Dr. Jennifer Glynn served as Director of Research and Evaluation at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation from 2011 to 2020. In a recent article for the National Association for Gifted Children, she shares 10 of her key takeaways related to gifted education and the gifted identification gap. Excerpts of the article appear below:
After almost a decade examining challenges faced by high-ability students, I’ve learned a lot. I want to share with you some of the key takeaways. It is important to acknowledge what we know and act immediately on that information.
- Talented students are everywhere. High achievers look like America.
- Yet excellence gaps abound.
- Identifying talented students takes work.
- Begin cultivating students’ interests early.
- Exposure, exposure, exposure.
- Smart students need guidance, too.
- Engaging with like-minded peers is powerful.
- Students look up to older students.
- Measuring proficiency is not enough.
- Closing excellence gaps matters…especially now.
Ensuring our underrepresented gifted students are appropriately challenged will both give them a fair shot at social mobility and help build intellectual capital for our nation as it rebuilds its economy and its spirit in the years to come.
For more, see: https://www.nagc.org/blog/cooke-ing-excellence-through-research
