Middle school students are faced with many challenges. Puberty, social issues, and changes in the way that they learn can cause middle school to be a difficult time. An alarming number of students enter middle school with a reading deficiency--significantly below their grade level expectation. Students who are exceptional learners or are reluctant…

This article focuses on the educational needs of rural gifted students in respect to their geographic isolation from challenge in the programs, services, and curriculum they receive in typical school settings. After a brief review of the relevant literature, it delineates the components and features of cognitive and metacognitive strategies found…

Gifted children who do not achieve often have problems with motivation and socioemotional adjustment and may also have learning disabilities. This article examines factors such as attachment difficulties and maternal depression as these may contribute to underachievement. The article reviews past and current practices of gifted identification and…

A "Discovery Program" implemented in 1989 to help underprivileged gifted and talented students in Israel advance in their chosen fields is described. The importance of local administration and participation is stressed, as are optimal ratios of underprivileged to privileged youth for maximum benefit to all. (PB)

This article considers issues in helping gifted students at risk due to cultural, economic, or social factors separating them from the mainstream, including identification and intervention, program standards, local program issues, and philosophical and definitional issues. Data from national and local studies, overall recommendations and a…

The article considers service needs of gifted immigrant children, in terms of problem areas and strategies addressing each problem area. Problem areas include linguistics, cultural differences, economic and health factors, attitudes, sociocultural and peer expectations, cross-cultural stress, intergenerational conflict, and school system conflict.…

Details the struggles of a disadvantaged gifted nine-year-old boy and the effect his relationship with the gifted education teacher had on the student's school experience. The interventions that influenced the boy's success are described and the importance of providing at-risk youth with intellectually challenging experiences is emphasized. (CR)

Describes experience working with a second-grade Native American male identified as a bully. Author used classroom and individual interventions and communicated with the child's parents, principal, teacher, and other school personnel. Suggests that problem children need courageous advocacy to succeed. (MKA)

Describes how a Red Flag Carry-Over Reclaiming Intervention is used with a 16-year-old mainstreamed male student. Removing the student from the situation, allowing him silent "drain-off" time, and helping him learn to identify his self-defeating behavior helped him to avoid an overwhelming life experience. (MKA)

This project sought to identify and assist third-grade underachieving gifted students in four elementary schools in Springfield, Ohio. The four schools chosen for the project demonstrated a significant discrepancy between ability and achievement test scores among higher ability students within their culturally/economically disadvantaged student…

After describing deficiencies of psychometric tests in identifying disadvantaged gifted youth, this article presents a system of dynamic assessment and cognitive intervention. The program's theoretical rationale is based on systematic thinking and metacognitive skills. Objectives for program implementation are offered in terms of cognitive,…

Properly serving the needs of ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged gifted youth requires early identification, enrichment programs, parental involvement, and specialized teacher training. Primary teachers must be able to identify children exhibiting gifted behaviors not showing up in testing. Profiles San Diego and New Jersey programs…

Evaluation of an instrumental enrichment program with 80 gifted children (ages 10-12) from culturally disadvantaged backgrounds and a follow-up study 4 years later showed: (1) generalization effects on verbal and nonverbal thinking tasks, and (2) durability of effects on thinking tasks and broad generalization in school achievement. (Author/DB)

Gifted students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are frequently underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. A number of factors have been identified that appear to limit gifted and talented services to this population: narrow concepts and definitions of giftedness, restrictive identification procedures, inadequate programming, and…

This monograph describes the current educational status of Latino students in the United States and, based on the extant research, attempts to explain their relatively low educational performance. The research finds many structural and socio-cultural barriers to academic achievement for this group, including poverty, poor schooling, language …