While many programs in many schools provide valuable programming for gifted and talented students, the efforts are far from consistent from district to district.
When schools are forced to focus on minimum standards, teachers simply don’t have the time or resources to be able to adequately educate the boys and girls that have been identified as gifted or talented.
In its Case for Developing America’s Talent report issued in 1993, the U.S. Department of Education - Office of Educational Research and Improvement estimated that many, if not most of America’s gifted children are failing to reach their full potential. While there are numerous causes for this concern, given that schools customarily place children identified as gifted in regular education classes, the focus then shifts to the teacher’s ability to monitor and adjust instruction to meet the gifted child’s needs.
Given that, schools need to assist our teachers by providing them with the right tools and resources (especially time), or as is seen in many cases today, our gifted students are simply not being challenged enough to motivate them to excel.
Studies show that high-performing students can earn straight ‘As’ by studying as little as one hour a night, and that they have learned up to half of the curriculum before they even walk in the classroom on the first day by reading ahead.
So, what can be done?
A large part of that answer can be found in the curriculum itself. By providing gifted students a more exigent curriculum and allowing for creative and expressive assessments beyond scanned pencil and paper quizzes would be a good start. Any reform along these lines also means that teachers receive the proper training necessary to help them address the needs of gifted and talented students. Then, these teachers need to be given some discretion in their lesson plans to be able to carve out some time to work with their advanced students.
