Interested in attending Hernando County's Gifted Advisory Council meetings?

Open to the public, they are held in Challenger's Media Center on the 1st Thursday of each school month. To confirm meeting dates, please visit the advisory council's website at www.questgac.org.

Every year, 200,000 7th and 8th grade students take the SAT or ACT college entrance exams. The majority score as well as high school seniors, who are usually 4 or 5 years older. But the academically stronger members of that pool of 200,000 young test-takers (middle-school students) -- those who score at or above the average score for high school seniors -- are especially gifted. Those students can absorb a whole year's worth of high school in 3 weeks, researchers say. In fact, a few of the very highest scorers on the SAT, as middle-school students, can actually absorb a year's worth of high school in just a week and a half.*

Visit the website of Duke University's Talent Identification Program (click on TIP below) to find out how your child can take the SAT/ACT in 7th grade. The Explore Test, also offered through Duke, is available to 5th & 6th grade students and measures high-school readiness.

* The Templeton National Report on Acceleration

America's schools routinely avoid academic acceleration, the easiest and most effective way to help highly capable students. While the popular perception is that a child who skips a grade will be socially stunted, fifty years of research shows that moving bright students ahead often makes them happy. 

For more information on acceleration, click on the book above, A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students.

It doesn't take an Einstein to see that our schools are failing our smartest kids. To read the full article by John Cloud, click on Baby Einstein.

• Research indicates that up to 20% of high school dropouts test in the gifted range.
• Nearly half of gifted students are underachieving.
• Highly intelligent children often hide their intellectual abilities in order to make friends. Girls especially will "dumb down" to fit in with their peers.
• Gifted students are frequently misdiagnosed as hyperactive or as having Attention Deficit Disorder because boredom often leads them to being inattentive in class.