In truth, high achievement is much more fluid than that: Children will often race ahead in one area while struggling in others, or they’ll make rapid progress for a while and then slow down, or they’ll struggle for a while and then begin to make rapid progress. As critics have often noted, when children are designated as gifted, this seems to imply that they are qualitatively different from everybody else, as though they’ve been singled out for a lifetime membership in an exclusive club. In recent years, though, the field has evolved in important ways, in part to address long-standing concerns. Traditionally, schools have served some portion of those students by enrolling them in gifted and talented (GT) programs. What, then, do our schools do for those students who need to be challenged at much higher levels than where the bar has been set? Who is gifted? In short, our public schools are under a great deal of pressure to identify and support struggling students, helping them to meet the standard.īut a true embrace of equity means that all students get the support they need. If they clear that bar, whether by an inch or a mile, then their school has done its job if too many of them fall short, then the school has failed. This idea permeates the contemporary discourse about education, where terms like proficient and grade-level evoke a minimum standard - on the way to college and career readiness - that all students are expected to reach. ![]() With great ambition, however, comes great responsibility: If our schools offer the surest route from poverty to the middle class, then they have an obligation to help as many students as possible to reach an acceptable standard of performance, one that will permit them to succeed in college and/or the workplace. ![]() ![]() Public education has long been viewed as society’s great equalizer, an institution that can change life trajectories, enabling students from even the humblest of backgrounds to master content and skills that will allow them to thrive when they reach adulthood. With renewed attention to equity and students’ individual needs, gifted education can serve as one pathway through which students of all backgrounds can have their needs met.
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