Providing a high-quality education for all children is critical to America’s economic future. Education has always been the foundation for achieving the American dream, providing opportunity to millions of American families, newcomers, and immigrants. Our nation’s economic competitiveness depends on providing every child with an education that will enable them to compete in a global economy that is predicated on knowledge and innovation. Progress toward this goal requires a race to the top to reform our nation’s schools. It requires holding schools accountable for helping all students meet world-class standards aligned to the demands of the 21st century workforce.
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President Barack Obama
March 10, 2009
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Recent Updates:
7/29/2009/Funding for Javits included in Senate appropriations subcommittee bill
7-23-09/Teacher Quality Partnership Grants Application Deadline
NAGC advocates in Congress and at the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of the gifted education community to increase federal support for gifted and talented learners. We hope that our members and other supporters will assist these efforts by communicating regularly with their Members of Congress on the needs of gifted students. We have prepared an advocacy toolkit to help you gather the information you need to make the case for gifted education; we also offer suggestions to help supporters be even more effective advocates at the federal, state, and local levels.
NAGC has also launched a new grassroots initiative -- where individual advocates will work directly with NAGC to educate Members of Congress on issues of concern to the gifted educatio
n community. We're calling this initiative the Legislative Action Network and we invite you to be part of it. Click here for more information.
HEOA Title II Grants
The deadline for application for The Teacher Quality Partnership Grants under the Higher Education Opportunities Act was July 23, 2009. The grants require all teacher candidates to learn how to meet the learning needs of gifted children. As soon as the grants are awarded, which could be in early September, we will update this space with the results.
In other action related to HEOA, NAGC and the deans of 12 leading schools of education urged the Administration to ensure that that institutions of higher education be held accountable for teaching the needs of gifted and talented in their coursework that all teacher candidates receive. Gifted education advocates successfully added language to HEOA last year that require some record keeping and assurances on the part of teacher preparation programs and states. The letter to the Office and Management and Budget details ways to strengthen the data collection forms developed by the U.S. Department of Education. Click here to read the letter from NAGC and the Deans. Click here to read NAGC's news release.
111th Congress
The 111th Congress convened on January 6, 2009, and will continue for two years. New start, new Members, new staff. The 111th Congress has 54 freshmen Representatives and will have 15 new Senators (after all the vacancies are filled). New members mean new opportunities, but hard work for advocates. It's time to begin the rounds of introducing, or re-introducing ourselves to our Members of Congress and their staff , letting them know about the gifted students in their districts and states, and raising awareness of how federal legislation and funding can make a difference for them and for the nation. Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov for email addresses and other contact information for your Members of Congress. Consider making in-person visits to their district offices.
In most cases, the House and Senate committees on education handle the legislation of greatest interest to gifted education advocates. The appropriations committees handle all funding-related issues, which is where we focus on attention for the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. Although it's important to reach out to all Members of Congress, we need to do even more with the men and women serving on these committees, and the specific subcommittees that handle education funding. Check the committee rosters to determine if your Members of Congress serve on one of them. If so, you know that it's especially important to begin early to develop a relationship with that office, and the staff person handling education issues.
As we get underway with the 111th Congress, we carry over our concerns about funding the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, and we will pursue changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, which the education committees will be considering during this two-year cycle. We also will be working with the U.S. Department of Education on the regulations to implement the changes made last year to the Higher Education Act that affect pre-service teacher preparation programs regarding gifted and talented children. Click here to read about the Higher Education Act legislative victory in the 110th Congress.
Federal Stimulus Funds Available for Gifted & Talented Services and Programs
Gifted education supporters should be advocating with their local school district leaders to spend a portion of the federal stimulus money to support gifted and talented programs and services. The U.S. Department of Education has begun to distribute funds for K-12 and higher education, and at least two of the funding streams -- the State Stabilization Fund and Title I funds -- could be used to suport gifted education students. Stabilization funds could be used to restore budget cuts and teacher positions, or the funds could be used to expand or create new services. Title I funds could be used to support gifted students from low-income families. Additionally, gifted education advocates should know that $100 million in stimulus funds will support Teacher Quality Partnership grants in Title II of the Higher Education Act, which will require university teacher preparation programs to increase new teachers' exposure to the needs of gifted and talented students. Click here to download a memo with more details to help you with your advocacy. Click here for samples of letters to send to your local newspapers.
Funding for the Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act
Funding for the Javits Act in fiscal year 2010 is nearly secured. The Senate appropriations committee included $7.46 million for the program in the bill it approved on July 30. The bill must now go to the full Senate for its approval.
In the House of Representatives, a final fiscal year 2010 Labor/HHS/Education bill has been approved that included the same level of funding -- $7.46 million -- for the program. Funding won't be finalized until after the full Senate approves its bill and the House and Senate work out differences in funding levels in other programs in their separate bills, which may take well into the fall. The funding level is sufficient to continue the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented as well as the competitive grants. There is not enough money, however, to provide for statewide grants.
We would not have had this success without the consistent efforts of advocates around the country. Your work over the years to educate Members of Congress has resulted in new supporters who see the value in retaining the sole federal program addressing the needs of gifted learners. Your efforts also confirm that Congress does respond to constituents. Recall that 50 Representatives and 18 Senators co-signed letters urging their respective appropriations committees to provide at least $11.25 million for the Javits program. (Click here to read the House Javits funding letter). We have more work to do to expand our support, but we have an excellent foundation for future action.
Legislative Proposals to amend No Child Left Behind: Equity, Accountability, and Teacher Effectiveness
(1) NAGC is especially pleased to launch a new initiative to address the achievement gap between advanced students who are disadvantaged and those who are not. Several studies in 2008 focused on the gap between low-income, advanced students and their more advantaged peers, which has been growing faster than the performance gap at the lower end of the achievement level. Click here to read more about the achievement gap proposal, which we refer to as Equity and Excellence. The two studies in 2008 to review on this topic are the Fordham Institute study of top performing students and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation 's Achievement Trap.
We continue to promote two initiatives that are of concern in NCLB: accountability and teacher preparation.Javits follow up ltr to House (FY 2010)
(2) In conjunction with our efforts on the Higher Education Act (HEA) to increase pre-service teacher training in the needs of gifted students, NAGC is seeking changes in NCLB that will require states to describe how they will use federal professional development funds to improve the skills of teachers already in the classroom in instructing gifted and talented students. Click here to read more about this teacher effectiveness proposal. The Fordham Institute's 2008 teacher survey provides an update on what is happening (or not) for advanced students in classrooms across the U.S. Click here for the Fordham national teacher survey.
(3) NAGC is seeking changes in NCLB's assessment and accountability system to ensure that schools are held accountable for improving the achievement of all students, including those performing at the "advanced" level. Click here to read more about this accountability proposal. Also, should the Congress move to encouraging states to use a "growth model" to measure student performance, NAGC asks the Congress to ensure that districts measure the growth of all students, and are accountable for those who are performing above the proficient level.
Continuing Communication with Congress
In order to increase our support in Washington, we must do more during the year to keep Members of Congress apprised of the need for, and value of gifted education programs and services. Not only do they need to hear your stories, they also need to understand that the availability of services for gifted students varies widely between and within states, which in turn leads to huge gaps in how far our brightest students can go. Leadership from the federal government could make a difference to ensuring that high-ability students from every background receive the services they need to reach their full potential.
Check out some of the materials in the advocacy toolkit to help you develop letters-to-the-editor of your local paper. Members of Congress all pay close attention to the issues that appear locally, so this is a great place to begin.
Please visit this space regularly. We're ready to roll up our sleeves to work on a range of issues. Please join us!