This curriculum study of gifted-student learning in the language arts explores questions of curriculum efficacy related to the nature of the learner, the type of grouping model employed, and the strength of a curriculum treatment emphasizing literary analysis and interpretation and persuasive writing. The study further explores the use of curriculum effectiveness data to improve instruction the next time a unit of study is taught. Findings suggest that the curriculum treatment produces both significant and important learning outcomes for gifted students across 18 school district entities. Implications for further research and practice are highlighted.

This study assessed student growth on integrated science process skills after being taught a 20-36 hour science unit. The prototypical unit, Acid, Acid Everywhere, was implemented in 15 school districts across seven states. Although seven science units for high ability learners have been developed through a federally funded project, the student outcome results only from Acid, Acid Everywhere, the most widely replicated unit, are reported here. All units were based on the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) developed specifically for gifted learners; the model stresses advanced content, high level process and product, and a concept dimension. Results indicate small, but significant, gains for students in integrated science process skills when compared to equally able students not using the units. Implementation data reflected satisfaction of teachers with the units, especially in terms of student interest and motivation. The effectiveness of this curriculum, designed to align with the new science standards and to be appropriate for gifted students, lends credibility to the argument for using the new content standards as a basis for curriculum development efforts with gifted learners.

This paper discusses the rationale for developing performance assessment tasks to augment the identification of more economically disadvantaged and minority students for gifted programs in one state; provides a blue-print for the development protocol, including preteaching, rubrics, and exemplars; and shows major findings for use of the protocol with intended students. The performance assessment tasks were developed and revised based on try-out, pilot, and field test data collected across multiple districts with more than 4,000 students at primary and intermediate grades. Appropriate technical adequacy data were used for decision making on task and rubric revisions. Criterion levels of performance within domains were developed to ensure inclusion of populations of interest without compromising the integrity of the task protocols. The performance assessment tasks of Project STAR resulted in finding an additional group of students who were 12% African American and 14(Y) low-income children dunng the field test of the instrument. These students represent those who would not have qualified for gifted programs using traditional measures. In that sense, the assessment approach yields a “value-added” component to the state identification system. Thus, Project STAR provides an effective and innovative approach to finding more low-SES and minority gifted students for programs.

This quasi-experimental study examines the effects on student performance of a Javits-funded curriculum designed to respond to the needs of high-ability students in elementary and middle school social studies. The curriculum, implemented with all students in heterogeneous classrooms, addresses state standards while integrating advanced content, higher level process emphases, and a conceptual orientation. Data collection focuses on student performance in conceptual reasoning, critical thinking, and content learning and on teacher demonstration of specific desired teaching behaviors. Results demonstrate significant and important differences between treatment and comparison groups in the area of content learning, favoring the treatment group; no significant differences are found for the small subsample of gifted students. Subanalyses yield differential results for specific units and schools, potentially indicating issues of treatment fidelity. Contextual challenges and implications of the study are discussed, including issues related to social studies curriculum implementation and differentiation in the current standards-based environment.

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