Gifted Education Timeline by Morgan Laningham

1868

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William Torrey Harris, the St. Louis public school superintendent, makes an initiative to educate gifted students.

1869

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Sir Francis Galton writes Hereditary Genius. This sparked the idea that intelligence is due to natural selection and heredity.

387 BC

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Plato advocates for specialized education for gifted individuals based solely on physical fitness and intelligence, not familial wealth.

1884

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"Double Tillage Plan" Woburn, Massachusetts-

exceptional students only had to complete first semester of first-grade, then were allowed to move on to second-grade.

1901

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The first school for gifted students was opened in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1905

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Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon create first-ever intelligence test in France. This event sparked the desire to create more ways of testing a student's intelligence levels beyond a "mental age".

1916

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Lewis Madison Terman, the "father" of the gifted movement, created the first successful "Americanized" Binet-Simon intelligence test. This was called the Sanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.

1916

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Opportunity, or special, classes were offered for exceptionally bright students in Cincinnati, Ohio and in Los Angeles, California.

1920-1930

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During the Great Depression, interest in gifted education declined as attention shifted toward equity and meeting the basic survival needs of communities.

1926

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"Mother" of gifted education, Leta Hollingworth, wrote the first gifted textbook called Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture.

1957

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When Sputnik was launched, America received a lot of criticism over their neglect to further the education of gifted students. Gifted students began getting identified left and right. These students were then pushed to enroll in rigorous courses.

1993

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The U.S. Department of Education publishes National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent. This helped shake the anti-gifted ideology that was growing through American schools. Funds were given to schools to support the commitment to gifted education.

1988

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Javits (Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act) was passed and dedicated solely to gifted and talented students, research and research grants, as well as statewide grants.

2001

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No Child Left Behind Act is passed. This act is geared towards helping lower achieving students succeed academically.

2007

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America Competes Act-

STEM education, while not geared specifically for gifted students, supports higher-order and critical thinking, problem-solving, and other common themes in gifted education. STEM education reflects high standards of gifted students.

WORK CITED

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Rimm, S. B., Siegle, D., & Davis, G. A. (2018). Education of the gifted and talented (7th ed.). Pearson.