Do NCLB mandates include provisions for gifted education? Its name alone, No Child Left Behind , suggests that this legislation was designed and drafted to ensure educational opportunities for each and every child in the United States to achieve to his or her academic potential. A very laudable objective, indeed. It would seem, then, that the No Child in NCLB refers to, among others, no minority child, no disabled child, no child who receives free lunch, counseling, or medication from the nurse, no athlete, dancer, musician, or skateboarder and, no gifted child. No child will be left behind; all children will be included. If only this acronym were taken literally.
More often than not, NCLB legislation has administrators emphasizing the necessity of increasing test scores of lower achieving students to meet AYP goals. With over-crowded classrooms filled with students possessing an ever-widening range of academic needs, this leaves little or no time remaining for teachers to draft lessons, much less teach them, to challenge the minds of gifted students.
James J. Gallagher, a senior investigator at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of the 2004 Roeper [Institute] Review article, No Child Left Behind and Gifted Education , raises some interesting observations: "What are some of the ... unintended consequences of this legislation? First, what is going on in the classroom as a result of this legislation? From all accounts, many teachers have put aside their curricula in favor of preparing their students to take these "high stakes" tests. Therefore, the students perform extensively on exercises that may look remarkably similar to the test questions they are expected to get. Since the tests have to be placed at a fairly basic conceptual level, that means the needs of gifted students are even more often ignored or brushed off than they have been before."
But are teachers who "favor" preparing students for yearly standardized tests to blame? With "School Report Cards" arriving in parent's mailboxes, and lists of top and bottom performing schools appearing in newspapers, magazines, and on the internet each year, there is enormous pressure on classroom teachers to make their schools and districts look good. With regard to gifted students, this can mean less attention focused on their increased learning, and more on their current intellectual maintenance.
While the No Child Left Behind mandates for improved learning for all students and the reduction of the achievement gaps between at-risk and high achieving students are commendable, parents and other advocates of gifted education must be the voice of those students who, without intervention, may now be the ones left behind.
Works Cited
Gallagher, James J. "No Child Left Behind and Gifted Education." Roeper Review 26.3 (2004): 121+.. 18 Sept. 2006. Questia.
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