To offset low challenge in high school courses, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth encourages intellectually talented students to choose from seven alternative acceleration options. Also offered are four reasons for taking college credit courses in high school. (MC)

The article discusses the breadth and depth of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) in its seventh year (1977-78). SMPY emphasizes the educational acceleration of youths who reason unusually well mathematically, and its activities focus on four areas: identification, description, development, and dissemination. (DLS)

Evaluation of the personality functioning of 90 adolescents with intelligence quotients greater than 135 found the incidence of psychopathology in the sample to be comparable to that in the normative population. Children with intelligence quotients greater than 150 had no greater levels of psychopathology than those with intelligence quotients…

Talented students (n=520) in grades three through five were given the Quantitative, Reading Comprehension, and Verbal sections of the Lower Level of the Secondary School Admission Test (developed for fifth through seventh graders). Students' scores covered nearly the entire possible range indicating that the SSAT-L effectively differentiated among…

Brainstorming may be the best-known tool for group idea generation and is widely taught in gifted and talented programs. Many empirical studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of brainstorming, and they have provided useful insights into the salient barriers facing groups who use this tool. Although a great deal of this literature…

This study assessed the self-perceptions of 432 gifted students regarding their family environments and their talent areas. Family environmental variables included parental expectations to achieve, parents' encouragement to be independent, and family cohesion. Talent areas included academic skills, creativity, and leadership. The conjectures that…

A survey assessing components of attitude thought to be relevant to success in a program for mathematically talented youth was administered to 61 participants on 4 occasions over a 2-year period. Male participants showed a significantly higher level of motivation, confidence, and interest in mathematics than did females. Attitude declines over…

The ElemenOE is a Likert-scaled observation checklist developed in this study to measure 5 personality characteristics in elementary school children, with predictive validity for identifying giftedness. The characteristics, named "overexcitabilities," are described within the context of Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. Five…

In this study, academically talented African American (n = 28), Asian American (n = 171), Hispanic (n = 28), and White (n = 92) middle and high school students are compared on ethnic identity (EI) and other group orientation (OGO) attitudes as measured by the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. The contributions of these variables to self-esteem…

Researchers concerned with curriculum differentiation for gifted and talented students have long promoted the benefits of providing opportunities for students to explore their personal interests within the regular curriculum. Many literacy researchers have also concluded that teachers can improve students' (especially boys') attitudes toward…

Perfectionism scores of 600 students identified as academically talented and 418 peers from the general cohort of sixth graders, all from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, were compared using the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Findings indicated little intergroup difference in mean scores or in the frequency of perfectionistic types. (DB)

Gifted/talented high school students (n=113) completed the Mathematical Self-Efficacy Scale. Analysis indicated that males had stronger self-efficacy expectations than females on more than one-fourth of the items, whereas females reported stronger self-efficacy expectations on only a few items that involved stereotypical female activities.…

This study interviewed students (n=24) participating in the University of Washington's Early Entrance Program. Students were unanimous in their satisfaction with their choice to forego major high school social events and found attitudes toward them sometimes annoying. (DB)

A study examined the amount and types of responses to homework assignments reported by 577 parents of academically talented elementary students. Students completed homework with few negative responses. While homework assignments increased with grade level, the amount of time parents spent assisting with homework did not increase beyond first…

This study investigated student perceptions of differences in academic and social effects that occur when gifted and talented youth are grouped homogeneously (i.e., in special classes for gifted students) as contrasted with heterogeneously (i.e., in classes with many ability levels represented). Forty-four students in grades 5-11 completed…