A Look Back: Purposes and plans for gifted education in Kappan

Abstract

In this monthly column, Kappan managing editor Teresa Preston explores how the magazine has covered current issues in the past. This column looks at how authors have discussed the best ways to educate the most advanced students. Ensuring that students are appropriately challenged at school has interested Kappan authors since as far back as the 1940s. Programs have had the goal of improving students’ abilities, helping them with social challenges, and building a better workforce. Although some have decried these programs for elitism, educators have long sought ways to expand the definition of giftedness to bring in more students.