Has No Child Left Behind taken a good deal of the spotlight from gifted education?
In 1989, President George Bush and the nation’s governors met and developed a set of national goals to provide a unified set of expectations for American education. Goal 3 clearly states all students at all levels of accomplishment, including the gifted and talented need to be performing at higher levels. In action, most states have focused on the minority and economically disadvantaged students. Student performance data in Texas does not include performance of gifted students as a separate category, and if it did, the results would indicate that many gifted students are functioning at grade level. One positive effect of NCLB is the increased number of teachers who have been classified as “highly qualified,” with majors in the subject areas they teach, and at least 24 content hours. These teachers are in many cases teaching gifted students in heterogeneous classes, and their increased fund of information can be shared with their gifted students. In addition, the focus on state testing
