Wise Beyond Her Years - Monica Jain started college this fall at age 15, making her the youngest of Boston University's 29,000 students. The Arizona native rocketed through her school years, skipping kindergarten and the 6th grade, then finishing 11th and 12th grades at the same time.

"Multiple Intelligences" Theory Comes Under Fire - Although Harvard professor Howard Gardner's notion of multiple intelligences appeals to many teachers, numerous psychologists say that theory is not supported by research. Some educators believe Gardner's ideas led to the demise of ability groupings in schools, an approach they felt had helped meet the academic needs of the better students. [Free login/registration required.]

TX Brothers Complete High School Early, Graduate Together - Two overachieving brothers were among the Azle High School seniors graduating Friday night at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Robert Gobel, 17, graduated in his third year of high school, and Wayne Gobel, 15, graduated in his second. In addition to both brothers dealing with dyslexia and ADHD, Westin said that dysgraphia, an inability to write correctly, plagued Wayne. Cherie Gobel said that her sons did not do well in public school until after she home-schooled them for 2 1/2 years. Then, she said, they took off.

The Davidson Institute http://www.ditd.org is a non-profit, national organization that offers resources to profoundly gifted young people from the ages 4-18 and their parents. The highly intelligent population was found to be the most underserved. These young people often test above 165 in IQ, and advance so quickly through standard curricula, that overworked, under-trained teachers often don’t have the time and ability to specialize attention and work plans for these children. The Davidson Institute offers free services to help recognize, nurture and support profoundly gifted young people and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents in positive ways, creating value for themselves and society. We have an on-line library of full-text articles, links, reviews, and more about the research and thought on how to best serve the profoundly gifted population www.gtcybersource.org. We offer free family consultation to parents needing information on how to facilitate their child’s educational needs, balanced with the socio-emotional needs of the child. We also offer financial assistance to young people who join our Young Scholars Program (free) to improve their education. The Davidson Institute also gives out a number of yearly fellowships of $50,000, $25,000, and $10,000 to young people who complete prodigious works that will benefit society http://www.davidsonfellows.org.
 

TN Tennessee Strengthening Services for Gifted Students - Intellectually gifted students will now have the option of taking more challenging courses online if the classes aren't offered at their schools. It's one of the ways the state is trying to improve and expand services to gifted students in Tennessee.

American Education Ignores Its Brightest Young Minds - For many of our most brilliant youngsters, school is a purgatory of boredom and lost opportunities. The new book, Genius Denied, calls for a major shift in thinking for teachers, administrators and policy-makers, and encourages school reform that focuses on attending to the educational needs of every student. The book outlines specific steps that students, parents, educators, mentors, patrons and policy-makers can take to make the system work - or to work around the system - in order to help gifted students achieve their potential.
 

MI Smart Kid? Skip High School - It's always been assumed that dropping out of high school is a bad thing, but a West Michigan lawmaker has a new twist on the drop out situation with the state picking up the tab.

Frequently Asked Questions on Giftedness - Who are the "profoundly intelligent"? What are some of the characteristics of profoundly intelligent children? How many profoundly intelligent young people are there? When and how should students be tested for giftedness? What are some of the developmental issues of profoundly intelligent children? What about schooling for profoundly intelligent young people? How do you parent a profoundly intelligent child? See if you agree with the answers provided on this interesting website. [Source: PEN]
 

Gifted Education/Dual Exceptionalities Resources - FAQs, digests, fact sheets, mini-bibliographies, discussion groups, links, and programs in your state that relate to gifted students and children with learning disabilities.

Organizations That Can Help Gifted Children - Organizations that provide information or assistance related to gifted children.
 

U.S. Schools, Facing Tight Budgets, Leave Gifted Programs Behind - Struggling with shrinking revenues and new federal mandates that focus on improving the test scores of the lowest-achieving pupils, many school districts across the country have turned to cutting programs for their most promising students.  

Essential Readings in Gifted Education: The National Association for Gifted Children series Essential Readings in Gifted Education is a 12 volume collection of important topics from Gifted Child Quarterly. Each book is $29.95. All 12 can be ordered as a set for $289.95. Call 800-8187243. Titles include:
- Definitions and Conceptions of Giftedness
- Identification of Giftedness
- Grouping and Acceleration Practices in Gifted Education
- Curriculum
- Differentiation
- Culturally Diverse and Underserved Students
- Twice-Exceptional and Special Populations (disabilities, disadvantages)
- Social/Emotional Issues, Underachievement and Counseling
- Artistically and Musically Talented Students
- Creativity and Giftedness
- Program Evaluation
- Public Policy
 

CA Age-13 Collegian Opening Way For Vouchers? - Single mother's lawsuit insists only university can meet his needs. In a case some believe could establish a legal precedent for school vouchers, the mother of a 13-year-old student attending a state university is suing California for not providing her son a free education according to law.

UT Meeting Needs of Gifted Students: Children Face Problems and Challenges Often Overlooked - Maria slept with books — not stuffed animals — and was reading well before kindergarten. Zach was reading instructions to board games and teaching peers how to play them at 5 years old. And Rebecca could say the alphabet and identify letters at 18 months.
 

Broward Parents Find Programs Inadequate for Gifted Children at Some Schools - Alex Ruiz began reading at age 3. Now the bilingual first-grader already is polishing off Harry Potter novels and adding four-digit numbers. His mother, Dalida, pulled him out of Peters Elementary in Plantation recently, opting for a new charter school. She says she couldn't get his previous school to give him the advanced academics he needs.

Featured Website: The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) - a non-profit organization of parents, teachers, educators, other professionals and community leaders who unite to address the unique needs of children and youth with demonstrated gifts and talents as well as those children who may be able to develop their talent potential with appropriate educational experiences.
 

Grouping Gifted Students - Can gifted students receive effective instruction in the regular classroom? Lisa Benson, a classroom teacher, observes that in her experience, gifted students quickly become frustrated in mixed-ability classes, especially those gifted students who exhibit a high degree of creativity. Further, she believes that the typical large classroom lacks the necessary resources to serve all students well. Do most researchers agree with this practitioner's assessment? John Holloway's reviews current research on ability grouping in classrooms and concludes that schools have many options for meeting the needs of gifted students in both homogeneous and mixed-ability grouping arrangements. 

MD Putting Students to a Big Test - New Prince George's County schools chief André J. Hornsby will require students in the eighth and ninth grades to take the PSAT, a national test designed for eleventh-graders preparing for the SAT college-entrance exam. [Source]

12-year-old Boy Trades His Crayons for Craniums - "You don't need any bones today? No bones?" Kyung Yano asks her quiet, spectacle-wearing 12-year-old, who shakes his head "no" as they head out their apartment door. She wants to make sure he isn't supposed to take his samples of spinal bones and a human skull to class, where he's learning about human anatomy.