How Stable Does Gifted Education Feel in Your Part of the World?

March 2, 2026

Posted By: S. Nikki Myers in Blog Posts,

By S. Nikki Myers, M.A., Global Awareness Network

Closures in K-12 Schools

A recent news release announced that after 40 years of service the Ricks Center for Gifted Education within the University of Denver, will close after the 2026-27 school year (Jha, 2026). Within a few days, at least seven online referenced closure of the Ricks Center. Many times I have visited and learned from the work of the Ricks Center and its leaders, and from its founder Dr. Norma Hafenstein.
Mackintosh Academy Littleton, founded in 1977 as the first gifted school in Colorado (Mackintosh Academy, 2025a), has also announced it will close by summer 2026 (Mackintosh Academy, 2025b). Its founder also established Renaissance Academy in Colorado Springs (Evanelle Leona, 2005), where I was present as a teacher and parent when it closed in September 2008 during the Great Recession (Weinberg, 2013) due to difficult finances and low enrollment (McGraw, 2008).

Closures and changes in gifted education schools and programs are not unique to Colorado. In Portland, Oregon, debate continues over the closure of a gifted school (Silverman, 2025). A school in Columbus, Ohio, will close and relocate its gifted program (Vugrincic, 2025). Another school in Duval County, Florida, will close as it consolidates into a gifted school (Mallicoat, 2025). A district in Phoenix, Arizona, holds discussions about closing nine schools, including several self-contained gifted magnet programs moving students into a single K-5 gifted academy (Trevino, 2025). During the 2024-25 school year, a previously dedicated center for gifted learning now functions as a program within another school in Youngstown, Ohio (Mosca, 2025). The clock is ticking for gifted schools in the Seattle Public Schools who postponed their closure for another three years (Bryan, 2024).

Just a few years ago, big conversations about educational equity drove conversations about gifted program closures. One author (Atkin, 2022) observed that such closures missed the point with school district practices that require students to secure their own transportation to assessment centers and subsequent school services rather than schools and programs themselves. Another author (Byrd, 2023) discussed the counter-productive nature of pushing for high test scores while closing gifted programs since students with the highest scores and achievement capacity will leave and take their test scores to another program.
These latest school closures appear to sit within newer contexts and with significant implications for private gifted schools in particular.

Complex Factors for Public and Private Schools

Public and private universities and higher education programs are facing difficult financial decisions. One analysis reports:

The cause of these challenges isn’t one single factor, but a set of pressures building from demographic changes, shifts in the public’s perception of the value of a college education, increased operating costs, emerging alternatives to traditional colleges, and, of late, possible changes in federal policies and programs. The net effect is that many institutions are much closer to the brink of closure than they have been in the past (Horn & Shulman, 2025).

In addition to private universities, private K-12 schools that rely on tuition also feel the crunch of economic priorities and decisions. Globally, a recent study in Nigeria found that late fee payments, lack of income-generating activities, and limited tuition fees were significant issues for private schools (Nkedishu, 2025). A private school leader in England names financial pressures, debt burdens, regulatory sanctions, and governance challenges as common reasons for private school closures (Harris, 2025). An educational business consultant in the United States identifies issues of price, admissions, marketing, reserves, and diversity for private schools; and beyond that, identifies significant issues that all educational settings need to consider for the use of time and space, measured learning, the role of education, and talent sourcing (Symmonds, 2024), with advocacy for new and creative solutions.

Creative Solutions!

This brings me full circle to the abrupt gifted school closure that I experienced as a teacher and parent. In 2008, while my community was trying to reorient itself and find solutions for specific and complex gifted educational needs, a mentor from Colorado Springs School District 11, John Griego, said to our solution-finding team, “In times of scarcity, people tend to constrict, due to perceived lack of resources. That’s actually the time when creative solutions can happen.” That reminder led to an unexpected endeavor, where we founded a new charter public school, Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning, that is still going strong in year 16.

With the recent news of Ricks and Mackintosh, and other school closures, I wonder … Where is our gifted education community experiencing loss, challenge, and moments for creative solutions? The ripples of school and program closures for gifted students go beyond a single school, past the immediate community, and outward as families try to find new solutions for complex student-needs. In a May 2025 blog for NAGC, Vicki Phelps noted that as parents,

…We want to ensure that our children are engaged in learning opportunities that will continue to challenge them, spark their creativity, provide opportunities for self-awareness, and develop them into successful, independent citizens who will lead fulfilled and successful lives.

Parents of all types of learners want this for their children, and those of us with gifted children know how difficult that can be without strategic provisions and flexibility outside of typical grade level content.

Your Part of the World

A Reddit user who asked about the cancellation of gifted programs and whether it was happening around the world (Diotima85, 2024) received a wide range of responses that underscore how variable the commitment has been for so many years for these students. I ask now of the readers of this 2026 NAGC blog, how stable does your part of the world feel in gifted education? Are there paths of creativity and teamwork that connect and support all of us? Dr. Linda Silverman, Dr. Jim Delisle, and others founded the Global Awareness Network on the dream of Annemarie Roeper that all of the organizations in gifted education could work together around the world to support the unique needs of these students. Are there unexpected avenues for creativity during this time when resources feel exceptionally scarce? How can we connect and collaborate for new ideas? Whether schools thrive or close, the needs of gifted kids exist. Those of us who specialize in their needs, research their supports, and look them in the eyes grieve the loss of one more school and one more program closed:

Families of Ricks, and Mackintosh, and other closed schools … we see you.
Founders Dr. Norma Hafenstein, the Eve Mackintosh family, and others who brought
together a dream … we see you.
Students in existing and disappearing schools … we see you.

As we grieve these losses collectively, we gain perspective and insight by connecting with each other through our Global Awareness Engage platform. Please join us through additional discussions on LinkedIn, https://linktr.ee/nagcgifted, and www.linkedin.com/in/nikkimyerseducator.
What new things will happen when we talk, support, envision, and create to support gifted children and the gifted adults of the future?