[Ohiogift] How The U.S. Is Neglecting Its Smartest Kids

[Margaret DeLacy]

Anya Kramenetz has published a story on National Public Radio entitled "How The U.S. Is Neglecting Its Smartest Kids"'
August 24, 2015 5:58 AM ET

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/08/24/432869964/how-the-u-s-is-neglecting-its-smartest-kids?


It consists of a description of the research carried out by Chester Finn in advance of his new book, due out in a few weeks.

The profile ends with this astounding comment, evidently inserted by the author herself:

"In the background of this book, there's a bigger issue: There's not much research supporting exactly what works best for gifted students. "

Gifted education is one of the most thoroughly researched fields in education.  It has accreted more than a century of studies including several "metadata" studies (studies of studies) and several US Federal government reports in addition to government reports by several other developed countries. We absolutely know what works for gifted students: ability grouping, acceleration, and advanced classes. 

The research is overwhelming.  A decade or so ago, I tallied studies on ability grouping alone and came up with thousands.  If I started burning the paper that these studies were originally published on I could heat a large school for years to come--which would probably do more good than the studies themselves have accomplished.  

What we lack is implementation.  It's so much easier to claim that no one knows what to do than actually to do something politically difficult. 

A few resources are below.

I would have shared them with NPR but I can't get my password to work.  If you have better luck, feel free to comment on the article. 

Margaret

A reasonable place to start is the NAGC: 
http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices


There are also the numerous research-based publications of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented: 

http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/nrconlin.html

summarized in a brief brochure for "policy makers"
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/Trifolds/A9511.pdf