Beginning in the 1970s, many school US school districts reallocated their already scarce resources from local schools to specially created magnet schools. Many of these magnet schools have some sort of entrance exam, portfolio, or audition requirement that students must pass in order to gain admission. These selective magnet schools are predicated…

Recognizing that education is an important condition necessary for the development of public life and the economy, the author examines elite education in the natural sciences, its criterion represented by ability and talent rather than social origin or economic status. Education of such students, advocates the author, can ensure the training of a…

A U.S. educator recounts a visit to an elementary school in China specializing in fine arts education and a secondary school specializing in foreign languages. Also discussed are the Chinese gifted education system including student selection, curriculum, teaching methods, and educational philosophy. (DB)

This discussion of the fifty-year history of the Bronx High School of Science focuses on its responses to challenges questioning its philosophy and method of admission and charges of elitism and isolation from the community. How the school met these challenges and still fulfilled its mission is considered significant for other schools of the…

The essay defends the purposes, selection procedures, programs, and philosophy of the Duke University (North Carolina) Talent Identification Program (TIP), which offers systematic identification of and programming for verbally and mathematically precocious students. The Duke University effort was undertaken to fill a need unmet at federal and…