[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 55 (Thursday, April 14, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2532-S2533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Casey):
  S. 857. A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965 to aid gifted and talented learners, including high-ability 
learners not formally identified as gifted; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the last reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was specifically 
designed ``To close the achievement gap with accountability, 
flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind.'' Going into 
the next reauthorization of this law, there has already been much 
discussion about the extent to which each element of that goal has been 
achieved. While there is some evidence of a narrowing of the 
achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority students and their 
more advantaged peers when it comes to meeting minimum ``proficiency'' 
goals, the achievement gap among high-ability students has been 
widening. Some of our most promising students, the scientists, 
inventors, and problem solvers of the future, are being left behind.
  I want to be clear that I am not necessarily talking just about high-
achieving students. I am talking about high-ability students with gifts 
and talents that go beyond simply the ability to master grade level 
content. There is sometimes a tendency to assume that gifted students 
are the straight A students and vice versa, the students we needn't 
worry about because they are doing fine on their own. Sadly, that's far 
from true. A student may get straight A's because his or her abilities 
and pace of learning just happen to be exactly matched with the grade 
level curriculum and pace of instruction. Those are not the students I 
am talking about. By definition, a gifted and talented students is one 
who gives evidence of high achievement capability and needs services 
beyond the standard content provided in the standard way in order to 
fully develop those capabilities.
  In fact, gifted students may significantly underperform. Many high-
ability students get poor grades due to boredom. Some drop out of 
school or exhibit problem behaviors, and gifted students are often well 
represented in alternative schools. Still, even if they are getting 
straight A's on content that is not challenging to them, they are still 
underperforming. That hidden gap between achievement and potential 
ought to be alarming to all of us who are concerned about our Nation's 
future economic competitiveness.
  On the most recent international tests, students in China topped the 
charts in math, science, and reading, while U.S. students were in the 
middle to bottom of the pack. Few American students are reaching the 
most advanced achievement levels on national and state-level tests, 
with miniscule numbers of children of color or children from poverty 
reaching those levels. A dynamic economy needs a steady supply of 
individuals capable of achieving at advanced levels, yet we rely on 
imported talent while systematically holding back our brightest young 
minds here at home.
  I would recommend to my colleagues the book Genius Denied by Jan and 
Bob Davidson of the Davidson Institute in Nevada. It describes the many 
obstacles faced by some of our brightest students in trying to get an 
appropriate education. The book tells the story of a boy named Carlos 
who didn't speak until he was 3\1/2\ years old, but then began to speak 
in complete sentences like a much older child. His mother had been told 
he might be autistic or have a learning disability, but when she had 
him tested, she learned he was actually gifted. He learned to read and 
write with incredible speed and was able to grasp simple algebra 
problems. However, in his Kindergarten class, they were learning to add 
single digits by grouping teddy bears. He was miserable, and despite 
his natural love of learning, he cried to stay home from school. He was 
teased for being different and the stress of school got to be so great 
that his hair started falling out. He began talking about wishing that 
he was dumb or even dead.

  The book also talks about a boy named Tim who is dyslexic and also 
profoundly gifted. His gifts compensated for his inability to read so 
he was able to earn normal grades, but his school would not make 
appropriate accommodations for his learning disability because he was 
achieving at acceptable levels. School officials also maintained they 
had no obligation to accommodate his gifts. This left Tim frustrated. 
His zeal for learning waned because his disability held him back while 
his gifts went undeveloped, but both went unaddressed by his school 
because he was not failing. Eventually, his mother was forced to pull 
him out of the public school and educate him at home.
  Many schools have special gifted and talented programs with staff 
trained in gifted education strategies, but a great many others do not. 
This leads to the uneven availability of appropriate services. Title I 
schools are far less likely to have any services for gifted students. 
Is this because there are no high-ability disadvantaged students? 
Certainly not. There are high-ability students in every school and low 
income doesn't mean low ability. It is of course appropriate to ensure 
that struggling students receive the support they need to achieve to 
their potential, but when disadvantaged high-ability students go 
unrecognized and unchallenged, thus falling short of the level of 
achievement they are capable of attaining, the tremendous loss of human

[[Page S2533]]

potential is truly tragic both for the students and for our society.
  So should every cash-strapped Title I school hire special teachers 
with a background in gifted and talented education and start offering 
gifted education programming? Well, that would be ideal, and would 
likely help improve the academic achievement of all students in those 
schools, but a lack of funds need not be a barrier to schools meeting 
the unique learning needs of their high-ability students. For instance, 
a report by some of the leading experts in the field at the University 
of Iowa's Belin-Blank Center titled ``A Nation Deceived: How Schools 
Hold Back America's Brightest Students'' outlines both the problem of 
schools systematically failing to support their high-ability students 
and an almost no-cost solution--acceleration. Simply allowing students 
to take classes with their intellectual peers, where the curriculum is 
matched to their ability rather than to their age, often results in 
better academic results as well as happier, better adjusted students. 
Also, knowing that all teachers have high-ability students with unique 
learning needs in their classrooms, there is a great need for 
professional development opportunities to incorporate the ability to 
recognize and meet those needs.
  Today, I am introducing a bill, with Senator Casey of Pennsylvania, 
to ensure that Federal education policy no longer overlooks the needs 
of high-ability students. It's called the TALENT Act, which stands for: 
To Aid Gifted and High-Ability Learners by Empowering the Nation's 
Teachers. My bill corrects the lack of focus on high-ability students, 
especially those students in underserved settings, including rural 
communities, by including them in the school, district, and state 
planning process that already exists under the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act. It also raises the expectation that teachers have the 
skills to address the special learning needs of various populations of 
students, including gifted and high-ability learners. To that end, my 
bill provides for professional development grants to help general 
education teachers and other school personnel better understand how to 
recognize and respond to the needs of high-ability students. Finally, 
because we have much to learn about how best to address the very unique 
learning needs of this often overlooked population of students, my bill 
retools and builds upon the goals and purpose of the existing Javits 
Gifted and Talented Students Education Act so that we continue to 
explore and test strategies to identify and serve high-ability students 
from underserved groups. These strategies can then be put into the 
hands of teachers across the country.
  Meeting the needs of our brightest students, the ones our country is 
counting on for our future prosperity, is not a luxury, it is a 
necessity. That isn't a justification for embarking on some sort of new 
spending and sticking them with the bill, however. Instead, my 
legislation would accomplish its goals in a cost-effective way by 
amending existing law to account for the needs of gifted and high-
ability learners as well as retooling the old Javits program to have a 
greater impact. For too long, Federal education policy has been so 
focused on preventing failure that we have neglected to promote and 
encourage success. We can no longer afford to ignore the needs of our 
brightest students and thus squander their potential. My legislation 
will put our country on track to tap that potential which is so 
essential to the future happiness of the students and the future 
prosperity of our Nation.
                                 ______