This paper summarizes an October 1993 report of the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement on the status of educating gifted and talented students. The report cites evidence of the mediocre education received by gifted students, describes programs that do not meet students' needs, and outlines recommendations for offering high-level…

This paper describes the 1992 Physics Olympiad Training Camp and the students who attended it. It focuses on student comments about their interest in physics, the challenges offered by the training camp, how camp participants are selected to attend the International Physics Olympiad, and the competition process. (JDD)

This interview with Carolyn M. Callahan, an expert in the field of gifted education, addresses the process of evaluating gifted education programs, techniques for maximizing the impact of the evaluation findings, analysis of evaluation impact, benefits of using an outside evaluator, and parent involvement in program evaluation. (JDD)

The Tennessee Governor's School for the Humanities is a four-week program that offers gifted and talented students a time to discuss ideas and an opportunity to discover new ways to think about the learning process. This paper describes the school's faculty and course offerings. (JDD)

Practicing classroom teachers (N=27) in a graduate class on elementary school administration identified major problems associated with gifted programs. Major concerns and recommendations for improvement dealt with instructional programs, disrupted routines, lack of communication/collaboration, and students' social and emotional development.…

Activities for gifted math students at North Carolina's Governor's School East are described, including college-level coursework in linear algebra, group theory, probability, and computer programing; guest speakers; small group work; competitive events; committee work; and completion of a challenge course at a nearby camp. (JDD)

Discusses the problem of teenage pregnancy in the United States as a major factor in the creation of an American underclass in a cycle of dependency. Describes legislation, programs, and proposals in the state of Missouri which attempt to address this problem. (SR)

This article traces the history of gifted education from multi-age grouping in the 19th and early 20th centuries to special schools and special classes for the gifted. It discusses the effects of the depression, Sputnik, the Marland Report, and the reform movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (Contains references.) (CR)

Because ninth grade is such a tough year for many students, some school districts have created special academies or other programs to provide special attention to students in the first year of high school. Studies show that ninth-graders have the most discipline incidents and retentions, and are most likely to drop out. In this paper, the author…

This case study covers several exploratory data analysis ideas, the histogram and boxplot, kernel density estimates, the recently introduced bagplot--a two-dimensional extension of the boxplot--as well as the violin plot, which combines a boxplot with a density shape plot. We apply these ideas and demonstrate how to interpret the output from these…

In November 1996, the voters of Montgomery County approved by referendum an amendment to the County Charter that changed the County Council's review and approval cycle of the six-year Capital Improvements Program (CIP) from an annual to biennial cycle. The referendum specified that in odd-numbered fiscal years (on-years) the County Council would…

Whereas mentoring programs are well received as support services, very little empirical research has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of these programs to meet the diverse needs of different special populations of youth. Potentially useful theoretical orientations (attachment, parental acceptance-rejection, social support, adult…

The recent reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA; 2004) is first discussed in its historical context. Then, a programmatic line of research (funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development since 1989) is described that is relevant to a proposed model for universal…

English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities are an emerging population in the U.S. and therefore command special attention in assessment systems. Research has demonstrated that "universal design of assessment" approaches are effective in helping to make assessments more accessible for ELLs with disabilities. Special education…

Some in the field of special education hold that students with significant disabilities should pursue the same learner outcomes as students without disabilities. However, educational teams often lack the knowledge and skills necessary to support a student's membership and participation in general education classrooms and learning of the general…