Rural schools, especially smaller ones, offer enormous opportunities for teachers to get to know their students and to cultivate their academic talents. However, students with potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) face specific obstacles to having their talents fully realized in rural schools. Joni Lakin, Tamra…

Finding and developing talented youth from low-income backgrounds is an ongoing challenge for U.S. gifted education policy. These students face strong headwinds, whereas advantaged students enjoy favorable tailwinds, and these factors accumulate throughout K-12, higher education, and beyond. Jonathan Wai and Frank C. Worrell explain how talented…

There is substantial evidence on the effectiveness of many forms of advanced education, especially various approaches to acceleration, ability grouping, and curricular innovations such as structured curriculum and enrichment. Nonetheless, additional research on the ways in which advanced education impacts the learning and lives of students across…

There is a long-held but inaccurate belief that new teachers' expertise and talent is mostly innate and that it peaks and plateaus within their first few years of teaching. William Slotnik and Bryan Goodwin explain that school systems need to abandon this conventional wisdom and instead build true talent development systems that support the…

In the movement toward an integrated P-16 system of education, educators need to address a number of questions about talent development. Why is talent development important for society in general? What must be in place in a P-16 system in order to nurture the development of talent in a school and throughout a school system? And what must be in…

The emerging approach to talent development differs from traditional gifted education in several ways. Instead of stressing acceleration or enrichment, the Levels of Service model blends many services and activities with other school activities to respond to students' individual talents, strengths, and sustained interests. Teachers do not compete…

Traditionally, gifted programs have focused only on students deemed academically gifted, excluding those with vocational/technical, artistic, or personal/social talents. Article suggests it is immoral to identify 5% of the student population as "gifted" and the rest as "ungifted." Since all students have relative talent…

Shows applications of the Talent Identification and Development in Education (TIDE) model in two suburban Midwestern school districts. In both large and small districts, TIDE changes the way school communities view gifted and talented education. A broader understanding emerges that recognizes nurturing of strengths, interests, and talents in every…

All programs for the gifted and talented should incorporate visual and performing arts, so that students' natural interests and creative abilities are not stifled. Many gifted and talented high school students not classified as artistically talented can achieve in discipline-based curriculum areas stressing nondiscursive art-making activities.…

Drawing on his research on the development of talent in young people, ages 17 to 35, in six different fields, the author examines the characteristics of master teachers of pianists and Olympic swimmers. (WD)

University talent-search projects provide a viable model for schools' talent-development efforts. There are three critical elements: a flexible age-grade placement philosophy, a commitment to use tests to improve curriculum and instruction, and a strong support structure for teachers and administrators. Students must also develop appropriate…

Describes the School Enrichment Model (SEM), a systematic set of strategies for increasing student effort, enjoyment, and performance and for integrating varied advanced learning experiences and higher-order thinking skills into existing curriculum or school organization patterns. SEM enhances three key school-improvement dimensions: the act of…