All students are entitled to a respectful and meaningful education in this decade of No Child Left Behind, and yet attention to the gifted wanes with the emphasis on standards-based education and testing. Educators of the gifted have wrestled with this dilemma for many decades, even as early as the 1920s when Leta S. Hollingsworth, noted "mother of gifted education," first studied the issue of what constitutes a respectful and challenging education for the gifted. Since that time, educators have agreed that gifted students need an educational plan that is tailored to their own unique needs and abilities. Differentiated instruction addresses the needs of the gifted in the diverse, mixed-ability classrooms of today by adapting the content, process, or product with regards to the varying interests and readiness levels of the students. Independent study, a differentiation technique recommended for use with the gifted, offers students input into their own learning while providing challenge and critical thinking skills. This article presents a study that analyzes the connection between student choice, the use of independent study, and the connection of social studies with real-world experiences as motivating factors for student achievement in gifted seventh-grade social studies students. (Contains 3 tables.)