Secondary Schools for Academically Talented Youth

Abstract

Many American high school students are bored with the slow pace and lack of intellectual challenge of the standard, inclusive, school curriculum (Feldhusen and Kroll, 1991; Feldhusen, Wood, Dai, 1997). With increased public funding and awareness in gifted education over the last three decades (U.S.O.E., 1993), there has been large growth in the number of secondary schools in the United States specializing in the education of academically talented youth (Feldhusen, 1995a; Kolloff, 1997; Stanley, 1991). These schools challenge the great inclusion movement of the last decade that groups students purely by age; they group students instead by readiness, achievements and/or ability. How are students chosen for these schools? What is different about the curriculum and teaching methods? What advantages does a student get from attending these high powered schools? Can they motivate students to strive for higher level academic and professional achievement than regular schools? Are they able to med the social and extracurricular needs of their students in addition to their academic needs? These are questions for which we sought answers by visiting anumber of these schools, observing classes, talking to students and teachers, and reading the schools' descriptive literature. While several reports have looked at single schools such as the Clarkson School (Kelly, 1985), the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (Eilber, 1987), the Advanced Academy of Georgia (Boothe & Sethna, 1996), and the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (Andersen, 1996; Stanley, 1996) and there is research looking at the admissions processes of residential schools (Jarwan & Feldhusen, 1994), little research has been done on the academic environment of secondary schools for the academically talented. We have made an effort to synthesize the scarce literature that is available on these American secondary schools as well as summarize our observations from school visits and the schools' literature.