Build Your NAGC26 Schedule Around Your Role

Whether you’re a primary teacher, gifted coordinator, school administrator, parent, researcher, or counselor, we’ve pulled together sessions tailored to the questions, challenges, and opportunities you encounter every day, so you can spend less time searching and more time planning your NAGC26 experience. 

Explore session recommendations organized by role and grade level to discover new strategies, research, and ideas relevant to your work, from supporting young learners to leading gifted programs, partnering with families, and advancing the field. 

Primary Teachers

• A League of Their Own: Scouting and Coaching Our Youngest All-Stars
• Mix It Up! Instructional Strategies That Spark Curiosity in Young Learners
• Designing Learning Environments to Challenge Advanced Young Students Intellectually
• Early Entrance to Kindergarten: Research‑Based Guidance for Educators and Families
• Thinking on Purpose: K-2 Thinking Curriculum for Talent Development and Identification
• Big Thinking for Little Learners: Adapting Thinking Routines for Primary Students
• Creative Play Unplugged: Off-Screen Problem Solving for Gifted Learners
• Boxed In: Using Creative Constraints to Spark Wonder in Gifted Learners

Elementary Teachers

• Spotting Creative Potential: How to Recognize Creativity Before It Shows Up on a Test
• Equitable Access to Math Pathways: Compacting and Acceleration in Elementary
• From Wonder to Investigation: Scaffolding Research for Young Gifted Learners
• Compliance and Challenge: Enhancing Mandated Literacy Curricula for Advanced Learners
• Before Identification: Designing Math Classrooms That Surface Advanced Thinking
• What Comes After Phonics Mastery? Science of Reading for Advanced Learners
• Failing Forward: Teaching Gifted Kids How to Crash Safely
• Activate the Superpowers: Unfurling the Wings of Neurodivergent Brilliance
• From the Borderlands to MIT: Building an Early College Pipeline for STEM Talent
• The Scientist's Apprenticeship: A K-5 Pathway Using Specialized STEM Units

Middle Grades

• I Clicked One Link and Lost an Afternoon: Constructing Curiosity-Fueled Creativity
• Using Vibe Coding to Foster and Assess Mathematical Creativity in Gifted Grade 7
• Designing for Depth: Challenging Readers to Think Deeper
• Keep It Moving: Hands-On Acceleration & Curriculum Compacting for Middle & High School
• Think. Act. Solve: Turning Gifted Learners into Scientists, Attorneys, and Analysts
• Effectively Respond To Gifted Gen Z's Traits, Concerns and Needs
• Paths to Peacemaker: Guiding Teens Toward Confident Leadership
• Going from "Scream Time" to Screen Time: Healthy Relationships w/ Screens & Social Media
• Gifted Middle School Patterns: Helping Families and Schools Plan for Success Together
• Gifted in Middle School: Connecting Neuro-knowledge to Classroom Practice
• From the Borderlands to MIT: Building an Early College Pipeline for STEM Talent

Secondary Teachers

• Preparing Artistically Gifted Students for the Future: Postsecondary Education and Careers
• Using Community Partnerships to Identify and Develop Gifted Talent in BIPOC Learners
• Creating Collaborative Classrooms Where Students Think, Belong, and Build Together
• Friction Over Fast: Rethinking Rigor in Secondary Honors Instruction
• Strategies for Creating Transparent Assessments in the Secondary STEM Classroom
• What Makes Honors Different? A Framework for Honors Courses
• A Community of Voices: The Gifted Student Board as a Catalyst for Self-Advocacy
• Featured Session: Creating a Culture for High Expectations and Rigor
• "Honors" in Honors Courses? Differentiation, Rigor & Fidelity to Support Advanced Learning
• The Gift of Self: Proven Strategies to Develop and Enhance Self-Concept in Gifted Learners
• Paths to Peacemaker: Guiding Teens Toward Confident Leadership

Gifted Coordinators

• Beyond Gifted Pull-Out: Engineering a High-Impact, Multi-Age Ecosystem in a Rural District
• From Research to Real Use: Developing and Piloting a Gifted Identification Toolkit
• Identification and Universal Screening: Research, Examples, Equity, and Collaboration
• Student Voice Center Stage: The Power of a Gifted and Talented Student Expo
• Building Bridges for Gifted Learners: Leadership Models for District-Parent Partnerships
• Curating Excellence: Using Long-Term Strengths-Based Portfolios
• From Ticket to Takeoff: Why Entry Design Matters in Gifted Programs
• Mission Impossible? Mission Accepted! Securing Buy-In with Administrators
• When Gifted Isn't Optional but Resources Are: Leading Programs That Last
• Still Gatekeeping in 2026? How National, State, and District Data Expose Gifted Education

School Administrators

• From Fragmentation to Field: Advancing Twice-Exceptional Education
• Signature Session: Looking Back, Planning Ahead: 50+ Years of Gifted Education in Wisconsin
• Still Gatekeeping in 2026? How National, State, and District Data Expose Gifted Education
• The Swiss Cheese System: Closing the Holes in Supports for Twice-Exceptional Students
• From Data to Decisions: Practical Dashboards for Identification and Program Evaluation
• Navigating Uncertainty: Sustainability and the Future of Gifted Education
• Access and Representation in Gifted Education: A National Empirical Study
• Forty Years and Still Going: A Proven Gifted Education Model for the Real World
• Mission Impossible? Mission Accepted! Securing Buy-In with Administrators
• Do Strong K-8 Advanced Education Policies Open Up a More Diverse Pipeline in High School?

Parents

• Parenting Bright Minds with Complex Needs: Parent Concerns in Gifted and 2e Families
• Reframing Parent Language: Supporting the Inner World of Gifted Children
• Effective Advocacy for Parents and Educators: Advancing Gifted Policy in Illinois
• Stories of Gifted/Twice-Exceptional Parenting & the Neuroscience of Creating Connection
• When Does Being Perfect Matter? Almost Never: Helping Kids Let Go of Perfectionism
• When School Isn't Working: Educational Alternatives for Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Youth
• Parents' Experiences: Social-Emotional Development of Highly/Profoundly Gifted Children
• Going from "Scream Time" to Screen Time: Healthy Relationships Screens & Social Media
• Gifted Middle School Patterns: Helping Families and Schools Plan for Success Together

Researchers

• New Resources from the NRCAE
• Using Strength-Based Indexes of the WISC-V for Gifted and Twice Exceptional Identification
• Construct Validity and Equity: Results of the Naglieri General Ability Tests National Study
• Mi Primer Idioma es Español: A Systematic Review of Gifted Access for Multilingual Students
• Recent Research on Equity in Gifted Identification and Implications for Practice
• Increasing Equity: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Closing the Opportunity Gap
• Perceived Stigma of Giftedness: School Experiences of Gifted Adolescents and Their Peers
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Local Norms - But Didn't Want To Ask!
• Navigating Uncertainty: Sustainability and the Future of Gifted Education
• Access and Representation in Gifted Education: A National Empirical Study

Counselors

• From Crisis to Calm: De-escalation Strategies for the 2e Learner
• The Importance of Gifted Students' Social Experiences to Their Mental Health
• Combining the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration
• Complexity, Courage, & Cognition: A Deep Dive into Social-Emotional Learning for the Gifted
• Fostering Executive Functioning as a Community Practice in Gifted Classrooms
• The High Cost of the Achievement Narrative: Balancing Excellence and Well-Being
• When Bright Minds Get Stuck: SEL Strategies That Unlock 2e & Underachieving Students
• Finding What Matters: Helping Gifted Learners Pursue a Meaningful Life
• Effectively Respond To Gifted Gen Z's Traits, Concerns and Needs