For Parents of Gifted Children
Advanced Placement (AP) courses and tests offer college level material to students while they are still in high school. The 37 AP courses currently offered prepare students to take a standardized test of the knowledge and skills acquired in...
College Planning Issue 2 / Winter 2010 Makel, Matthew C. Schoolhouse Options
Decisions regarding school are no longer limited to what to pack as an afternoon snack. This special issue on school options isn't meant to be the final word on your child's educational choices. Rather, it is some first words...
Makel, Matthew C. Special Issue / Fall 2009 The Editor's View
The National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that over 1.5 million children were homeschooled in 2007, nearly double the number from a decade earlier. This means that homeschoolers account for roughly one out of every fifty K-12 students in...
Makel, Matthew C. Schoolhouse Options Special Issue / Fall 2009
It’s the first week of school, and you receive the following note from your child’s teacher: Dear Parents, This summer I attended a workshop on differentiated instruction, and I’m excited about using it in my classes. My goal with...
Connections Educational Strategies Eidson, Caroline C. Volume 9 / Issue 1 / Fall 2008 Parenting/Advocacy
Because middle school education (grades 6-8) in the United States has struggled in terms of academic achievement, school districts in several states are returning to the K-8 model. Reform is underway in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,...
Geiser, Debra Bell Volume 8 / Issue 1 / Fall 2007 Research Briefs Research and Theory
In August, 120 of Kentucky’s brightest students will begin the school year at the state-supported Kentucky Academy of Mathematics and Science. As its name implies, the school will focus on a strong science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum and...
Collins-Perry, Bobbie Currents Volume 7 / Issue 4 / Summer 2007
In 1980 North Carolina opened the first state-supported residential high school, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics soon became the model for other states. Education leaders realized that such schools could provide innovative learning experiences in a...
Volume 6 / Issue 4 / Summer 2006 Schoolhouse Options Stamps, Lisa
My daughter’s high school offers both the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs. Will these programs sufficiently meet the academic needs of my gifted child? How do I know if they are appropriate for her? Advanced Placement (AP) courses and...
Callahan, Carolyn M. Consultant's Corner Educational Strategies Volume 6 / Issue 4 / Summer 2006
Exploring life in a residential high school, Nurturing Talent in High School: Life in the Fast Lane (Teachers College, 2005) shows how the combination of rigorous academics and residential life creates an environment that accelerates the pace of development for...
Book Reviews Collins-Perry, Bobbie Currents Volume 6 / Issue 4 / Summer 2006
Imagine public education back in 1910: a single teacher in a one-room schoolhouse lit with candles and students working on slate boards with chalk. Fast-forward to 2010, an age so dependent on advanced technology that students take some classes online,...
Volume 6 / Issue 3 / Spring 2006 Schoolhouse Options Special Issue / Fall 2009 Technology Young, Julie
In the simplest terms, magnet means “something that attracts.” This is indeed the concept behind the nation’s magnet schools. To the students who attend magnet schools and their families, the term takes on a deeper meaning: choice in the...
Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Winter 2006 Schoolhouse Options Thompson, Lisa
In about a dozen cities, school district administrators are thinking of eliminating middle schools and reverting to K–8 schools. Their belief is that middle school students will perform better academically in a smaller, more nurturing atmosphere. Studies conducted in...
Currents Educational Strategies Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Winter 2006 Stephens, Kristen R.
Antediluvian ('an-te¯-di-"LOO-ve¯-un), meaning “old-fashioned” or “out-of-date,” was the winning word in the 1994 Scripp’s National Spelling Bee (www.spellingbee.com). Even though the national spelling bee began in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1925, it is anything but antediluvian. In fact, spelling bees...
Currents Volume 6 / Issue 1 / Fall 2005 Stephens, Kristen R.
Since the first one was approved in Minnesota 14 years ago, charter schools have become established in 37 states. As of 2003, almost 2,700 charter schools had opened, offering an alternative in education. Although charter schools are found in many...
Volume 5 / Issue 4 / Summer 2005 Ludwig, Susan Special Focus
Parents often ask the editors of the Duke Gifted Letter about the benefits of sending their children away to residential high schools. So we asked an expert to share her advice. Last June I attended the graduation ceremony at...
Consultant's Corner Educational Strategies Volume 5 / Issue 3 / Spring 2005 Kolloff, Penny Britton
Jan and Bob Davidson are the founders of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national nonprofit organization that supports highly intelligent youth. The Davidson Fellows Program recognizes original, significant work of young people (18 years old or younger) in...
Collins-Perry, Bobbie Currents Volume 5 / Issue 1 / Fall 2004
A growing number of students are looking for alternatives to traditional education. Many online or virtual schools have emerged to meet the demand, and business is booming. Nationwide, about 50,000 students took virtual courses in 2002. Such a learning...
Currents Volume 4 / Issue 3 / Spring 2004 Stephens, Kristen R.
Most preschool children would benefit from the innovative curriculum at University Primary School, but it caters primarily to those three- to five-year-olds who are gifted. Located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Champaign, the private primary...
Volume 3 / Issue 4 / Summer 2003 Ludwig, Susan Magna Cum Laude Young Gifted
It is likely that a third-grade math scholar at Hunter College Elementary School can deftly calculate a student’s odds of gaining entry to New York City’s prestigious school for the gifted. Even a younger student could offer the advice that...
Volume 3 / Issue 3 / Spring 2003 Ludwig, Susan Magna Cum Laude
Sixty years ago Dr. Annemarie Roeper and her husband, George, were visionaries in the field of gifted education. As they fled Nazi Germany, they formulated a plan for a school designed to ensure that gifted minds accomplished only positive things....
Volume 3 / Issue 2 / Winter 2003 Ludwig, Susan Magna Cum Laude
The motto of Hathaway Brown, Ohio’s oldest and most prestigious college preparatory girls’ school, is “We learn not for school but for life.” Nowhere is that motto more closely observed than in the school’s innovative Student Research Program. At...
While reading the Little House on the Prairie series to my children, I have learned that in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s day students were obliged to demonstrate to the entire community their mastery of their subjects: history, geography, math, and...
Bonner, Jay Volume 2 / Issue 4 / Summer 2002 Magna Cum Laude
Perhaps only the parents of highly gifted children can attest to the frustrations of educating them. These students learn at a radically different speed from their age-level counterparts (one and a half to four academic years’ growth in one...
Volume 2 / Issue 3 / Spring 2002 Ludwig, Susan Magna Cum Laude
Gifted students approach their final years of high school eagerly anticipating the opportunity to take college-level courses. At 60 percent of our nation’s secondary schools, this opportunity is offered in the form of Advanced Placement courses. However, a growing number...
Brown, Teri Cooper Volume 2 / Issue 2 / Winter 2002 Magna Cum Laude
Summer programs for academically gifted students have proliferated in the last decade, largely because efficient and widespread identification services are available through regional talent search programs. Universities and colleges sponsor most summer programs. Given the myriad opportunities, parents may wonder...
Volume 2 / Issue 1 / Fall 2001 Magna Cum Laude Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula
Many private schools concentrate on the needs of academically advanced students, but it is difficult to find a public school that does. Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, a public school designed to meet the needs of gifted students,...
Volume 1 / Issue 4 / Summer 2001 Lance, G. Denise Magna Cum Laude
A rigorous admissions process, instruction in attitudes and skills needed to do well in college, and a close-knit community of like-minded peers ensure the success of young students who attend the University of Washington’s (UW) Transition School and Early Entrance...
Collins-Perry, Bobbie Volume 1 / Issue 3 / Spring 2001 Magna Cum Laude
Admission to the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) has been coveted by the state’s academically talented students since the school’s inception in 1980. Last year 667 rising sophomores applied and 276 were accepted for admission to the...
Volume 1 / Issue 2 / Winter 2001 Ludwig, Susan Magna Cum Laude
Whether it’s English or mathematics, at Phillips Exeter Academy we call all of our classes Harkness classes and our teachers Harkness teachers. Harkness identifies a table you will find at the center of every class, both literally and figuratively. Harkness...
Volume 1 / Issue 1 / Fall 2000 Magna Cum Laude Tingley, Tyler C.