The Council believes that the tone of federal school laws must change from being prescriptive to one that gives real incentives to student achievement. Being able to compete on a global level is important, too. One official stated that “innovation must be the hallmark of the reorganized law.”

To me, this debate is quite frustrating and sad, really. For all of the discussion about NCLB, very little, if any, is about the effects of NCLB on Gifted Education. I’ve seen the effects directly- no meetings with Gifted Facilitator during testing week, etc. Unfortunately, many gifted students are forgotten about. Or worse, administrators feel that because they are gifted, they don’t need the extra attention. I would argue in the contrary. Studies have shown that gifted students actually need more attention, due to the fact that the regular classroom isn’t challenging to them. It’s a struggle for gifted kids to stay focused.