of that time. At the review, the kindergartenteacher still opposed acceleration to first grade, citing im-maturity and poor foundations in reading.“He can’t evendo letter cards [matching capital and lower case letters],”she stated. The coordinator for gifted education and thecurriculum director conducted an observation duringwhich Wes appeared silent and a bit resentful of varioustasks.At one point the teacher passed out a worksheet with

a picture of a dinosaur and asked students to name the ini-tial sound of the object in the picture.When one of his class-mates responded with a “d” sound, for dinosaur, Wessuddenly became animated.He shook his head vigorouslyand raised his hand frantically.The teacher with one raisedeyebrow at the observers called on him.

“No!” he cried.“It’s a ‘t’ sound, for Trachodon. That’swhat it says right here,” indicating the fine print belowthe picture.

EXTEND AND APPLY• There are a large number of children like Wes in Ameri-

can schools. If you were Wes’s teacher, how would youhave handled this situation to avoid the initial con-frontation? What advice would you have given thekindergarten teacher to help her avoid the period of in-creasing hostility?

• What should happen next for Wes? What kind of follow-up and monitoring needs to be done in the future?

Activity: Go to the Video Classroom section of theTeacher Prep website, click on Special Education andthen module 5: Families and Special Education.Watch video 1 and answer the accompanyingquestions. Think about how Wes’s family couldadvocate for him with his teacher and the school.

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AdulthoodStudies of adults with gifts and talents tend to take the form of biographical surveys,usually of the famous and the eminent (e.g., Goertzel & Goertzel, 1962; Roe, 1952).While these life histories provide insight into some of the later development of indi-viduals with gifts and talents, the sample is biased.Studies that have identified and fol-lowed groups of “typical” individuals with gifts and talents through adulthood arescarce. Terman (1925) completed the most noteworthy longitudinal study. Althoughthat study relied on the IQ data of a very narrow sample, it provides a glimpse of howhighly capable students progress into adulthood. The group,as a whole,was stable, inboth personal and professional relationships. The males in Terman’s group were gen-erally satisfied with their life achievements.Some members of the group were near thetop of their professions.Females told a different story.Few of the women identified inthe group had engaged in careers. When they were interviewed as adults, the womenexpressed disappointment that they had not fulfilled their academic potential. Giventhe societal roles and expectations for women at the time of the study, that resultis not surprising. More recent studies (e.g., Arnold, 1993) have indicated that high-achieving women do not find it easy to resolve professional and family options(Tomlinson-Keasey & Keasey, 1993).

PREVALENCE AND CAUSAL FACTORS

PREVALENCE

Estimates of the numbers of students who are gifted and talented vary so widely thatit is difficult to find consensus among them. The estimates differ as a function of threevariables: (1) the prevailing conceptualizations of giftedness, (2) services offered forgifted students,and (3) the quality of the general education program.Gagné (1991) re-ported that most prevalence estimates are based on IQs of 130 or on academicachievement at the 95th percentile. Accordingly, we would expect to find that about5% of the school-age population is gifted, but actual numbers vary considerably fromthat estimate. Renzulli (1986) argued that performances on standardized, norm-referenced tests do not provide adequate bases for the identification of giftedness andtalent. More liberal criteria would allow for the identification of 15 to 20% of theschool’s population as potentially gifted.It seems that the general public shares the lib-eral criteria. Gagné, Bélanger, and Motard (1993) surveyed noneducators regardingtheir estimates of the prevalence of school-age children with gifts and talents. Theyfound that estimates varied widely for both labels. An average of 19% of school-agechildren were estimated to be gifted, while the average estimate of talented studentswas 36%.

From these data we can draw three conclusions.First,estimates of prevalence varywidely depending on how closely you adhere to the IQ model of giftedness. Second,professionals offer lower estimates than nonprofessionals do. Third, estimates vary ifthe notion of high ability is broadened from cognitive or academic abilities to includeartistic, creative, social, and psychomotor talents. Also keep in mind that the demandfor special education for students with gifts and talents increases if the general cur-riculum is inadequate to meet their instructional needs. Schools with high academicdemands, well-designed curricula, and good instruction experience less pressure forspecial services. Thus,variations in local education programs are accompanied by vari-ations in demands for educational services.

CAUSAL FACTORS

Where does giftedness come from? Answers to that question rarely seem adequate. Tomany, the term gifted suggests something mystical.However,most of the professionaldiscussion on causality centers on inheritance and environment. While the debate haswaxed and waned,most theorists believe that both genetic and environmental factorsare important in the development of intellectual gifts. Gagné (1993) and Feldhusen(1992) offer models of talent development that describe a genetic and environmental

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interaction. In Gagné’s model, for example, giftedness is a predisposed set of inbornabilities that allows a range of development in the child. These abilities, however, in-teract with environmental factors such as guidance from other significant people, ap-propriate early instruction, and even chance. The environment also impactsmotivational and personality traits important for the development of talent.

While innate abilities may provide the bases for giftedness, the preponderance ofrelatively advantaged students in programs for gifted students clearly suggests thatthe socioeconomics of communities, schools, and families also play critical causalroles. Specifically, where you live and the school you attend can influence the devel-opment of giftedness. More affluent communities, schools, and families tend to havemore opportunities for intellectual and creative efforts. Gifted education programsare only sporadically available in rural and low-income school districts (Southern &Jones, 1992).

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT

There is a wide assortment of evaluation procedures used to identify students forgifted education programs. These varied procedures contribute to the diverse char-acteristics and different numbers of students who are identified as gifted. Test-drivenidentification systems tend to be based on rather simple conceptualizations that iden-tify only 2 to 5% of the school population as gifted. The major problem is that testsalone do not identify many students who consistently demonstrate significant talentand capabilities.Standardized tests only offer general predictions and are not very use-ful in identifying students for programs that provide for diverse opportunities for in-dividual enrichment. Currently, the most useful identification processes are based onthe use of multiple criteria (Davis & Rimm,2003), including intelligence tests,achieve-ment tests, creativity tests, teacher nominations, peer nominations, parent nomina-tions, product sampling, and self-nominations.

INTELLIGENCE TESTS

Intelligence tests provide information that is often useful for predicting future schoolperformance.Scores are highly reliable and relatively stable.Critics,however,argue thatthere are several limitations to IQ tests. First, they are based on limited conceptualiza-tions of intelligence because they only test convergent and analytical reasoning.Second,IQ tests do not adequately identify students from special populations. Third,IQ tests be-come less useful in determining specific abilities and talents as students grow older.

ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Achievement tests offer more specific information about student learning and alsoprovide norm-referenced comparative data. Achievement tests are generally organizedinto subtests that provide information on academic strengths and weaknesses.For thisreason achievement test batteries are often used to identify specific academic abilities.However, these tests have potential drawbacks.

The content of standardized achievement tests is made up of samples of items thattest what is taught,or what should be taught, in schools.However, there are great vari-ations in the contents of local curricula among school districts. Frequently, what istested is not what is taught, so norm-referenced comparisons may not be valid. More-over, achievement tests may lack sufficient numbers of difficult questions to reliablymeasure the achievement of very capable students. The tests are fairly easy; and al-though the students earn high scores, their achievement is not thoroughly tested.

CREATIVITY TESTS

During the 1950s,researchers developed instruments to assess divergent thinking andcreativity.Many tests of creativity measure traits such as creative fluency,or the abilityto produce large numbers of responses; flexibility,or the ability to produce responsesin a large number of categories; elaboration, or the ability to link words or symbols

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together to make new ideas; and originality, or the ability to generate responses thatare unusual or unique. Research with creativity tests has shown some lower correla-tion with IQ testing.Proponents therefore claim that the instruments are measuring aconstruct different from intelligence. Nonetheless, links among creativity-test perfor-mance and adult productivity have not been clearly established, and some researchclaiming that creativity is linked to school achievement has been called into question(Piirto, 1992).

TEACHER NOMINATIONS

Teachers often participate in the process of identifying students who may benefitfrom specialized programs. Usually they are asked to either supply ratings of stu-dents’ strengths and weaknesses or nominate students who they think would bene-fit from special services. Teachers do not rate and nominate only students whoappear to be academically precocious. They are frequently asked to provide ratingson different abilities or aptitudes, such as creativity, content ability, artistic aptitude,and motivation. The importance of teachers’ participation should not be ignored.Teachers directly observe students’ academic performance. They also observe theperformances of their students in comparison to one another in academic and rele-vant nonacademic settings. Teacher ratings/nominations are also inexpensive andeasily collected.

Still, teachers’ judgments should be used cautiously. Some researchers have foundthat teachers are relatively poor at identifying both students with high IQs and stu-dents with specific academic aptitudes (Pegnato & Birch, 1959; Terman & Oden,1947). Some teachers orient to indicators that are not highly related to gifted behav-iors.For example,they might view neatness,grammatical speech,or exact compliancewith assignments as highly related to student ability when, in fact, such traits may beirrelevant. The literature on the use of teacher evaluations suggests several guidelines.First, teacher ratings are perhaps most useful if they are used to indicate talents andabilities that may be missed in formal testing. Second, since some teachers may havedramatically high rates of nominations while others nominate relatively few students,teachers should be trained in rating and nominating students. Third,even if training isprovided, teachers’ evaluations should be used cautiously because differences do notdisappear with training. Fourth, teachers should provide capable students with in-struction that requires the students to use abstract reasoning, creativity, or problemsolving. If students do not have opportunities to show their cognitive abilities, teach-ers will not be able to observe them.

PEER NOMINATIONS

When observing their fellow students, peers see a wider variety of behaviors than doteachers. Consequently, peers can be asked questions that help identify giftedness.There can,however,be difficulties with peer nomination.First,young students may beoverly influenced by teacher praise of student peers. Peer judgment may reflect theteacher’s judgments. Second,older peers tend to be less informative because they arereluctant or they take the process less seriously than younger students do. Third,peerjudgments are frequently influenced by behaviors that have little to do with aptitudesor abilities of their peers. For example, students who irritate others or belittle theirpeers will probably not be selected as frequently as other students will. Fourth, thenumber of nominations that are needed to identify a student is open to question.Givensome of the factors that cause students to undernominate certain students,peer nom-inations should be used cautiously.

PARENT NOMINATIONS

Arguably, parents are the greatest source of nominations of students (Jones & South-ern,1991).Parents know a great deal about their child’s behavior. Thus, they are oftenasked to participate in assessments by filling out forms or rating scales or are simplyasked if their son or daughter should be a part of a program for the gifted and talented.

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Parents can provide extensive information about current habits, skills, leisure activi-ties, and preferred learning tasks. However, it can be difficult to determine the valueof some types of parental information. Unless they have kept accurate records, ques-tions about milestone events in a child’s life (e.g., the age at which speech began orthe age at which an interest in books emerged) are difficult to interpret and recall.Un-like teachers, parents are apt to lack a comparative frame of reference. For example,questions about the size of their child’s vocabulary or the relative sophistication of thechild’s sense of humor are difficult for many parents to answer accurately.

PRODUCT SAMPLING

Products provide information about how students perform in terms of critical and cre-ative thinking in various content areas or provide information about prior achieve-ments or awards.Products collected over time have the advantage of showing a profileof student growth and learning, but they also have limitations. First, it can be difficultto assess the relative performance of students with product samples because evalua-tion criteria frequently are not clear and well defined. Second, using multiple judgesand holistic scoring can increase the cost of the assessment process. Third, teachersand program administrators do not often have access to products and achievementsof students outside school (or outside the teacher’s classroom), and important infor-mation may be missing.

SELF-NOMINATION

Perhaps the most direct method of assessment involves self-nomination by the studentfor various programs. Though many would guess that such a procedure would resultin massive amounts of overreferral, there is evidence that self-nomination is as effec-tive as other nomination methods. Shore and Tsiamis (1986) conducted a study inwhich they selected students for a university-based summer program in two ways.Onegroup was required to submit standardized achievement test data and teacher check-lists. The other group was asked only to submit a letter from a teacher saying the stu-dent might benefit from the program. In fact, the letters were never examined andwere used only to ensure a minimal amount of student interest. When the two groupsof students were compared, the researchers discovered that they were equivalent inaptitude and achievement. Students who had selected themselves actually had thesame characteristics as those who underwent external review.

There are several limitations on the value of self-referrals.First,young children maynot be aware of their abilities to perform in novel settings. Descriptions that empha-size the fun and exciting elements of programs and underplay the difficulty of the ac-ademic demands may be so appealing that they attract students who are more hopefulthan accurate about their abilities to perform adequately. Self-nomination does, how-ever, provide the benefit of opening involvement in programs and can help studentsidentify interests that school personnel may not have witnessed.

INTERPRETING DATA COLLECTED DURING ASSESSMENT

There are three basic approaches to analyzing assessment data and determining whichstudents are eligible for services in gifted education. The first approach is to gatherseveral measures on relevant traits and set acceptable minimum criteria or thresholdsfor each measure. Students who do not meet the minimum criteria on any individualmeasures are then eliminated from the selection process. The second approach is toorganize the data into matrices. This involves assigning values to various levels of per-formance for each of the instruments. Results are then summed, and students are se-lected for participation based on their overall scores.

A third approach is to create profiles of students’ abilities. Profiles are visual rep-resentations of the information collected in the assessment. They can illustrate the rel-ative ability levels within individual students as well characterize the patterns of talentof the group of students that is participating in or seeking service from an existing pro-gram.Profile analysis has three advantages over the other two methods.First, it allows

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Reflective Exercise #6Describe an evaluation system thatyou believe would result in moreequitable identifications amongeconomically disadvantaged andethnically diverse students.

for consideration of data that are not drawn from test scores (e.g., student awards andachievements, whether the student has participated in gifted programs in the past).Second, it allows for comparisons of the patterns of talents and interests that may gobeyond the specific focus of the program,thus letting educators,students,and parentsmake judgments about the appropriateness of a special program or academic option(Southern, Spicker, Kierouz, & Kelly, 1990).

None of the selection processes are without potential problems, and errors in se-lection will occasionally occur.Students may be erroneously excluded from or placedin programs. It is therefore good practice to develop and expect to use an appealsprocess. Appeals may be made by teachers, parents, or students. The process shouldallow new information to be introduced that might be relevant to reconsiderations ofinitial selection decisions.

EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

Evidence-based educational practices are recommended for addressing the instruc-tional and social needs of students with gifts and talents. We first address the thornyissue of early intervention and then focus on strategies for providing academic and so-cial support.

EARLY INTERVENTION

Early intervention for students with gifts and talents is not mandated by law as it is forstudents with disabilities. Early identifications are usually made when a young childdemonstrates very atypical performances that alert or even alarm their parents. Par-ents often seek interventions when children learn to read without instruction at 3 or4 years of age,when they are able to solve problems adults do not expect them to per-form, or when they have rapidly expanding and astonishing supplies of knowledge.Keep in mind that the absence of these kinds of behaviors doesn’t mean a child is notgifted. However, when such evidence is observed, it is a signal to parents and educa-tors that some unusual and rather immediate efforts may be needed.Early interventionfor students with gifts and talents, however, is rare. Schools in most states are not re-quired to provide services, and parents are generally unaware of potential need andbenefit. Hence, most instances of these services revolve around prodigious achieve-ment.Many districts actively discourage parents from pursuing any service. When sug-gestions are made,they generally revolve around some form of acceleration (e.g.,earlyadmission or grade skipping).

As students progress though school, the pressure for services generally increasesfor those who have mastered the curriculum or for those who are not adapting toschool-related provisions. These students are mismatched with the curriculum (seethe “Site Visit”feature). Various other issues may come into consideration,but choicesof whether to offer accelerative options or enrichment options generally revolvearound the following five factors.

1. Adequacy of general education curriculum. In some cases there may be seri-ous questions about whether or not the curriculum is too “dumbed down”(Ren-zulli,2002) to be of significant value even if the student could proceed through itrapidly.

2. Ability of student to handle the demands of more rapid presentation of con-tent or placement in higher-level classes. Determine if the student can adapt tothe rapid pace of instruction and the increasing complexity of the material beingpresented.

3. Separation from age-level peers. If parents or educators think that there is toomuch risk to social/emotional adjustment,accelerative options such as grade skip-ping and early entrance are rejected in favor of options that allow the student toremain with age-level peers.

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Site Visit:Effective Practices in Action

One of the most consistently troubling issues in the education of the gifted is the disappearing cul-turally diverse learner—disappearing,that is,from advanced level programs at middle and high schoollevels. This is particularly true in mathematics and the sciences.Project EXCITE is a collaborative proj-ect involving Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development,Evanston/Skokie School Dis-trict 65, and Evanston Township High School District 202. The goal of the project is to address theproblem of underrepresentation in advanced programs that accelerate learning and provide stimu-lating instruction (Olszewski-Kubilius, Lee, Ngoi, & Ngoi, 2004).

The first cohort of Project EXCITE third graders was selected during the 2000–2001 schoolyear; these students are now in their sixth and final year of the program as eighth graders. The proj-ect is designed to provide a two-tiered intervention program for 20 to 25 students per year. Duringthe first year of the cohort, students attend enrichment classes at their home school after the reg-ular school day. These include science and math enrichment taught by district teachers. Studentsalso attend a two-week summer program on the Northwestern University campus where classesare taught by faculty from local high schools and colleges.Elementary school children extract DNAfrom strawberries, do Lego math, and visit the high school’s nature center. Activities such as mea-suring their own heart rates, calculating horsepower, dissecting pigs, and mixing two clear chemi-cals to make a bright yellow one motivate students to come back. In subsequent years, the cohortparticipates in Saturday enrichment classes on topics such as robotics, neuroscience, advancedmath, and solving math-contest problems. They continue to attend summer programs with giftedstudents who are participating in one of the national academic talent searches from the midwestregion and students who have taken and excelled at the Explore eighth-grade achievement test, theSAT, or the ACT as fourth through eighth graders. The program includes the opportunity to enrollin nationally accredited coursework in math and science at the high school level and to achieve ap-propriate recognition for academic attainment.

Parent involvement is a critical component. Meetings are scheduled throughout the year to pro-vide information and support to the project EXCITE parents as well as to give them an opportunityto meet and network with other Project EXCITE parents. Prior to the meetings, parents are notifiedby mail regarding the time, date, and place. They also receive agendas. Coordinators also call parentsprior to the meetings to stress the importance of attendance. Those parents unable to attend, how-ever, are subsequently mailed any information distributed at the meetings. Northwestern Universitystudents are recruited to serve as volunteer tutors for the project. For those EXCITE students whomay need extra help, particularly in mathematics, this provides an additional support system.

The results have been gratifying. Attrition rate across the six-year program is low and mainlyattributable to mobility of students. For the first cohort of 17 students, 15 were placed in algebra,honors algebra, or honors geometry. They represent some of the first and only culturally diversestudents in these classes,and the number is twice the historic average in the district before EXCITE.The program has been described as a preventative to the low expectations these students fre-quently experience as well as a “rocket launcher” for attainment. The project’s heavy commitmentto accelerative options has resulted in diverse students’ enrollment in some of these advancedcourses for the first time. During the 2006–2007 school year, one student in the eighth grade hasbeen recommended for participation in honors trigonometry and as a sophomore will be on trackfor honors calculus.He will be the first African American in the district participate in these classesat such an early age.

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4. Skepticism about accelerating the curriculum. If school personnel are op-posed to acceleration, they may consciously or unconsciously place road blocksin the way of the intervention.

5. Missing important instruction. Not having certain instruction could disadvan-tage the student during future learning activities (Shore, Cornell, Robinson, &Ward, 1991).

ACADEMIC INTERVENTIONS

For students with gifts and talents, academic interventions center on six dimensions:content, complexity, abstraction, pacing, documenting achievement, and choiceand independence (Maker & Nielson, 1996).

ContentStudents who are identified as gifted require advanced content instruction either be-cause they have generally mastered content at earlier ages or because they can mastercontent at a faster pace.Perhaps the most easily identifiable characteristic of such stu-dents is their vast store of information. It is critical that a teacher offer greater andmore varied academic content to such learners.

ComplexityThe content for students with gifts and talents should be more complex. It should in-clude multiple perspectives, multiple implications, and advanced demands on thelearner to see interactions with other areas of study.Compared to students with moretypical academic capacities, students with gifts and talents are capable of consideringmore variables as they contemplate problems. They are also capable of understandingabstractions to a greater degree than other children of the same chronological age. Infact, most gifted children relish this capacity. Unlike children with cognitive deficits,they are capable of intuitive leaps. However, without providing gifted students withaccess to opportunities to demonstrate their capacities, their teachers will not be ableto observe the facility with which they can learn. Limits to opportunities will be re-paid with limits in achievement.

AbstractionFor many children with exceptionalities, a major challenge for educators is to provideconcrete instruction that avoids ambiguities and abstractions. With children whohave gifts,differentiation of instruction requires efforts to allow increased abstractionof principles, ideas, and examples. These students ask a great many more questions,such as

What if the events in history did not happen?Why were the outcomes of the War of 1812 so beneficial to the status quo?What would have occurred if steam had become the predominant motorcar fuel

in the 1920s?

PacingIf the most apparent trait of children identified as gifted is their ability to learn quicklyand easily,then the most important implication is that they should be provided a rapidor accelerated pace of instruction. Teachers must be aware of the need to quickly andefficiently assess the current state of learning for their students. They also need to ad-equately assess this learning and to document it for the next levels of instruction.

Documenting AchievementThe teacher has to prove that the student has met achievement criteria. In our age ofaccountability,this is difficult.In order for a third-grade teacher to assure a fourth-gradeteacher (or a fifth- or sixth-grade teacher) that a student is truly competent, he mustprovide very thorough documentation of curriculum compacting and must partici-pate in consultations during the process. It can sometimes be a challenge to collabo-rate and to document achievement across grade levels.

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Reflective Exercise #7How can teachers provide choicesto students without giving upcontrol over the curriculum? Tohear and see students like youdiscuss this topic, go to theStudents to Students module onthe DVD-ROM and click on clip 9:Gifted & Talented.

Choice and IndependenceNearly every theorist in gifted education suggests that studentchoice is extremely important.Four variables are key in exercisingchoice (Treffinger & Barton, 1988):

• Content, or the area of interest to be studied• Process,or the way one should pursue the investigation• Product, or the way one will show the results of the

investigation• Evaluation, or the way one will view the success of the

investigation

Treffinger and Barton (1988) note that students are not generallyencouraged to make choices. Teachers generally provide the contentto be studied,the media for learning,and the product to be delivered.Students with gifts and talents, however, should be given thesechoices (see the “Highly Effective Instructional Strategies”feature).

TRANSITION TO ADULT LIFE

Very little research has been done on the transition to adulthoodamong those with gifts and talents. What we do know comes fromlongitudinal studies of very specific populations of students (e.g.,Noble, Subotnik, & Arnold, 1999). Individuals identified as gifted often choose careerpaths and academic interests early and concentrate on achieving career goals.Others,however, seem paralyzed by the multiplicity of options available, even to the pointwhere they cannot choose. As adults,these individuals often express regret for choicesmade and options not selected (Berger, 1991).

If we are to assist these students,we need to make them aware of the implicationsof choices they are making along the way in school and of the fact that as adults theymay pursue multiple careers and pathways. A major goal of counseling students withgifts and talents about adulthood is to prepare them for careers and career change.

Facilitating transitions to higher levels of academic demand and social expecta-tion can be facilitated through counseling that focuses on (1) early academic guid-ance, (2) awareness of self-perception, and (3) dealing with transition stages.

Early Academic GuidanceStudents with gifts and talents, especially those who are exceptionally capable, bene-fit from early guidance that points out ways to access the academic pathways open tothem. Casey and Shore (2000) noted that these students are often unaware of poten-tial careers and may have choices pressed on them by family or caregivers that are notconsistent with their temperament and/or their abilities. Any discussions of accelera-tive options should also be accompanied by counseling on curricular and adjustmentissues. Such guidance and counseling are appropriate considerations for students inupper elementary programs on through early entrants to college and university. Stu-dents intending to access more advanced studies will need advice on what prelimi-nary or related coursework to take. They will also benefit from considerations of thepotential repercussions of their decisions. Early on, advisors are able to help easily. Asthe student becomes more advanced,however,helping becomes more difficult.For ex-ample, if a child is doing fourth-grade work in the second grade, the curricular issuesand personal challenges are fairly easy to predict. If the student is doing 11th-gradework in middle school, it is more difficult to readily anticipate issues or concerns. Afreshman taking graduate courses may baffle the most informed counselor.

As students with gifts and talents advance through the school curriculum and theestablished grades, it is very important to have a well-written plan that both docu-ments progress and provides a mentor to help navigate each level of schooling. Themore these students diverge from “normal”development, the greater the need for ex-plicit planning statements.

Providing choices in content as wellas how it is studied, represented,and evaluated are critical variablesin instruction for students withgifts and talents.

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Highly Effective Instructional Strategies

CURRICULAR RESPONSIVENESS FOR INCREASING CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Most students in academic programs for students with giftsand talents are white and from fairly affluent homes whereEnglish is the primary if not the only language. Our nationis, however, increasingly multicultural, and an importantpolicy issue is to include students from diverse cultures inacademic programs for gifted students. In pursuit ofgreater inclusiveness, three issues are of particular impor-tance: identification, retention, and curriculum.

The most important components of these efforts include

• Training teachers to be thoughtful, fair, and watchful inlooking for performances that indicate precocious learn-ing or potential for achievement or talent in all populations

• Considering which characteristics tend to hide stu-dents in various populations from identification forgifted programs

• Identifying instruments that are the most representativefor local populations and curricular offerings

• Frequently analyzing local outcomes of evaluations that in-clude gender,ethnicity and race,as well as socioeconomicstatus representations in the identified gifted population

• Examining the degree to which transportation and otherfinancial demands disenfranchise various culturally andeconomically diverse groups

• Considering inequities of opportunities for culturally di-verse students to access the logistics and resources ofgifted programs

Once these students are identified, we need to makegreater efforts to retain them in programs. Culturally di-verse students leave programs at higher rates than domiddle-class Caucasian students. Many students from cul-

Awareness of Self-PerceptionWe know that there are several predictable transition stages for gifted individuals. Wealso know that the students may choose dysfunctional ways to redefine themselves. Toassist in the transitions, it is important to help students know that changes are coming,to arm them with awareness of pitfalls, and to help them select constructive ways ofdealing with new academic and societal expectations.Counseling for successful transi-tions for gifted children involves life skills, just as it does for other exceptionalities.

Like students with other exceptionalities, students with gifts and talents who are transitioning toadulthood often require instruction and counseling in essential life skills.

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PREVAILING ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TEACHER

The most important issues affecting gifted education are related to the difficulties ofdefining intelligence,creativity,and giftedness. These concepts are critical to defining thenature of giftedness,but there is little substantive agreement on what they mean.On theother hand,debates about the nature and varieties of intelligence have been constructive.We now have a broader appreciation for the nature of intelligence and a broader view ofstudent needs. There has not been enough discussion about the concepts of talent or cre-ativity. As a result, those issues are even more ill-defined than intelligence and giftednessare.Unfortunately, the imprecision makes advocacy and programming difficult.

Other factors linked directly to policies concerning gifted students include (1) de-clining quality of education and reform, (2) underrepresented groups of students,(3) accountability, and (4) updating standards.

DECLINING QUALITY OF EDUCATION AND REFORM

There are increased demands on schools to be accessible to and successful for all stu-dents. These demands often lead to simplification of curriculum materials for generaleducation (Renzulli & Reis, 1991). The issue is important because high-quality educa-tional programs are at the core of the best gifted education.

The most recent round of educational reform efforts began more than a decadeago in response to general and growing dissatisfaction with public education. Whilethe reforms raise possibilities for improving education for students with gifts and tal-ents, reforms also pose threats. Gallagher (1993) argues that school failure is not onlyrooted in educational problems. It is also likely to be the result of societal problems.Renzulli and Reis (1991) observe that reform proposals consistently address goals of ex-cellence in achievement for the most promising students and/or goals of equal opportu-nity and access for disadvantaged and at-risk students. These may be viewed as competinggoals. For the teacher, this may cause anxiety or a rejection of one or the other generalgoals. It does not need to be so.Schools can pursue excellence and rigor for all students.

turally diverse backgrounds perceive gifted programs asculturally alien places. When they are included in giftedprograms, culturally diverse students often see fewer (ifany) students like themselves. It is difficult for them to nothave feelings of alienation from more typically identifiedgifted students. They also may feel pressured to avoid ac-culturation into white, middle-class expectations and val-ues (Ford & Harris, 2000). As a consequence, ethnicallydiverse students leave these programs at rates that accel-erate with age. Clearly, if culturally diverse students don’tfeel welcome, they will not stay.

One way to make culturally diverse students feel wel-come is to make the curriculum responsive to their pres-ence and to represent their interests and strengths inprogramming. Too often, the curricular demands and con-tent of gifted students have oriented to traditional middle-class, Eurocentric values. The following suggestions cancontribute to a better fit between student and curriculum:

1. Be inclusive of the groups targeted for differential iden-tification and retention.

2. Ensure that the curriculum samples from experiencesof culturally diverse groups.

3. Avoid materials,texts,and activities that are culturally biased.

4. Program appropriate opportunities to express and ex-plore cultural differences among names, experiences,holidays, and literature.

5. Be aware of how cultural differences are related to per-formance expectations.For example,some groups of chil-dren do not feel comfortable in competitive situations,and others may shy away from face-to-face confrontation.

6. Recognize accomplishment but remember that, withinsome cultures,individual praise may not be perceived asrewarding.

Experience with and sensitivity to diverse cultural per-spectives yields many benefits and is essential to providingadequate services for students who show evidence of highaptitude. For gifted students from culturally diverse back-grounds, careful and open-minded planning and the selec-tion of relevant curriculum are especially important issues.

Activity: Go to the Video Classroom section of theTeacher Prep website, click on MulticulturalEducation and then module 3: Ethnicity and Race.Watch videos 1 and 2 and answer the accompanyingquestions. Think about the importance ofappropriate materials selection for students.

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Teachers are bombarded by reformist calls for the elimination of ability grouping,implementation of cooperative learning, adoption of middle school student/teacherteaming, establishment of master or mentor teachers, institution of site-based man-agement, accountability, and adoption of inclusion policies. Each of these elements ofreform has important merits;but unfortunately,as policy initiatives,many are based onmisinterpretations and misapplications of the research.

UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS OF STUDENTS

Students who are challenged by economic disadvantage are not only hard to identify ashaving gifts and talents but also difficult to retain in specialized programs.Economicallydisadvantaged students face disruptions, pressures, and distractions that threaten theireducational careers (Maker,1989). They face greater demands to work in order to sup-port their own financial needs and perhaps the needs of their families. It is importantfor teachers to be aware of these problems and to encourage and assist in retention.

Students with gifts and talents who also have disabilities represent another groupthat is seriously underserved. These students can be difficult to identify, and theirunique programming needs can be difficult to meet in gifted programs. The disabilityneed not result in a decrease in ability or aptitude,but it may necessitate alternate ap-proaches to assessment and instruction. All teachers need to separate the disabilityfrom the underlying gifts. Some children actually use their gifts and talents to masktheir disabilities in other areas.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Providing for the special educational needs of students with gifts and talents requiresexpenditures of time and resources. It is important that gifted education programs bebased on defensible service models. Local implementations of gifted education pro-grams should also be evaluated to determine their effectiveness.It is important to eval-uate instructional arrangements that involve high-ability students but are notspecifically designed for their benefit—particularly if the application is potentiallycontroversial.For example,cooperative learning is a widely recommended practice ingeneral education classrooms (Slavin, 1990a), but discussions in the literature suggestthat it is a controversial arrangement for gifted students (Robinson, 1990; Slavin,1990b). The fact is that cooperative learning arrangements are applied in general ed-ucation programs, and high-achieving students are included. The challenge for teach-ers is to make data-based decisions about implementing any educational option.

UPDATING STANDARDS

As in other areas of special education, the education of students with gifts and talentshas a set of standards for teachers entering the field. The standards were developedunder the auspices of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) with the participa-tion of The Association for the Gifted (TAG,a division of CEC). The resulting standardswere designed to provide uniform language for all special education teachers enter-ing the field. In many instances, the language was not entirely appropriate for teach-ers of the gifted. During the most recent revision of teacher standards, twoprofessional organizations, the National Association for Gifted Children and TAG, col-laborated to produce a set of draft standards that will serve as the base for NationalCouncil for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Interstate New TeacherAssessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards.One major feature of the re-vision going on throughout NCATE is a move from identifying coursework that is sup-posed to provide the knowledge and skills that pre-service teachers need to have tobe qualified to teach gifted students.

In many areas of special education, national examinations are required beforecertification/licensure. To date, there are no specific national examinations todemonstrate knowledge and skills in gifted education. For states that require en-dorsement, certification, or licensure (currently 21), requirements usually listcourses or competencies.

To link to websites thatsupport and extend the

content of this chapter, goto the Web Links module

in Chapter 15 at www.prenhall.com/rosenberg.

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SUMMARY

Students with gifts and talents have demonstrated or showpotential for achieving knowledge and skills at signifi-cantly higher levels and at faster rates than their age-levelpeers. The tasks for teachers are the same as the tasks ofeducators of students with other special learning needs.Gifted children must be identified;decisions must be madeabout what and how they should be taught. Their progressneeds to be evaluated and planned for.

Definitions and Classification Criteria

• Three common definitions of giftedness are theMarland federal definition, Renzulli’s three-ringconceptualization, and Gardner’s multipleintelligences approach.

• Giftedness is usually classified by (1) types of giftsand talents and (2) level of giftedness.

Primary Behavioral Characteristics

• Early conceptualizations of giftedness were flawedand perpetuated mistaken stereotypes of individualswith superior mental health or of people who werephysically weak, oversensitive, and highly productive.

• Current studies have found that students with giftsand talents vary greatly and have a range of positiveand negative traits and patterns of behavior.

• As students with gifts progress in school, a majorchallenge is redefining their life roles, clarifyingaspirations, and selecting careers.

Prevalence and Causal Factors

• Prevalence rates of students with gifts and talentsvary widely and typically range from 5 to 20% of theschool-age population.

• Although speculations as to where giftedness comesfrom remain controversial, most believe that it isrooted in a genetic/environmental interaction.

Identification and Assessment

• Standardized intelligence tests alone are not usefulfor identifying students who could benefit fromgifted programming.

• The most useful identification processes use multiplecriteria that supplement intelligence tests withachievement tests, creativity tests, teachernominations, peer nominations, parent nominations,student self-nominations, and product samples.

Educational Practices

• Early intervention for students with gifts and talentsis rare and usually provided to those with prodigiousachievement.

• The decision to offer accelerative or enrichmentoptions for students in school revolves around fivefactors: adequacy of the general educationcurriculum, ability of students to handle demands,risk of separation from age-related peers, skepticismabout acceleration, and the risk of missinginstruction.

• Successful academic interventions for students withgifts and talents focus on content, complexity,abstraction, pacing, documenting achievement, andchoice and independence.

• Transitions to higher levels of academic demand arefacilitated by counseling that focuses on earlyacademic guidance, awareness of self-perception, andstrategies for dealing with change.

Prevailing Issues

• The most important issues affecting the education ofstudents with gifts and talents relate to thedifficulties inherent in defining intelligence andcreativity.

• Factors influencing policies toward the education ofstudents with gifts and talents include the decliningquality of general education and school reformefforts, underrepresentation of certain groups amongthose identified as having gifts and talents,accountability, and the need to update standards.

ADDRESSING THE PROFESSIONALSTANDARDS

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Knowledge Standards addressed in thechapter:

CC1K5, GC1K1, GC4K5, CC4S3, CC5K4, GC7S2, CC10S2

Appendix B: CEC Knowledge and Skill Standards Common Core has a full listing ofthe standards referenced here.

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N: 0

-536

-087

47-4



ISB

N: 0-536-08747-4



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