Both the current school reform and standards movements call for enhanced quality of instruction for all learners. Recent emphases on heterogeneity, special education inclusion, and reduction in out-of-class services for gifted learners, combined with escalations in cultural diversity in classrooms, make the challenge of serving academically diverse learners in regular classrooms seem an inevitable part of a teacher's role. Nonetheless, indications are that most teachers make few proactive modifications based on learner variance. This review of literature examines a need for "differentiated" or academically responsive instruction. It provides support in theory and research for differentiating instruction based on a model of addressing student readiness, interest, and learning profile for a broad range of learners in mixed-ability classroom settings. Introduction: A Rationale for Differentiating Instruction Today's classrooms are typified by academic diversity (Darling-Hammond, Wise, &. Klein, 1999; Meier, 1995). Seated side by side in classrooms that still harbor a myth of "homogeneity by virtue of chronological age" are students with identified learning problems;

This article focuses on the first phase of a recent National Research Center on Giftedness and Talented (NRC/GT) project, which used survey research to target a disproportionate nationally stratified random sample of primary grade teachers about their beliefs and practices related to talent development in young children and their responses to case studies describing four different types of students—one easily identified as gifted from a traditional paradigm; the others manifested talents masked by some other factor—poverty, language status, or concurrent social/emotional needs. The mixed-method survey design facilitated triangulation of findings to better understand the contextual factors that influence primary grade teachers' perceptions and behaviors. Findings indicate that primary grade teachers continue to hold traditional conceptions of talent that shapes how they view cultural minority students, nonnative English speakers, and children with other exceptionalities. These beliefs influence the types of academic, social, and programmatic interventions they believe diverse primary grade learners need, often seeing the deficits before identifying the talents.

This study investigates the effects of state testing programs on the instructional practices of elementary teachers and the effects of such practices on their gifted students' attitudes toward school and motivation. Results obtained from a national survey of elementary teachers, representing a variety of metropolitan areas and school poverty levels, as well as qualitative case studies from teachers in three states suggest that the perceptions teachers have of standards, tests, and students shape their classroom actions. These findings indicate that teachers are not likely to engage in effective classroom practices but instead engage in one-size-fits-all practices. Implications of these perceptions on professional development and talent development are discussed.

In order to respond to the growing academic diversity in classrooms, teachers must recognize that their students have different needs and commit to differentiating instruction accordingly; however, the relationship between teachers' willingness and ability to differentiate instruction and principals' attitudes toward differentiation is unknown. In this qualitative study, the principals and faculty at three schools were interviewed and observed over the course of 3 years. The results suggested that principals played a key role in teachers' willingness and ability to differentiate instruction. Principals successful in encouraging teachers to differentiate exhibited the critical support, desire for change, belief that change was possible, and long-term vision of implementation that teachers required in order to effectively differentiate in their classrooms.

The students in 21st-century public middle schools are increasingly diverse in terms of language proficiency, cultural and ethnic representation, and varied levels of poverty; and, yet, they are being educated in a political climate that encourages mainstreaming special education and gifted services in the regular classroom. Given this context, this study sought to examine 48 middle school content-area teachers' beliefs about teaching in diverse classrooms to determine how these beliefs affected theii willingness and capacity to differentiate their instruction and assessment. A qualitative study design incorporating grounded theory methodology (Glaser eu Strauss, 1967;Strauss et> Corbin, 1990) was employed. Four teacher beliefs emerged from interview, observation, and document data that conflict with the philosophy undergirding differentiation. Each belief is presented with supporting evidence from the data and discussed in terms of its relationship to effective differentiated classroom practices.