Purpose. This demonstration project’s purpose is to create talent development academies in economically disadvantaged schools built on lessons learned from previous Javits projects.  This project is a five year project, funded through the U.S. Department of Education, Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act.

Objectives and Activities. The project’s objectives with related activities summarized follow.

1. Build on existing partnerships and innovations to create talent development academies using curriculum and strategies developed for high ability learners, whole school, with all students in six Title One elementary schools. The academic focus is English/Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science and draws on curriculum/strategies developed in previous Javits projects (e.g., Bracken et al. 2007; Coleman et al., 2007; Gavin et al., 2009; Kim, et al., 2011; VanTassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2009).
2. Center the academies around teachers and their development: their education and training in gifted and talented education, culturally responsive teaching, and education psychology principles linked to motivation. Educate, train and develop a pool of K-5 teachers to serve as talent scouts and developers in project Title One schools. Create curriculum for culturally, linguistically diverse (CLD) gifted students modeled on previous effective Javits projects. Utilize in-school coaching, courses, summer and Saturday professional development with experts to strengthen skills and expertise.
3. Student academic talent development: A talent development approach (Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, Worrell, 2011) in school, before/after school, summer enrichment, and extra curricular activities, is planned to positively impact student achievement in project schools. A goal is to find and place more gifted and talented students. Early intervention with K-2 students will begin the talent development with young children. Results will be tracked with a growth model, using pre/post assessment, with comparisons of treatment/ non-treatment groups, using nationally normed standardized achievement testing.
4. Scale up to add district schools over the five year project period and create a scale up network for schools outside of CCSD through a Talent Development Academy (TDA) Network built on dissemination of TDA Model and results.

Expected Outcomes will impact teachers, students, the school community, and gifted education.

Outcome 1: Culture change in project schools, reflecting a culture focused on rigor, challenge, persistence, and growth mindset. Evidence will include pre/post environmental assessment.

Outcome 2: 50+ teachers deeply knowledgeable about gifted education and its intersection with culturally responsive teaching. Teachers will engage in leadership activities, e.g., curriculum development, teaching PD courses, coaching and demonstration. Evidence will be student outcomes, graduate and PD activities, published curriculum, and videotaped classroom lessons.

Outcome 3: Improved student achievement and increased identified GT Learners.

Outcome 4: Scale the project up to include 6 schools as TDAs by Year Five. Indirectly scale up through the TDA Network. Evidence will include direct and indirect scale up results.

Participants. Students are estimated at 900 (years 1-3) and 1800 (years 4-5). Teachers and administrators are estimated at 70-90 (years 1-3) and140-180 (years 4-5) with scale up.

Proposed sites. The Principal Investigator is working with Charleston County School District (CCSD), located in Charleston, South Carolina, to select school sites over the five years of the grant funding. CCSD has 84 schools (31 are Title One), 46,000 students, and spans 1000 square miles of urban, suburban, and rural communities. In Year One (2014-15), the PI and CCSD advisory team issued an RFP for schools to apply to become TDAs. Two schools, Angel Oak Elementary and Springfield Elementary were selected to begin in 2015-2016.  We added a third school, Minnie Hughes Elementary, in 2016-17.  Two additional schools, E. B. Ellington Elementary and Frierson Elementary joined in 2017-18. One school will be added in 2018-19.  The selected schools will each a) serve 300 or more students in grades K-5; b) be classified as Title One; c) have other compatible innovations underway; and d) have buy-in by principal and 75% of staff.