How do the No Child Left Behind guidelines affect the gifted program?
The No Child Left Behind Act does include a definition of gifted and talented students as follows: The term "gifted and talented," when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who needs services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.(Title IX, Part A, Section 9101(22)) (NAGC website) However, the major provisions of NCLB do not address the learning needs of gifted students. Most advocates of gifted education argue that No Child Left Behind leaves gifted children behind because teachers spend all of their time trying to help struggling students meet proficiency. Although I do not have official written documentation of the statistics, I learned in my AIG certification classes that gifted students often achieve the sma
