The Reform Movement and the Quiet Crisis in Gifted Education

Abstract

The reform movement in education appears to focus on the ways in which schools are organized and managed rather than on the interaction that takes place among teachers, students, and the material to be learned. In the process of designing reform to encourage our most promising students and also to meet the needs of at-risk students, we need to examine the types of changes currently being advocated. An examination of the various reform efforts and the effect that they are having on gifted education is provided in this article. Rather than allowing all reform movements to affect our students without our consent (especially those that call for the elimination of grouping), we need to address the impact of gifted education programs and practices and how they might influence the reform effort. We must also be concerned with continued advocacy for gifted programming, creating and maintaining exemplary programs and practices that can serve as models of what can be accomplished for high ability students. Simply to allow high ability students to be placed in classrooms in which no provisions will be made for their special needs is an enormous step backwards for our field. To lose our quest for excellence in the current move to guarantee equity will undoubtedly result in a disappointing, if not disastrous, education for our most potentially able children.