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William Torrey Harris serves as the St. Louis school superintendent and institutes formalized gifted education measures.
William Torrey Harris must be highlighted as an important figure within the gifted education movement due to his efforts to create the first systematic gifted education endevor within the United States. Due to his position he was able to affect change that would directly benefit the gifted student. He also had the power to put this kind of change into motion, and due to his efforts other schools/districts took note and began to look at their own programming. -
Stanford-Binet Testing is initially published by Lewis Terman.
It is in this year that Lewis Terman moves forward with the publication of the Stanford-Binet IQ Test. Though later revised in 1930 and 1960 this testing revolutionized the identification of gifted students and testing as a whole. While Stanford and Binet utilized this modality to identify below level students, Terman saw an opporutnity to utilize this test to identify truly gifted students. The Stanford-Binet test is still utilized today to evaluate students and where they fit academically. -
Brown vs. The Board of Education
In this landmark court case the idea of a "seperate but equal" education was struck down. This was not only a major victory in the civil rights movement, but it is more largely a victory for the individual student as well. Due to this decision, educational institutions were charged with providing an equal experience to all students regardless of the color of their skin. By extension, students who needed enrichment and showed gifted tendencies could not be shoved aside because of their race. -
Russia launches Sputnick.
The launch of Sputnik dramatically accelerated the desire of the United States to enhance its educational system. Essentially competition drove the U.S. to work toward creating more rigorous programs, and gifted education was a large part of that. The reality is that the U.S. wanted its citizens to be able to compete on a global level with countries like Russia. Due to this gifted education received additional funding to identify the best and the brightest that the U.S. had to offer. -
Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Standards are published.
The National Association for Gifted Children or NAGC published standards for pre-K-Grade 12 in 1998. These standards articulate for both the educator and the student the needs and expecations for the gifted student. By clearly defining and outlining these the NAGC set the stage for educational accountability and responsibility. -
NAGC Publishes national gifted edcucation standards for teacher preparation programs.
The NAGC further published national education standards for teacher preparation programs in 2006. While the earlier standards were geared toward the students educational experience, these are geared toward providing the proper training to the individuals that will be spearheading their educational experience. The creation and implementation of these standards ensure consistency across teacher preperatory programs and professional development programs.
