Letter to John Kline, Chairman of House Education and the Workforce Committee, Lamar Alexander, Chairman of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, Bobby Scott, Ranking Member of House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Patty Murray, Ranking Member of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee - Urging Conferees to Support Gifted and Talented Students

Letter

Dear Chairmen Kline, Alexander and Ranking Members Scott and Murray:

As you begin conference negotiations to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), we urge you to maintain the bipartisan gifted and talented education provisions that were included in the Senate-passed Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177).

The original intent of ESEA was to help schools better serve the "special educational needs of educationally deprived children." This means that we need to support every child in achieving their maximum potential. This must include gifted and talented children, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and lack access to services to help them achieve their potential.

Our nation's gifted and talented children must be held to high standards, challenged, and engaged. Unfortunately, these students do not always get the access they need, or deserve, to amazing gifted programs and services across the country. A recent survey done by the National Association of Gifted Children found that our country has fallen behind in gifted education and identified a number of challenges that must be addressed: lack of teacher training, limited state funding, and a lack of data and accountability. One reason that gifted education has fallen behind is that federal law creates incentives to ignore the educational needs of gifted children.

There is a lingering perception that gifted kids are wealthy and do not come from diverse neighborhoods. We know this to not be true and that gifted students can and do live in a wide range of school districts. That is why it is imperative that our federal education policy reflect the understanding that they have unique needs.

We are glad that S. 1177 included provisions from a bipartisan bill we introduced earlier this year -- the TALENT Act, S. 363 in the Senate and H.R. 2690 in the House. These provisions, found in both Title I and II, provide for the inclusion of high-ability students in state plans and state accountability systems. States and school districts need to be accountable for how well they identify and serve gifted minority and low-income students. The bill also makes it easier for States to use their funds to improve teachers' ability to identify gifted and talented students specific learning needs, and tailor instruction accordingly.

Additionally, during the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee mark-up of S. 1177, the Committee unanimously passed an amendment offered by Senator Barbara Mikulski to reauthorize the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Education program. The Javits program is the only federal program dedicated specifically to gifted and talented students. Although relatively small, it positively impacts the education of gifted and talented students in every state through the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented through competitive research and capacity-building grants. These grants lead to the development of effective strategies that support both students and teachers.

If the United States is to remain competitive globally and on the cutting edge of innovation, we must challenge our best and brightest in order to help them reach their full potential.

We respectfully urge the conferees to ensure that the gifted and talented education provisions included in S. 1177 remain in the final conferenced ESEA reauthorization bill. Thank you.