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The Binet-Simon Scale
This was the first true intelligence test that assessed a child's vocabulary and thinking skills. It was originally developed to determine if a child's mental capacity was inferior and thus needed to be placed in special classes. Thus, they were able to assign a scale number to represent a child's intelligence. -
Terman's Termites
IQ = Mental Age / Chronological Age x 100
Using IQ tests developed by William Stern, Terman tried to dispel the "early ripe, early rot" myth. He determined this to be false. Terman declared that gifted youth were: the top 1% intelligence, should be identified early as possible, accelerated through school, have differentiated curriculum, specially trained teachers, viewed as national resource for the betterment of society and should be allowed to go in any direction their talents took them. -
Army Alpha & Beta
During World War I, the United States adopted the Army Alpha and Beta tests to determine which men (Army Alpha) should be officers and which men (Army Beta) should be soldiers. The Alpha test assessed vocabulary, mathematical abilities, whether a recruit could follow directions and general knowledge. The Beta test was a non-verbal test that assessed the levels of knowledge of illiterate or non-English speaking draftees and volunteers -
Leta Hollingworth writes Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture
Terman believes that children are born gifted. In contrast, Hollingworth believes that while children may be born gifted, environmental and educational factors also may have an impact on the giftedness of a child. She was interested in how to nurture gifted children and how to educate them appropriately. -
Russians Win Space Race
The Soviet Union launch the Earth Satellite "Sputnik" into space and win the space race with the United States. The US is compelled to put an emphasis on educating the best and the brightest in schools. They start funding ways to identify students that had an aptitude for science, advanced math and technological programming. -
6 Gifted Education Programming Standards
The 6 gifted education programming standards are published. They include: learning development, assessment, curriculum and instruction, learning environments, programming and professional development. The standards put an emphasis on diversity and collaboration and use student outcomes as goals instead of teacher practices.
