The Special Program of Training was created in Brazil to offer high-level learning experiences to gifted college students. The program includes professors serving as mentors to selected undergraduate students, special lectures, visits to laboratories, and participation in conferences and research projects. (JDD)

Educators can provide sound interventions for gifted students if they carefully consider their special needs, based on their characteristics. The learning needs of gifted students are delineated, based on their characteristics, and curriculum implications are derived. (TE)

States and then rebuts the major criticisms of special education for gifted students. These include the idea that education of the gifted is elitist and that testing for gifted identification is prejudicial. Discusses contemporary movements in the sciences, arts, and letters that often discourage the development of excellence. (Author/DB)

Provides an overview of the literature that has historically framed debates between gifted education and middle grades education. Discusses research that seeks common ground between the two fields, considering the implications for middle school education policies and practices that provide for the needs of high ability students. (JPB)

This issue of the Center's "Systems Newsletter" will be the last one published under the aegis of Dr. JoyceVanTassel-Baska, the Center's founder and current Executive Director. As of this August Dr. VanTassel-Baska will officially retire from the College of William and Mary and the Center. She will still be an integral part of the Center…

Whether individuals like it or not, they have witnessed and will continue to witness a drastic increase in the number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in schools. This increase is not being mirrored in gifted education. Why do gifted programs remain so stubbornly void of diversity? The author believes that attitudes in the…

This article discusses Rochester's two academic models that offer different tools for different purposes--measuring individual learning and measuring what affects learning. The main focus of currently available growth measures is formative assessment--providing data to inform instructional planning. Value-added assessment is not a student…

Discusses developing adequate educational opportunities for culturally disadvantaged, gifted students. Addresses questions of how these students can be effectively identified; what constitutes a high quality educational program for the students; what inhibiting factors must be addressed in providing education of high quality; and how to bridge the…

Notes that while gifted students have characteristics that suggest superior reading ability, not all of them become capable readers. Proposes a teaching program that is different in content, method, and pacing to help these children reach their potential. (FL)

The article describes ways to nurture gifted students without shortchanging the rest of the class. Curriculum compacting techniques allow teachers to plan for students with similar capabilities, determining which skills are already known, which need work, and what acceleration activities should be added. (SM)

This article suggests that bland educational policy statements concerning education of gifted students need to be replaced by policies that directly address students' intellectual, social, and emotional needs. Research is reviewed that suggests such students thrive academically and socially in ability grouped settings and that acceleration…

This article considers the curriculum needs of academically gifted students from a British perspective. It discusses issues of learning transfer, learning needs, and developing educational services. It also proposes a cognitively challenging curriculum and teaching methods that can be implemented in an inclusive classroom setting. A pyramid of…

This book provides specific guidance on: (1) Recognising High Ability and Multiple intelligences Planning; (2) Differentiation and Extension/enrichment in Design and Technology; (3) Teacher Questioning Skills; (4) Support for More Able Pupils with Learning Difficulties (Dyslexics, ADHD, Sensory Impairment); (5) Homework Recording; and (6)…

Technology helps students develop coping strategies to deal with various learning differences. Assistive technology is a common intervention provided to students with disabilities and generally varies depending on student need. Within gifted education, the use of computers and technology is concentrated on curricular applications and activities…

Findings of a follow-up study that examined the experiences of 1991 high school graduates of the Center for the Arts and Sciences (CAS) program in Saginaw, Michigan, are presented in this paper. A survey mailed to 33 graduates received 16 responses. Findings indicate that all respondents were enrolled in a school, college, or training program. The…