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The First Gifted School System
William Torrey Harris institutes the earliest systematic efforts in public schools to educate gifted students. -
The First Gifted School
Worcester, Massachusetts opened the first special school for gifted children. -
The Idea of Mental Age is Developed
French researchers, Binet and Simon, develop a series of tests (Binet-Simon) to identify children of inferior intelligence for the purpose of separating them from normally functioning children for placement in special classrooms. Their notion of mental age revolutionizes the science of psychological testing by capturing intelligence in a single numerical outcome. -
The Gifted Movement
Lewis Terman, the “father” of the gifted education movement, publishes the Stanford-Binet, forever changing intelligence testing and the face of American education. -
The Gifted Study
Lewis Terman begins the longest running study of gifted children. -
The First Gifted Textbook
Leta Hollingworth publishes Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture, which is considered to be the first textbook on gifted education. -
The Speyer School
Hollingworth establishes P. S. 500, the Speyer School, for gifted children ages 7-9. -
The Need for Bright and Talented
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, sparking the United States to reexamine its human capital and quality of American schooling particularly in mathematics and science. As a result, substantial amounts of money pour into identifying the brightest and talented students who would best profit from advanced math, science, and technology programming. -
The National Association of Gifted Children
The National Association of Gifted Children is founded under the leadership of Ann Isaacs. -
The Definition
The Marland Report-The first formal definition is issued encouraging schools to define giftedness broadly, along with academic and intellectual talent the definition includes leadership ability, visual and performing arts, creative or productive thinking, and psychomotor ability. [Note: psychomotor ability is excluded from subsequent revisions of the federal definition.] -
The Raise in Standards
A Nation at Risk reports scores of America’s brightest students and their failure to compete with international counterparts. The report includes policies and practices in gifted education, raising academic standards, and promoting appropriate curriculum for gifted learners. -
The Neglected
National Excellence : The Case for Developing America's Talent, issued by the U.S. Department of Education, outlines how America neglects its most talented youth. The report also makes a number of recommendations influencing the last decade of research in the field of gifted education. -
The NCLB
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is passed. The definition of gifted and talented students is modified again: Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities. -
The Standards
NAGC publishes national gifted education standards for teacher preparation programs and knowledge and skill standards in gifted education for all teachers.
