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Education Gadfly Show #811: How one district scouts for talent for its gifted programs

Michael J. Petrilli David Griffith Amber M. Northern, Ph.D. April Wells
3.16.2022
 

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, April Wells, Gifted Coordinator in Illinois School District U-46 and author of Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping Potential, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how her district scouts for talented students early on, and from all backgrounds. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a survey of district and charter network leaders about staffing challenges they’ve faced this school year.

Recommended content:

  • A 2021 Hechinger Report piece on April’s district and how it reformed its approach to gifted education: “An Illinois district proved gifted programs can be racially diverse.”
  • April’s 2019 book: Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping Potential.
  • The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Heather L. Schwartz and Melissa Kay Diliberti, “Flux in the Educator Labor Market: Acute Staff Shortages and Projected Superintendent Departures,” RAND Corporation (2022).

Feedback welcome!

Have ideas or feedback on our podcast? Send them to our podcast producer Pedro Enamorado at [email protected].

Policy Priority:
High Expectations
Topics:
High Achievers

President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the…

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David Griffith is Associate Director of Research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he manages or authors reports on various subjects including charter schools, …

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Amber Northern is senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she supervises the Institute’s robust research portfolio and…

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April Wells is an educational consultant, conference presenter, and author. She is the Gifted Coordinator in Illinois School District U-46, where she facilitated the redesign of the District’s gifted program.

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