One of the chief goals of gifted education is to develop the talents of students who demonstrate potential for outstanding achievement. Although there may be other goals associated with gifted education—such as self-actualization—from a policy and practice standpoint, developing advanced levels of talent in students is of chief importance (Jung, 2012; Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, & Worrell, 2011). Developing potential into talent involves recognizing potential and intentionally providing environments in which potential can be nurtured into interest and achievement. High school gifted education is precariously positioned in the final third of the K–12 educational continuum. Thus, the role of high school gifted education differs somewhat from the role of primary, intermediate, and middle school gifted education. During the high school years, gifted students should be developing domain-specific talents and the psychosocial skills that are necessary for advanced levels of achievement.
Developing outstanding talent in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been widely lauded as a national educational and economic imperative. The National Science Board (2010) argued that the long-term prosperity of the United States relies on developing the talents of motivated individuals to support scientific and technological innovation. Furthermore, after a 2-year study of advanced STEM education in the U.S., the National Science Board concluded that, “The U.S. education system too frequently fails to identify and develop our most talented and motivated students who will become the next generation of innovators” (p. 5). In the midst of the current call for increased emphasis on developing STEM talent, the number of the highest achieving high school students selecting STEM-related majors in college has actually declined (Lowell, Salzman, Bernstein, & Henderson, 2009). It seems reasonable to ask what type of educational initiatives are addressing the concerns associated with even our highest achieving high school students avoiding careers in the well-documented areas of need? More specifically, what type of gifted education program models address the imperative to develop STEM talent among our highest achieving high school students?
Gifted education previously aligned its emphasis with national STEM priorities subsequent to the launch of Sputnik and the National Defense Education Act (Jolly, 2009), and some advocate for a similar alignment to national educational priorities today (Kettler, 2013; Subotnik, Edminston, & Rayhack, 2007). The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, n.d.) has advocated for a renewed commitment to developing advanced mathematics and science talent in our K–12 schools so that U.S. high school graduates can compete with their international counterparts for admission to prestigious U.S. universities in STEM fields. Recent publications in the field of gifted education further suggest that developing STEM talent is building acceptance as one of the goals of gifted education at all levels (Gentry, Hu, Peters, & Rizza, 2008; Heilbronner, 2013; Heilbronner, 2011; Mann, Mann, Strutz, Duncan, & Yoon, 2011).
The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) is a model of gifted STEM education. Gifted high school students with a career focus in one or more of the STEM disciplines spend their final 2 years of high school taking college courses in advanced mathematics and science at the University of North Texas. Through the graduating class of 2008, approximately 78% of TAMS graduates have pursued careers in STEM fields, and the percentage would be higher if STEM education fields were included (Jones, 2011). After completing terminal degrees, TAMS graduates have served as faculty members on some of the nation’s most prestigious universities including MIT, Stanford, and the University of Chicago. Although we cannot replicate TAMS in comprehensive high schools, the purpose of this inquiry is to extract some principles of high school gifted education from the TAMS model and suggest some implications that can inform educators of the gifted as they design and implement high school programs to develop the talents of gifted and advanced students, particularly in the STEM fields.
Description of the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science
The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science is a publicly supported, residential early college entrance school at the University of North Texas (UNT) at Denton (Sayler, 2006). Created by the Texas legislature in 1987, TAMS is one of 16 state-supported residential university-based mathematics and science schools in the United States (Jones, 2011). TAMS enables talented students planning STEM careers to complete their last 2 years of high school, earn a high school diploma, and finish at least their first 2 years of college simultaneously. Participants enroll in university courses normally taken by college students who are majoring in advanced-level science, mathematics, engineering, or medical tracks. Approximately 200 students enter the program each year. Entering students typically have completed their sophomore year in high school and enter TAMS in the fall of their 11th-grade year; although some students are ready and enter earlier. Students pay no tuition or book costs, but do pay the costs for room and board. They earn at least 57 credits in the four semesters of the program; however, some students graduate with as many as 70 credits. TAMS students must live on campus in a designated TAMS residence hall used exclusively for students in the TAMS program with its own specially trained residential, student life, and counseling staffs. Separate wings of the hall are used for men and for women. There are commons rooms, a computer lab, recreation areas, and TAMS staff offices in the hall.
Taking college courses while at TAMS gives students early access to real-word professional content in mathematics and science and allows many of the TAMS students to be involved in authentic research efforts. The deep knowledge of the fundamentals of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics received in their college courses, combined with high natural ability and enthusiasm for mathematics, science, medicine, and engineering, prepare TAMS students for participation in advanced-level scientific investigations at the UNT campus and other universities during the school year and during the summer between their 2 years in the program. As second-semester juniors, students may apply for $3,000 TAMS Summer Research Scholarships, which provide summer stipends for travel and living expenses. These scholarships are competitively awarded to approximately 60–65 of 200 rising seniors annually for mentor-guided summer research. Over the years, many TAMS students have won prestigious scholarly/research and achievement awards (see Table 1).
TAMS was the first university early entrance program at which the students take only college courses (Stanley, 1991). The exposure to accelerated content provides students an opportunity to advance toward STEM careers and prepares them to engage in authentic research as high school students. The academic load at TAMS is rigorous and demanding. To be admitted, students must demonstrate advanced achievement in mathematics and science, while also having the verbal skills to take college-level English courses as well as college-level social studies courses and electives. More than 3,200 students have completed TAMS since its first class entered in the fall of 1988. Most of the students have done very well academically, in their careers, and in their personal lives (Boazman & Sayler, 2011). Taking university classes, living with other highly gifted and motivated adolescents, and engaging in authentic research opportunities prepare TAMS graduates to enter prestigious programs in their content fields at top universities.
Authentic engagement in science and math is a key feature of the TAMS model. While enrolled in the 2 years of TAMS study, many students apply for and join faculty research teams. The real-world research activities in which they engage ranges from education to psychology, biology to engineering, computer science to chemistry. These research projects are done with faculty researchers at UNT, at regional medical centers, at private research centers, aboard a research vessel sailing near Antarctica, at the NASA Johnson Space Center, at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, at the Southwestern Medical Center, and at Moscow State University in Russia. Many times students voluntarily enter a laboratory their first semester to gain functional experience so when the student petitions the researcher in the spring, the researcher has seen a diligent student and one who has the requisite skill to conduct meaningful research. Students also continue in those labs after the summer experience to finish projects, gather data, and publish results. A graduate of the 2012 TAMS class had six publications on her résumé by the time she graduated from TAMS.
What Can We Learn from the TAMS Model?
The purpose of considering the TAMS model of high school gifted education was to attempt to extract some guiding principles that characterize successful gifted education focused on the national STEM imperative in the early 21st century. TAMS has been incredibly successful at developing gifted students who are prepared and interested in pursuing STEM careers at highly competitive universities. Arguably, no other high school in the United States has been more successful at developing STEM talent—the only high school or university with more Goldwater Scholars than TAMS is MIT (Jones, 2011). Four principles long supported by gifted education research are exemplified at TAMS: (1) acceleration is necessary for gifted high school students to master advanced content; (2) working with an advanced peer group supports talent development; (3) students develop STEM talent through authentic practice and research; and (4) academic contests may serve as motivators and indicators of advanced talent development.
Acceleration of Content Is Necessary
Acceleration has a long history of research support as a tool to facilitate gifted students’ mastery of advanced content knowledge. Acceleration can take many forms including grade skipping, content-specific acceleration, early access/entry to college courses (Southern & Jones, 2004), and classroom accelerative techniques such as tiered objectives (Kettler & Curlis, 2003). TAMS explicitly accelerates content in mathematics and science. TAMS students complete two semesters each of university-level advanced sciences for science majors in biology, chemistry, and calculus-based physics plus associated labs. TAMS students are required to complete through at least Math 1720–Calculus II. Typically 70% of the incoming TAMS students begin the mathematics sequence in Math 1650–Pre-Calculus, transitioning to Math 1710–Calculus I the next semester and completing Math 1720–Calculus II in the third semester. Mathematics electives are taken in addition to the required courses and during the final semester. Diagnostic placement exams are administered to students and approximately 30% of the incoming classes test out of the required mathematics classes and start at a higher level of mathematics than the Pre-Calculus class. Students are allowed to register for additional electives after the first semester provided they maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0; Table 2 presents a list of required and elective mathematics courses completed by TAMS students in recent years.
Beyond the mathematics and science requirements, TAMS students also complete four semesters of English, two of history, and one semester of political science. Most high school mathematics options peak at high school calculus, but TAMS students will graduate high school with a minimum of two college courses beyond high school calculus. Additionally, they will complete at least six semesters of advanced college-level sciences beyond those they completed in their first 2 years of high school, all of which include advanced laboratory experiences.
According to the National Association for Gifted Children (2004), acceleration is a cornerstone for exemplary gifted programs. Acceleration is the chief mechanism through which gifted and advanced learners have opportunities to tackle advanced content in mathematics and science. Gifted education programs ought to include advanced content, and programs specifically concerned with developing talent in the STEM disciplines need to provide multiple opportunities for high school students to engage in advanced content in mathematics and science. One of the benefits of TAMS is that the ceiling of advanced content has been lifted making advanced mathematics and science content easily available to TAMS students.
Group Students to Support Talent Development
Grouping gifted and advanced learners together for advanced content instruction is also considered a cornerstone for exemplary gifted programs. (NAGC, 2009; Tieso, 2003). Lovelace (1998) found that all ability levels benefit from grouping with instruction tailored to the content needs of the group, and the most advanced students benefited the most in terms of advanced content acquisition. TAMS students enter the program based on their demonstrated advanced abilities in mathematics and science. When they take the mathematics and science courses at the University of North Texas, they are taking those courses with college students who are also advanced mathematics and science students. High school students needing advanced content need to be working with similar ability students also desiring learning opportunities with advanced content.
Grouping and advanced content seem to go hand-in-hand. Early entry students, including TAMS students, have reported their perceptions about why they were successful in programs like TAMS (Olszewski-Kubilius, 1998). The TAMS students interviewed spoke of having already taken many of the advanced classes in mathematics, science, and English, running out of things to take in their traditional high schools. Thus, moving on to college early was appealing to them, as was being with similar ability peers while doing this. Students reported finding a broad range of individuals who became their close friends at TAMS. Overwhelmingly, TAMS students have reported satisfaction with the opportunity to work with similar ability peers while engaging in advanced content (Sayler, 1995, 2010).
Learn Through Authentic Practice
Students develop STEM talent and expertise through authentic practice and research. Situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991) suggests that learning involves legitimate peripheral participation in which learners participate in a community of practitioners within a field or domain. The students begin on the periphery but gradually move toward full participant in the sociocultural practice of the field or domain. In this participation, the students become part of the authentic processes and practices of a field acquiring the knowledge and skills of the domain in authentic situations. Movement from the periphery toward more authentic tasks requires the students to demonstrate willingness to learn as well as competencies in the domain of practice. Lave and Wenger described the initial participation on the periphery as mostly observational, but even though the students are not very involved, they learn by “both absorbing and being absorbed in the culture of practice” (p. 95).
Wenger (2006) described communities of practice as a group of people engaged in a process of collectively learning in a shared domain. Generally, these communities share an interest or a concern and learn how to perform the tasks better as they interact regularly. There are three required elements: a domain, a community, and a practice. Although these can be applied across many settings, in the case of TAMS students, the domains are generally in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering fields. The communities are the research teams of professors, graduate students, research assistants, and undergraduate students (including TAMS students). The practices include the formal processes of conducting research at a large research university.
TAMS students are invited and encouraged to participate in research activities with the research faculty at the University of North Texas. When the TAMS students take part in the research activities, they enter a situated learning environment with legitimate peripheral participation.
TAMS students are exposed to research from the beginning of their entry to the TAMS program. During the summer orientation process before classes even begin, newly admitted students interact with second-year students who are currently involved in research. Within the TAMS Student Life program, a student club called the Research Organization exposes incoming students to current research, hosts presentations on research, and follows up with students expressing interest. Participation in research is emphasized before new TAMS students take their first class in August.
When the incoming students arrive, they have the opportunity to join the Research Organization and visit laboratories with second-year students who are currently researching at the University of North Texas and surrounding institutions. During the formal Academic seminar presentations in the fall, first-semester students are instructed on the scientific method and the application of the method as it is applied to all disciplines in academic research. Professors from several disciplines present during the seminar highlighting the work that transpires in the laboratories and the advances that occur due to those research ventures. In addition to research professor presentations, other faculty present on how specific research and opportunities are tied to prestigious awards on the domestic and international level. It is during this first fall semester that students are encouraged to begin thinking about which discipline and with what type of research they wish to engage.
In the spring semester of the TAMS students’ first year, an additional formal seminar is presented that outlines the professional steps to be taken by TAMS students in contacting researchers and attaining a position in specific laboratories. Students are responsible for contacting, establishing, and securing these research pairings. The Research Organization assists students in locating various types of research. One of the opportunities is with NASA in Houston, which typically allows three to four TAMS students to participate in research at the NASA Space Center. The TAMS program has budgeted a Summer Research Scholarship that covers the cost of tuition for these research opportunities. This allows the student selected for a TAMS Summer Research Scholarship to receive academic credit while conducting research.
Document Achievement Through Academic Contests
Academic contests serve as motivators and indicators of STEM talent development. Academic contests have traditionally been a part of gifted education (Ozturk & Debelak, 2008), and these competitions provide challenging and engaging learning opportunities for gifted students (Olszewski-Kubilius & Lee, 2004). Examples of academic contests include math leagues, science fairs, math and science Olympiads, engineering competitions, writing competitions, and problem-solving competitions such as Destination Imagination. Participation in academic competitions can help gifted students define their interests and develop increased self-awareness of personal strengths and career possibilities (Calvert & Cleveland, 2006). As students participate in large national or international competitions, they get a chance to realistically evaluate their talents in relation to other gifted and talented individuals with similar interests. TAMS students have historically participated widely in academic competitions and their success in some of the most prestigious competitions is documented (see Table 1).
Implications for High School Gifted Education
TAMS is a model program for developing the talents of gifted students in the STEM fields. For 25 years, students have entered and completed the TAMS program and most of them enter and complete the rigorous college and university program, and then participate and succeed in STEM-related fields. Despite the overwhelming evidence of success at TAMS, the academy itself and the principles of gifted education it exemplifies go largely unnoticed and underappreciated in the network of gifted education professionals and policy makers in Texas. In this inquiry we have annunciated four principles of gifted education that are critical to the success of the TAMS model; furthermore, we want to suggest some implications that the TAMS model might offer high school gifted education programs.
Establish Clear Goals for Developing STEM Talent in the Gifted Program
Clear and compelling goals ought to guide the development and implementation of gifted education programs and services (Kettler, 2013). We began with the suggestion that the chief goal of gifted education ought to be the recognition and development of outstanding talent and achievement. Furthermore, developing STEM talent is widely lauded as one of the most pressing educational imperatives of educational policy and reform in the U.S. today. Thus, it seems reasonable that gifted programs, specifically at the high school level, should adopt goals for recognizing and developing STEM talent. These goals should be compelling and measurable. They are compelling when they attract the attention and support of the local community and entire school system. Additionally, goals are measurable when they include student outcomes that can be observed, measured, and monitored over time. Table 3 includes samples of gifted STEM program goals that are compelling and measurable. These goals require a commitment to advanced learning opportunities for students participating in those programs, and students successfully mastering these outcomes will be exceptionally well prepared to enter postsecondary options in STEM fields.
Support and Encourage Acceleration and Grouping for Talent Development
Acceleration and grouping are research-supported practices long associated with successful gifted education programs. Acceleration and grouping are both recommended facets of gifted education programs by the National Association for Gifted Children, and the Texas State Plan for the Education of the Gifted/Talented calls for districts to support and facilitate acceleration options for students. Examination of the TAMS model reveals that gifted students at TAMS succeed in significantly accelerated content. They are graduated from high school with an estimated 60 credit hours of advanced college mathematics and science as well as foundational courses in English and social studies. To accomplish the types of compelling goals demonstrated in Table 3, acceleration of content and grouping for dedicated talent development are necessary.
Technology has afforded more opportunity for accelerated options than any time previously. When we cannot take the student to the curriculum, we can use technology to bring the curriculum to the student. For instance, most high schools do not offer courses beyond calculus; however, online learning opportunities and university partnerships are widely available to provide these options for students. Opening the doors to accelerative options requires schools to establish policies and guidelines that not only allow acceleration but also facilitate it for students wanting to develop advanced levels of talent and achievement. This may require consideration of GPA policies, summer learning opportunities, and the creation of digital learning labs to support taking advanced college courses at the high school campus.
Support Academic Competitions and Authentic Research
Athletic talent is developed on the practice fields and gyms, but it is demonstrated and evaluated in competition. Similarly, talented writers compete in writing competitions, and artists enter their works in annual competitions. Musical talent must eventually be displayed in public performances, many of which are subject to review and evaluation. Studies of talent development typically reveal that talents are evaluated and sharpened through participation in rigorous competition; yet, an examination of school budgets would probably reveal that commitments to fund competitions in arts and athletics far surpasses commitments to fund competitions in core academic arenas such as mathematics, science, and engineering.
Schools that establish goals to develop STEM talent should commit necessary resources to support students in STEM academic competitions. Human resources may include faculty time either during the typical school day, or paying appropriate stipends for extracurricular work. Fiscal resources also include funding entry fees, preparatory materials, travel expenses to competition venues, and laboratory facilities commensurate with the rigorous requirements of national competitions. Creating a climate that supports and encourages students in academic competitions is equally as important as providing appropriate resources. Faculty sponsors and coaches should be inviting students into their programs regularly, and the school should find ways to recognize and honor those students who compete. Schools may provide elective courses that are dedicated to preparation for advanced academic competitions and ensure that GPA policies do not deter top-tier students from participation. TAMS has built a climate that fosters and supports students competing in the most prestigious competitions in the nation for science, mathematics, and engineering, and participation in these events motivates and inspires students toward dedicated study. All of those competitions are open to students at any high school and the human and fiscal resources are far from inhibitive.
Additionally, high schools committed to developing STEM talent should find ways to engage students in authentic research activities. Perhaps there is no better example of taking authentic research seriously than the Dr. Robert Pavlica Authentic Science Research Program at Byram Hills High School in Armonk, NY (see www.byramhills.org). Pavlica started the authentic research program at Byram Hills in the early 1990s in response to some of the advanced science students’ request that they spend less time preparing for AP exams and more time actually doing science (Robinson, 2004). Students in the science research program complete a spiraled curriculum of scientific research skills from the sophomore year through the senior year culminating in some of the nation’s most prestigious student research projects. Byram Hills students have often led the nation in the number of semi-finalists and finalists for the annual Intel Science Talent Research Competition (Robinson, 2004), and in 2012 a student from Byram Hills was one of four students in the U.S. to win the national Neuroscience Research Prize award at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Other than its national reputation as one of the most outstanding science high schools in the United States, Byram Hills is a typical, relatively small, public high school of fewer than 1,000 students in upstate New York. However, Byram Hills is an excellent example of how a typical comprehensive high school can make a commitment to supporting authentic student research and achieve outstanding results in developing STEM talent. Authentic research experience is one facet of developing STEM talent. TAMS students participate in these experiences, and other high schools have also modeled how to make a commitment to providing science research opportunities in traditional settings.
Remove the Learning Ceiling
The final implication offered from this inquiry of the model of STEM education found at TAMS is to remove the learning ceiling. Each year, TAMS enrolls approximately 200 students in its junior class, but there are hundreds of other similarly qualified students who could have applied for admission but chose not to (Fleming, Scharff, & Henderson, 1999; Jones, Fleming, Henderson, & Henderson, 2002). Those similarly qualified students traverse the 11th- and 12th-grade curriculum of typical comprehensive high school across the state year after year while their TAMS counterparts engage in advanced college coursework, authentic research, and participate in elite levels of STEM competitions. From an achievement and talent development perspective, the students are arguably equal after the 10th-grade year; however, the data suggest that TAMS students have achieved far more in their mastery of mathematics and science by high school graduation. Given the relative equality of the students at the beginning of high school, the differences in achievement are mostly related to variance in the learning opportunities available to the students.
Learning ceilings for gifted students involve content or experience limitations that may be attributed to the perceived limitations of a typical public high school. Additionally, learning ceilings may be attributed to prevalent attitudes and dispositions that result in gifted students receiving limited focus and priority in the era of competency testing accountability.
To turn this tide, high school gifted education models are encouraged to think differently about the desired outcomes for gifted students interested in STEM-related areas. How might we bring the opportunities to the students in situations where for good reasons, the students were not able to move to the opportunity? In what ways might technology be utilized to bring accelerated content to students who are willing to complete eight high school science courses rather than the typical four? How might other graduation requirements be streamlined to allow more room in the typical high school schedule for additional mathematics and science content as well as authentic research experiences? How might the school develop a gifted mathematics pipeline that generates enough demand for additional courses beyond AP Calculus? In what ways might a high school partner with a college or university to award dual credit for these advanced mathematics and science courses taught by advanced mathematicians and scientists? Every time a school laments that it cannot provide the advanced courses for its brightest students, the community’s response ought to be to try harder because the students deserve it. Learning ceilings are constructs of limitation that can be overcome with innovative thinking driven by the desire to support advanced talent development. Perhaps, such thinking is the hallmark of high school gifted education programs.
Conclusion
High school gifted education ought to have as its chief goal the development of outstanding talent among those students demonstrating potential, interest, and motivation to succeed in various domains. Specifically, one of the national educational imperatives is the development of talented students in the STEM disciplines to support a pipeline of outstanding thinkers and innovators. The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science has been answering this call for gifted STEM education for more than 20 years, and it has illuminated a number of pedagogies of talent development to inform gifted education in Texas and beyond.
As the field of gifted education takes stock of its conceptions of giftedness, rethinking models for appropriately educating gifted students must employ the very innovation that we hope to develop in our gifted young people. Rethinking high school gifted education is a good place to start. Too often high schools have resigned themselves to claim that they do not really have gifted programs or that they provide Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or dual enrollment for gifted students. There are merits to each of those programs for identified gifted students as well as general education students, but there remains a sense that those programs alone or even in combination do not quite capture the emerging vision of what gifted education could be.
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Author Note
Todd Kettler, Department of Educational Psychology, University of North Texas; Michael Sayler, College of Education, University of North Texas; Russ Stukel, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Todd Kettler, Department of Educational Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Email: todd.kettler@unt.edu.
Todd Kettler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education at the University of North Texas where he teaches courses in gifted education, creativity, and child development. He was a contributing author on Using the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts With Gifted and Advanced Learners (Prufrock Press, 2013), and a co-author on A Teacher’s Guide to Using the Common Core State Standards With Gifted and Advanced Learners in English/Language Arts (Prufrock Press, 2014). He earned his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Baylor University, and he was recently honored with the Advocate of the Year award by the Texas Association for the Gifted & Talented. In addition to his work as a teacher and researcher at the University of North Texas, he spent 17 years as an English teacher and gifted and talented program administrator.
Micheal Sayler, Ph.D., has worked in gifted education for the past 30 years and is currently the Senior Associate Dean in the College of Education at the University of North Texas. Dr. Sayler studies the components of what it takes for life-long thriving for gifted. He also specializes in successful parenting of gifted children and youth, early college entrance and other forms of acceleration and grouping, program planning and evaluation, identifying students, grouping arrangements, and measurement and research.
Russ Stukel is currently the Director of Student Life with the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas. He has over 20 years of service working with this population of students and over 30 years of experience working in residence life on a university campus. Russ specializes in developing successful residential programs for specialized schools. He has served as a national consultant with multiple residential schools that also serve the talented and gifted student population.
