In much the same way that educators create educational standards in support of students’ mastery of the curriculum, the NAGC has established gifted education targets.
So, you are one of the fortunate ones; your school has a gifted and talented program. Or maybe your school doesn’t have a formal program, but the teachers try to include some gifted programming in the classrooms (even though, "61% of classroom teachers in the U.S. have no training in gifted and talented," (NAGC)). Either way, how well does it work? Are the gifted children in your school receiving all of the help they need? How can you be sure?
Assessment is an important word in education. While there are all kinds of assessments available depending on your school’s philosophies, normally, it refers to evaluating how well a student has learned a lesson or the skill. In this case, the evaluation looks at the school and the program, and not the students.
It is important to remember that the government hasn’t established any comprehensive guidelines for gifted education, and most states and school districts fail to agree in their definitions and programs for gifted children. Given that wide array of approaches to developing gifted programming, the National Association for Gifted Children, NAGC, created a set of standards for schools that have gifted programs, so that everyone has the same tools for instruction.
One of the key components in these standards is education – teaching the public about gifted education and the needs of gifted children. Along with education, the document also addresses how to design and evaluate a gifted curriculum, along with visible benchmarks so everyone can measure just how effectively the gifted programs are working in the school.
If you have a gifted child, even if your school does not have a gifted program, it is worth your time to learn about these gifted standards to discover what your child deserves at school.
Resources:
NAGC. http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=661
