Marilyn Haight, Texas Tech  University, Michael F. Shaughnessy, Eastern New Mexico University
Periodically, reports of major import are released. In the 1980's, we had " A Nation At Risk"

Currently, Nicholas Colangelo and several of his colleagues have released a report entitled " "A Nation Deceived" which discusses the issue of acceleration and gifted children. Colangelo and his associates have brought together major reports and literature reviews regarding the issue of acceleration and the plight of gifted children in this country. In this interview, he replies cogently to relevant questions.

Q.  "A Nation Deceived:  How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students" has just been released.  What is your goal for this report?

A. My hope is that this report will start a new conversation in America's schools regarding the education of gifted children.  The report highlights the disconnect between the research on acceleration for gifted students, which is uniformly positive both in terms of academic and social issues, and the negative attitude of the general public and the hesitancy of schools to implement acceleration strategies.  This report is free and available for download on www.nationdeceived.org .  I hope that by sharing what the research community knows about acceleration will alter attitudes.  We are letting biases and personal preferences hold back our brightest students. This is not defensible.

Q. What can teacher and counselor preparation programs do to prepare professionals to deal with gifted students?

A. Unfortunately, this is not a difficult answer.  There is so little done in teacher and counselor preparation programs currently that just increasing knowledge is going to make a difference.  Most programs for teachers and counselors do not require any coursework on gifted students.  Even elective courses are rare.  I do think if those interested in teaching and counseling were exposed to information, many would begin to make adaptations.
 
Q.  How can professionals in the fields of special education and gifted education learn from one another?  What competencies do they share at both ends of the    bell curve?

A. These two groups of professionals understand the meaning of differentiation.  They understand the need to individualize to the learner.  In education circles there is considerable talk about differentiation but I don't think there is serious discussion.  First, differentiation is time consuming and demands considerable creativity and knowledge on the part of the teacher.  I am always a bit amazed when experts can pronounce that a teacher with a class of 25 quite diverse students in terms of readiness is asked to differentiate.  To perform such a minor miracle beyond a superficial level, is well, a minor miracle.  While to differentiate does not mean to individualize, it does mean that teaching a broad spectrum of students is going to have shortfalls and those at the ends of the learning curve are going to be shorted.  The law does a pretty good job of protecting the needs at the remedial end---it is virtually silent at the high ability end.

Q. In this age of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) why are gifted kids getting ignored?

A. It is impossible to argue with the premise that no child in any school should be left behind.  I like the idea that as a nation we are focusing more efforts on children not just getting by during their schools years.  I have serious concerns  when I read articles on low graduation rates and even worse, when students graduate high school but in reality have an education level that is several years below 12 th grade.  I believe that testing children can and often does give us information that we need to know in order to improve or make changes.  Tests are mirrors and if we don't like what we see in the mirror, getting rid of the mirror is not the answer. (But it does offer immediate and temporary relief.)

NCLB ignores gifted students and offers schools no incentive to aggressively discern and meet the needs of gifted.  This is a dangerous flaw.  Whenever our schools ignore a population of students, it will come back to haunt us.  Gifted students are part of the fabric of our schools and we will always lose as a nation if we make them invisible.  There should never have to be a choice between which students we serve---we serve all students.