A high school teacher describes efforts to develop a comprehensive gifted education program while recognizing political realities. The program emphasized use of before-school and after-school periods rather than pull-out, addressed the burdens rather than blessings of high capability, focused on the underachieving gifted, and tried to avoid…

An introduction of "A Suggested Guide for Developing Vocational Programs for Disadvantaged Students" and the five criteria described for identifying the disadvantaged student are offered in the hope comments will be obtained contributing to increased usefulness of the document when it is completed. (Author/BP)

This article discusses the importance of conducting an initial needs assessment as part of gifted program development. The paper describes data collection concerning the general student body, gifted population, school district personnel, school and school district, physical setting, economic factors, community, and national and state gifted…

Despite problems encountered by the characteristics of rural education districts, successful and appropriate programs to teach gifted students can thrive by utilization of nontraditional techniques for student identification and by delivery of services through acceleration, technology, advanced placement classes, mentors, community resources, and…

This publication discusses definitions of alternative education, outlines common program features, and lists challenges to providing quality services. The paper focuses on alternatives for students who are at risk for school failure, dropout, or delinquency. Since few studies on the effectiveness of alternative programs have been conducted and…

Presents a cyclical proactive model of school administration involving data collection, collaborative definition of student needs, use of student-oriented strategies in development of interventions, and outcome evaluation in terms of intrinsic student changes. Discusses drawbacks to the referral model of problem identification and special…

In this article, the author notes that despite their increasing size and sophistication, special education programs have not been successful for the majority of their students. He suggests a possible reason - the ways special educators relate to the regular personnel of schools. (Editor/RK)

A survey report of programs for gifted and talented students in Massachusetts is presented, along with information about funding sources and related programs. The first section provides a definition of terms and a glossary of instructional models used in developing programs for gifted and talented students. The section also offers an analysis of…

The District Facilitator Project (DFP) assists local schools to improve their programs by linking them with exemplary projects in other school districts around the country. DFP provides coordination, technical assistance, and other services to aid implementation in the new location. The following objectives were stated for the program: (1) a…

This article documents the growing worldwide concern for identifying and serving gifted students, primarily via curriculum and instructional differentiation through special classes, enrichment, and acceleration. Programs in Brazil, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, Israel, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland, Indonesia, Taiwan,…

This handbook is intended to aid in development of educational programs for gifted students in New Hampshire. The handbook is divided into seven sections. Section I, provides material regarding the specific policies that authorize and pertain to gifted education in New Hampshire and offers resources to assist educators in describing the present…

A summary is presented of the objectives and activities of a grant-supported project conducted at Normandale Community College (NCC) to expand programming for handicapped and learning disabled students. Introductory material provides a background to NCC's efforts in aiding students with special needs. Next, the populations receiving assistance…

Part of a series of vocational development units for the handicapped, this document provides an overview of the program, its development, and the purposes of each instructional unit. Each of the 10 different units describes a particular occupational cluster. The vocational or special education teacher is guided through the listing of behavioral…

This detailed report presents findings of both an internal review and an external review of the Enrichment/Gifted (E/G) Program in Nanaimo, British Columbia (Canada). The internal review examined the program's philosophy, district level programming, school-based programming (K-12) in general, elementary school-based programming, secondary…

The Programmatic Emphasis project was conducted at the University of Illinois to build the university's capacity for addressing the problems of serving special needs youth and adults in vocational education. A series of activities were undertaken to design and implement a preservice, inservice, and graduate-level instructional program; a research…