Joyce VanTassel-Baska - Using the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts with Gifted and Advanced Learners

In the fall of 2011, at the annual retreat of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Gifted Children, an urgent request for guidance about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and their relationship to gifted programming and curriculum was heard from every corner of the membership. NAGC leaders and experts responded, starting with a meeting of the NAGC Association Editor, co-chairs of the Professional Standards Committee, the chair of the Education Committee, and the NAGC President and Executive Director at the 2011 annual convention in New Orleans. An ambitious plan was developed to address the needs of gifted education specialists and teachers regarding how to integrate the CCSS with their current programming and curricula.

Out of that meeting came the idea to develop two booklets, one on the English language arts standards and one on the mathematics standards. All involved shared a heartfelt sense of urgency about the importance of this task. The Professional Standards Committee went to work immediately, spending evenings at the conference crafting initial informational materials on the CCSS to distribute via the NAGC website.

The Common Core State Standards are a significant milestone affecting education in the United States. As of this printing, 45 states have adopted the CCSS, attesting to the collective concern about the quality of education in our nation and the commitment to improve it. The CCSS embody significantly higher expectations for learning and thus, if implemented with fidelity, have the potential to dramatically alter achievement for all students.

Gifted educators are excited about the CCSS, as they reflect many of the strategies that the field of gifted education has been stressing for decades as important to deep learning and engagement and high achievementhigh-level, analytical thinking and advanced problem-solving skills. However, the CCSS alone will not ensure that gifted children receive the advanced content, accelerative options, and high-level enrichment that they need to be challenged and make continuous progress in their areas of talent. Hence the need for these booklets: They will help educators understand how to use the CCSS as a foundation and go beyond them for those learners who meet the standards earlier and faster. The booklets also assist educators in coupling and integrating the CCSS with gifted education curricula, instructional practices, and program models. These booklets are a valuable resource for all educators, not just those who work specifically in gifted programs. The reality is that most gifted children receive their instruction from teachers in heterogeneous classrooms, and these booklets can help all educators differentiate content and instruction for high-ability learners.

I want to thank the members of the Professional Standards Committee and others, who worked diligently to respond so quickly to the needs expressed by NAGC members and to fast track the production of these booklets through their efforts in New Orleans and at a work weekend in February 2012, particularly co-chairs Joyce VanTassel-Baska and Susan Johnsen, Cheryll Adams, Rima Binder, Alicia Cotabish, Reva Friedman-Nimz, Claire Hughes, Jennifer Jolly, Bill Keilty, Todd Kettler, Wayne Lord, Chrystyna Mursky, Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Shaunessy, Linda Sheffield, and Debra Troxclair. I also want to thank the NAGC staff members who edited and assisted with the production aspects of this project, especially Jane Clarenbach.

Paula Olszewski-Kubilius
NAGC President
20112013