Educators juggle a ton of responsibilities every single day. They often have to choose between self-care (e.g., eating lunch, breaks) and their ever-expanding job responsibilities (e.g., grading, instructional planning, professional learning). As much as they might want to, teachers and coordinators who facilitate advanced academic services can’t always carve out time to read the latest education research. And when they do want to access research, it’s often stuck behind a paywall. The great news for busy gifted education professionals is that several open-access reports present new research and evidence-based recommendations for strengthening advanced academic programming and supporting teachers in PreK-12 schools. These reports provide a glimpse into local and national conversations about advanced education, including universal screening, local norms, automatic enrollment policies, advanced coursework, and effective professional learning. This article highlights five publicly available reports with findings and implications for educators who work with advanced learners.
Identifying Gifted Multilingual Students: Barriers and Promising Practices
Giftedness occurs equally in all populations; however, research shows that gifted multilingual learners (MLs) are not represented equally in gifted programs (Siegle et al., 2016; Gubbins et al., 2018; Mun et al., 2020; Long et al., 2023). According to the National Education Association (NEA, 2020), MLs (students developing proficiency in multiple languages, including English), are the fastest-growing student group in the US. Despite the growing number of MLs, their representation in gifted programs continues to fall behind not only traditional populations of learners, but also behind all underserved populations, including twice-exceptional, rural, Hispanic, Native American, and Black students (Mun et al., 2020).
