Ten years ago, a report called A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students brought to light the need for gifted education programs, acceleration, and support for gifted students. Now, key researchers and academics are continuing their work surrounding gifted student education to empower schools and policymakers at the very heart of the issue. Editors Nicholas Colangelo and Susan Assouline have updated and published a new edition of their call to action, appropriately named A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students. This report aims to provide the evidence and tools necessary for the empowerment mentioned above- to implement 20 types of acceleration to challenge gifted and talented students.
While the first report published a decade ago got people talking, Colangelo and Assouline are hopeful that this second edition will keep the conversation going. Even with increased access to gifted programming, many gifted kids are still being shortchanged. It provides a powerful argument for acceleration for gifted students, pushing for teacher training and federal attention to move gifted education further forward.
Click here to read the full report from University of Iowa.