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1916 Stanford-Binet Developed
Lewis Terman is considered the "father of gifted" when he started the gifted child movement by revising the Binet-Simon scale tests. He improved the former French IQ test and published the Stanford-Binet intelligence test in order to find kids with IQs of at least 135. He did this so he could study gifted children. -
1926 Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture
Leta Hollingworth wanted to identify bright and talented children in order to meet their specific needs in the school system and further their education so she published Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture. This became the first textbook on gifted education. She believed that environment and educational strategies helped nurture gifted learners in order for them to reach their potential. -
1957 Sputnik Launches
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, America entered the space race to compete globally. As a result, math and science became a primary focus in schools and money was given to programs to advance gifted students in the areas of math, science, and technology. -
1972 The Marland Report
Although Lewis Terman defined giftedness in his work, Genetic Studies of Genius, The Marland Report provides the first formal, yet general, definition of gifted. The definition included academic and intellectual ability, leadership skills, visual and performing arts, creative or productive thinking, and psychomotor talent. This was the first time that other talents or skills other than intelligence was accepted as a gifted measure and schools were encouraged to adopt the definition. -
1983 A Nation at Risk
A Nation at Risk was a national report that described how American schools were failing, especially with their gifted students. It reported how these talented students were not able to compete with similar students across the world and promoted raising academic standards with appropriate curriculum for gifted learners. -
1998 NAGC
The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) created gifted program standards for PreK-12. These standards provide direction in 7 main areas including assessment, curriculum, programming, professional development, learning environment, and more.
