National Association For Gifted Students

In 2015, I wrote about my personal philosophy of the gifted learner. I stated in my paper that, “Giftedness is not a one, set definition. The definition of gifted must encompass intellect, ability, creative talent as well as emotional awareness. It cannot be micro-managed and be a “one size fits all” definition” (Dauber, 2015). People, who are gifted, need differentiation and opportunity to express, demonstrate and show their giftedness. Educators must be able to provide opportunities for the gifted learner to express his/her abilities and/or talents. Gifted students learn differently and require special educational experiences in order to grow academically and achieve their highest potential. Therefore, the education field must be able to understand not only the cognitive side of a gifted learner but the affective or social/emotional aspects too.

“The NCLB law­—which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally competitive­­—significantly increased the federal role in holding schools responsible for the academic progress of all students. And it put a special focus on ensuring that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as English-language learners, students in special education, and poor and minority children, whose achievement, on average, trails their peers.” (Klein). In 1965, ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) was introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Program to create a clear understanding of the Federal Government in K-12 school policy, which provided more that $1 billion

When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law in 2002, the legislation had one goal-- to improve educational equity for all students in the United States by implementing standards for student achievement and school district and teacher performance. Before the No Child Left Behind Act, the program of study for most schools was developed and implemented by individual states and local communities’ school boards. Proponents of the NCLB believed that lax oversight and lack of measurable standards by state and local communities was leading to the failure of the education system and required federal government intervention to correct. At the time, the Act seemed to be what the American educational system

NCLB is a federal law that mandates a number of programs aimed at improving U.S. education in elementary, middle and high schools by increasing accountability standards. In 2002 there was a revision that, states must test more often to close the gap between minority students and those with disabilities.

programs, the gifted child learns how to overcome adversity, a life-skill that benefits the gifted

The law was meant to increase student achievement and to hold states, schools, teachers and students more accountable. How exactly is NCLB changing schools? In, 2005-2006, states were required to test grades 3-8 in reading and math. Shortly after, they added in an annual science test in K-12. A lot of tedious testing grew in schools and is still continuing to grow today. Along with tests came certain standards for each state, as well as consequences for those who failed to meet them. Report Cards were being sent home with the school’s data along with the students’ performance. Teachers were even given higher standards to meet. There was a change in

Davidson Institute for Talent Development. (2003).Tips for Teachers: Successful strategies for teaching gifted learners. Retrieved from http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10075.aspx

No Child Left Behind, one of the biggest social engineering projects of our time, put fifty million students and their three million teachers under pressure ("A Failing Grade for No Child"). On January 8, 2002, President George W Bush’s NCLB Act was signed into law. NCLB is an education reform bill created to narrow the racial achievement gap. Recently, NCLB has made its way back into the news, simply because it has been up for renewal for over four years now and nothing has happened. This is significant because NCLB dictates how students are educated. NCLB has already affected student learning for many years now, and if renewed, it will continue to do so. The NCLB Act has failed in its mission to improve our schools and narrow the racial achievement

As with all big measures, it is hard to qualify NCLB as a huge success or monumental failure; instead, it lies somewhere in between. Based on the statistics over the past decade, the experts nearly all agree that NCLB played a role in increasing the mathematics scores of younger grades, with a pronounced effect on areas with a large, concentrated population of African-Americans. NCLB also forever changed the face of education by making testing an integral part of school; while there are many critics there is no question that this shift will be felt for a long time. However the language of the bill that allowed each state to set their own benchmarks meant that the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in math and reading that NCLB warranted was in many instances gamed and back loaded. Also teachers, in an effort to meet these standards, began “teaching for the test” instead of say reading novels or creative exercises as in the past. It’s largely for these reasons that Congress failed to renew NCLB and President Obama waived many of the bill’s central provisions. In my opinion, NCLB had good intent in trying to improve accountability of failing schools systems, providing more info for parents and better allocating money. However, I would not have tried the one-size-fits-all approach of sanctioning schools; instead, I would have really focused on

You might think twice before sending a tennis coach to baseball’s spring training season; although there would be overlap in general kinesthetic and sports psychology knowledge, the nuances of the two sports are very different and require disparate sets of coaching skills. Just as a baseball team needs a coach who understands baseball, gifted students need guidance from well-trained, challenging teachers who understand their educational needs. Teacher training requirements for working with gifted students are determined at the state and local levels. Although gifted and talented students are in every school and classroom, few districts require that all classroom teachers receive training to address the educational needs of advanced learners.

NCLB was a one-size-fits-all despite its attempt to provide low-incomes student aid and to close achievement. Regardless of “race, income, zip code, disability, home language, and background,” N.D), NCLB was not working to meet every students and school achievement rates because of its excessive testing. This put a toll on both the schools and the students because if the school did not improve the performance of the students, the school is held accountable. Since NCLB is a categorical aid, it has a major impact on local school systems (Spring, 2012). This mean that the school that did poor on the test will not get the aid that they need properly.

Jamal Abedi begins his article discussing what the NCLB Act is and why it was established in our country. Basically, the NCLB Act was the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965; it affects the states that use federal funding and hold those states accountable for student achievement (Abedi, 2004, p. 4). After explaining the NCLB Act and its purpose, Abedi creates a numbered list of the flaws of NCLB. The flaws include, “Inconsistency in LEP classification across and within states….Sparse LEP population….Lack of LEP subgroup stability….Measurement quality of AYP instruments for LEP students….LEP baseline scores….LEP cutoff points” (Abedi, 2004, p. 4-5), which he gives a short paragraph about the flaw then continues to explicate later in

NCLB sets some new strategic directions to reform American education. The focus of President Bush's education agenda is to shift federal education dollars away from an emphasis on improving schools to an improvement of student performance and a closing of the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. NCLB is structured to tie funding to accountability and results.

In order to address how and why agenda setting of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) came about, it is important to begin with addressing the education situation of 1965. According to McGuire (2008), the Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Did you know that not all of the schools in the U.S. have Gifted and Talented Programs? Some of the kids that learn things faster than those around them don’t get any special class to help them keep evolving and learning more. They just sit in their normal core classes and learn things over again that they already knew about. Do you know how many of those students that aren’t continually challenged become high school dropouts? 18 %. We need these Gifted and Talented Programs to help prevent that from happening and to keep kids in school and keep achieving their full potential.