A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, Volume I - The harm of accelerating, the practice of progressing gifted students through material faster or at younger ages than usual, is a myth, contend the authors of this report. Twelve reasons why acceleration isn’t accepted in America are presented and in turn debunked. This report also contains research findings and rationales supporting the practice of acceleration for gifted students. A 190-page Volume II containing research summaries is also available. (Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline and Miraca U. M. Gross, The Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, College of Education, University of Iowa, October 2004)...

FAQs about Giftedness - This five-page question and answer piece discusses major issues revolving around profoundly intelligent children, who are defined as, "those individuals who have IQ’s that are at the 99.999% percentile." The authors list the common characteristics found in these children, discuss misconceptions and relate the difficulty in obtaining an accurate count of the precise number of profoundly intelligent children. The authors also note that the number of profoundly intelligent children is unknown at this time and that the prime age for testing is when the child is between four and nine years old. The piece concludes with developmental issues, special schooling and parenting needs, as well as the somewhat unexpected parallels between the parenting needs of both gifted children and disabled children. (Davidson Institute for Talent Development, 2004)...

What We Know About Academically Talented Students: A Sample of Our Findings - The research findings listed here address the areas of (1) ability grouping/acceleration; (2) parents of gifted students; (3) social, emotional and personality traits of gifted students; (4) gifted-learning disabled students; and (5) students underrepresented in gifted programs. Among the findings is that acceleration has been demonstrated to be a successful practice for highly able students that does not result in negative emotional and social effects. (Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, January 2004)...