TY - JOUR
T1 - Harnessing and guiding the power of policy
T2 - Examples from one state's experiences
AU - Swanson, Julie Dingle
AU - Lord, E. Wayne
N1 - Funding Information:
Fourteen years after the South Carolina mandate for special programs for gifted and talented, efforts to require a full-blown, 36 graduate hours of gifted education coursework for South Carolina certification in the field led to a sharp outcry from district superintendents concerned that their teachers would not have access to higher education institutions to complete a 36-hr certification program. Compromise resulted in 6 hr of gifted education graduate coursework to earn an add-on endorsement rather than a 36-hrs certification program. Beginning in 1998, state grants from the Department of Education supported efforts to develop, increase access, and offer basic endorsement courses across South Carolina. In later years, more advanced gifted education coursework, for example, Social and Emotional Development of Gifted and Advanced Curriculum for Gifted, was supported by state grants. A teacher statement from the South Carolina case sums up the impact of endorsement courses on teacher awareness of gaps in their knowledge of gifted students and how to teach them, “I thought I knew everything before I took GT courses and taught gifted. Those teacher endorsement requirements led to more awareness of what I did not know about gifted students” (, pp. 151-152). This statement underlines what policy makers knew: 6 hr of endorsement is a basic awareness level and much more study is needed. “[We are] just now beginning to have conversations about development for regular classroom teachers where gifted students spend the majority of their time. We need to put more teeth in training ALL teachers who work with gifted” (, p. 151). This gifted education coordinator’s comment indicates that as more teachers of gifted and talented students begin to understand the nature of the gifted learner and how to differentiate for gifted students, attention is shifting to other educators’ necessary, ongoing professional development.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - This article links research and practice through discussion of policy's conceptual aspects illustrated through real-world examples. Gifted education policy essentials, identification, curriculum and services, personnel preparation, and program management, assessment, and evaluation are described. Examples from studies of one state help the reader to understand the power of policy. Leadership and monitoring of current policies, keeping abreast of developments in the field, and ascertaining through data that gifted programs are having the desired impacts are fundamental. Readers are encouraged to use guiding questions as they think through gifted education policy in their own districts or states, with the goal of continuous improvement in services and opportunities for gifted and talented students.
AB - This article links research and practice through discussion of policy's conceptual aspects illustrated through real-world examples. Gifted education policy essentials, identification, curriculum and services, personnel preparation, and program management, assessment, and evaluation are described. Examples from studies of one state help the reader to understand the power of policy. Leadership and monitoring of current policies, keeping abreast of developments in the field, and ascertaining through data that gifted programs are having the desired impacts are fundamental. Readers are encouraged to use guiding questions as they think through gifted education policy in their own districts or states, with the goal of continuous improvement in services and opportunities for gifted and talented students.
KW - Case study
KW - Gifted identification
KW - Gifted programming
KW - Leadership
KW - Policy/law
KW - Research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879915273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84879915273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0162353213480434
DO - 10.1177/0162353213480434
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84879915273
VL - 36
SP - 198
EP - 219
JO - Journal for the Education of the Gifted
JF - Journal for the Education of the Gifted
SN - 0162-3532
IS - 2
ER -