The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. This special issue of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted highlights a few of the research studies conducted from 1995-2000. These selected studies have a common thread as they all address…

Review of the last 25 years of the author's work focuses on models for identifying and serving gifted and talented students including: (1) the Three Ring Conception of Giftedness; (2) the Enrichment Triad Model; and (3) the Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Summaries focus on the rationale supporting each model, practical applications, and possible…

This response by the original author to critiques of his review of his own work in gifted education suggests possible new directions for the field. These include: the relationship between general and gifted education, the under representation of minority students as the "time bomb" of gifted education, achieving a balance between curricular…

Joe Renzulli asserts that pull-out programs for gifted elementary school children that reflect horizontal enrichment and vertical acceleration can provide flexibility and enable radical departures from the regular curriculum. Joyce VanTassel-Baska counters that current pull-out programs are inadequately planned, provide insufficient time, are…

This introduction to a special issue on the work of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (housed at the universities of Connecticut, Georgia, and Virginia and Yale University) stresses the center's mission as conducting research that is directly relevant to the teacher/practitioner and information dissemination aimed at…

The Secondary Triad Model aids in developing programs to serve secondary-level gifted/talented students. The model involves formation of: an Interdisciplinary Planning Team that organizes program goals and plans enrichment opportunities; and Talent Pool classes, in which the regular curriculum is compacted and students participate in…

In response to a critique (EC 231 995) of the research bases of his three-ring conception of giftedness, the author notes selectivity and bias in the critic's methodology, raises larger issues (such as equity) underlying identification and programing for the gifted, and discusses the role of theory and the need for action. (DB)