Stronger Together Than Apart: Building Better Models Through Collaboration and Interconnection

Catherine M. Brighton

To plan gifted education in the 21st century, one must first consider the relatively brief history of the field. Until the 1957 Sputnik launch and the resulting fear that Americans were not globally competitive, there were limited opportunities for bright children. Competition with the Soviets greatly influenced the increase in formal programs for gifted learners (Tannenbaum, 1987). The rise of these programs, comprised mostly of acceleration for bright students in the areas of mathematics, sciences, and technology, began a trend in each state toward legislative mandates to benefit gifted students. Emphasis on gifted education waned in the 1960s, perhaps due to the cultural shift towards desegregated schools, retreatist responses to the Vietnam war, and the cultural devaluation of science (Tannenbaum). The 1970s brought the National/State Leadership Training Institute (N/S LTI) principles of differentiation for gifted and talented students that shifted the collective thinking beyond curriculum as “more” and “faster” to qualitatively different programs for gifted learners incorporating global themes, authentic problems, and requirements for complex thinking. The recommendations from this innovative team served as a springboard for many of the program models developed since that time.

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