According to the Texas Education Code §29.121 and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Policy, Gifted and Talented (G/T) students are "those identified by professionally qualified persons, who perform at, or show the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment." These are students who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society. According to Section 29.123 of the Texas Education Code, the "Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students" forms the basis of program accountability for state-mandated services for G/T students. In HISD, G/T students were served through one of two program designs: Board-approved Vanguard/Magnet or Vanguard Neighborhood. Vanguard Magnet programs (K-12) were designed to serve G/T students, who excelled in general intellectual ability, in combination with creative/productive thinking and/or leadership ability. Vanguard Magnet programs provided a learning continuum that was differentiated in depth, complexity, and pacing in the four core areas (reading/language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science). This evaluation report summarizes the effectiveness of the Vanguard Program during the 2016-2017 school year. Among the key findings are: (1) In 2016-2017, a total of 32,533 students attending 265 elementary, middle, and high schools participated in the district's Vanguard Program, reflecting 16.2 percent of the district K-12 population, representing a slight increase from 16.1 percent in 2015-2016; (2) When comparing the demographic profile of those participating in the Vanguard Program to the district's demographic profile, African American, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students were underrepresented, while White and Asian students were overrepresented; (3) For 2017, a total of 12,274 Advanced Placement (AP) exams were taken by 5,466 G/T students and 52.5 percent of the scores were three or higher on a scale of one to five, showing an increase in participation rates of 27.3 percentage points from 2007; and (4) On the fall 2016 PSAT results for eleventh grade, 1,748 or 95.8 percent of eleventh grade G/T students took the PSAT, and 88.8 percent met the Evidenced-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) final College and Career Readiness (CCR) Benchmark of 460 or higher and 77.6 percent met the mathematics final CCR Benchmark of 510 or higher.