The gifted students in Minnesota’s K-12 schools are an underserved population.  They are underserved by teachers who have little preparation for meeting the needs of their gifted population in their schools.  Few teachers are exposed to the nature and needs of gifted students in their pre-service preparation.  Those students are underserved by curriculum texts that were developed and implemented for the general population of students, targeting the average student.  Learning activities derived from those resources are designed to cover the content 3-5 times in a typical classroom while many of the gifted students understand that learning after the first time. Many gifted students have already learned that which is being taught.

Gifted students are underserved by the state’s legislature and the governor in their belief that local control should prevail. Legislators and the governor have supported funding for gifted students.  But due to local control the legislation has fallen short of its intent. The money appropriated pays for little of what is needed.  In a district of 4000 students, paying the salary of a coordinator and paying for memberships to a competition and resources to support those students is all that could be offered to serve the gifted students in that district. Metro area schools, competing for students from their neighboring districts, pour additional money, beyond what is awarded through state funding, to support comprehensive programs, including special schools for the gifted, yet the funding and programming is uneven across the metro area.  

Gifted programing in schools across greater Minnesota have all but disappeared. Enrichment programs in which gifted kids meet once a week with a facilitator are offered in some schools.  Clustering is offered at the elementary level to engage gifted kids in other districts. But given the broad spectrum of student ability and readiness assigned to those cluster classrooms, little challenge is presented to the most gifted.  Middle School and High school gifted programs are almost non-existent. In other districts the principal or curriculum director is given the responsibility of gifted coordinator in addition to other tasks assigned. And in still other districts, fall workshops on differentiation for teachers serve as the gifted training reported to the state. There is ample evidence this type of intervention is not working. 

Across Minnesota and the nation, gifted students’ academic performance is floundering. Gifted kids are underserved in the decade of NCLB.  The top quartile of students continue to lose ground as teachers have redirected their energies to the lowest performing students. A number of studies provide the evidence: Loveless, 2008; Ploucker, et al, 2010; Lubinski, 2014.

Minnesota is failing to meet the needs of one its greatest resources.  The deeply ingrained belief that local districts will make the right decision has not benefitted gifted students. That belief and practice has led to a growing disappearance of gifted programming across the state and has created inequity of opportunity for academic growth and development for the 83,000 students who qualify for gifted programming in Minnesota.  It is time to impose a mandate for services and programming for the gifted population in every district in Minnesota.  It is time we begin to nurture the talent that is being ignored.

The governor heralds his success at creating jobs.  Mandating services and programming for gifted students across the state will expand the opportunity to nurture the creative and innovative talent of this population and in turn, generate high paying jobs in our collective future.