Several movements have come together over the last 25 years that may have a profound effect on all gifted students (including the young gifted student) and their education in public schools. First, Federal Law 94-142 introduced students with disabilities into public schools, many of them being seen for the first time by public school teachers and administrators. The reauthorizations of that first law in the mid-1970s ushered in a whole new concept of “least restrictive environment” for disabled students. A new word was born that at first struck fear in the hearts of general educators: INCLUSION.
During the same period of time, The Brown Report, A Nation At Risk, and most recently, No Child Left Behind highlighted the new national agenda: ALL STUDENTS CAN LEARN, just maybe not on the same day or in the same way. In Florida, the lawmakers saw the wisdom in including gifted students in the statutes developed to protect students with disabilities, fashioned after the federal mandates to do the same.
More recently, Florida and other states have seen the wisdom in increasing programs for preschool students from low SES and culturally different backgrounds. The Federal Government also first addressed the problems of the gifted in the late 1980’s with the development of the Jacob Javits Act, providing federal funds to orchestrate a coordinated program of scientifically based research, and demonstration projects. The focus of these projects was to build and enhance the ability of elementary and secondary schools to meet the special educational needs of students who were traditionally underrepresented in gifted programs. Interestingly enough, they were students from the same backgrounds as those being addressed through No Child Left Behind.
The linguistic and cultural diversity among students in American schools is greater now than at any time since the early decades of this century. More than one-fifth of the students in public schools come from language minority families—homes in which languages other than English are spoken. For many of these students, English is not their first language and many enter preschool and primary grades with limited English proficiency. During the 1980s, the number of LEP students grew two-and-a-half times faster than regular school enrollment.
As a meter of how things are going for the economically disadvantaged students in America, about 7.1 million students were participating in the National School Lunch Program by the end of its first year, 1946-47. By 1970, 22 million children were participating, and by 1980 the figure was nearly 27 million. In 1990, over 24 million children and in 2007, more than 30.5 million children each day got their lunch through the National School Lunch Program. More and more children each year are taking part in this program as well as preschool programs in public schools.
So the ALL STUDENTS CAN LEARN mantra included those students coming from economically disadvantaged and limited English backgrounds, those who are disabled and who are gifted and talented. We’ve discussed ways of identifying the giftedness in these students through alternative means like Plan B. We’ve discussed a broadened definition of giftedness through views of multiple intelligences.