The U.S. routinely comes in well below other world leaders when it comes to ranking kids' abilities in reading, science and math. Now a decades-long study that started in 1971 tracks some of our country's best and brightest students.
It's found that these 'gifted' kids, who went on to become successful professionals in a wide range of fields, succeeded despite their education. The researchers argue that these students received less time and attention than kids who were in remedial classes, and therefore were more or less 'ignored' by their teachers.
The controversial No Child Left Behind law did help low-achieving students do better in the classroom, but a 2008 report found that it actually caused teachers to pay even less attention to high achieving students.
On Friday, we explored the topic with one of the researchers behind the longitudinal study on gifted children.
In part 2 of our series today, AirTalk goes hyperlocal and talks to coordinators of gifted and talented student programs from various school districts in SoCal.
Guests:
Debbie Dillard, District coordinator of the Gifted / Talented Program at the Los Angeles Unified School District
Pam Lovett, Gifted and Talented Education coordinator at the Long Beach Unified School District
Linda Tenno, Ed.D., Principal, Victoria Elementary School and GATE coordinator of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District