What Longitudinal Research and Large-Scale Population Representative Studies Can Tell Us About Gifted Students and Education Policy 50 Years After the Marland Report

Abstract

The Marland Report included many correct observations about gifted education. Some findings, for example, were based on Project Talent, a large‐scale population representative longitudinal study of the US high school population. This paper uses the intersection of cognitive aptitudes and gifted education as a framework and synthesizes studies using prospective longitudinal data from numerous sources. Additional retrospective data on US high achievers are reviewed, as are longitudinal findings from other countries. All these sources will be used to reevaluate a selected set of claims made in the Marland Report. Specifically, we explore (a) the definition and understanding of gifted students; (b) the identification of and longitudinal research on gifted students; and (c) we briefly discuss the context of the Marland Report in the wider history of education policy and reform in the US, including how to best support talented students using information from the field of education policy.

Do Great Minds Think Alike? Gifted Male and Female Students’ Perceptions of Mathematics

“…In the early 21st century, the term “ability testing” was replaced with “psychological testing,” and again it was touted to be preferable to other forms of evaluation when considering gifted and talented students (Hogan, 2019). However, gender, racial, equitable access, and socioeconomic status biases have recently been raised (Ford & Whiting, 2011; Hodges et al, 2018; Reynolds et al, 2021; Wai & Liang, 2023). Those biases are not new to the discourse surrounding testing or evaluation, regardless of the form.…”

The Importance of Identifying Spatial Skills in Talented Students

“…The changing of policy is quite challenging-and in many cases there is the risk that changing the policy at all may remove legislative support for gifted education given how often the area is under attack. The Marland Report-a document providing the foundation for many state policies-did mention the importance of spatial reasoning talents (Wai et al, 2022), but in many cases, perhaps due to the fact that almost all currently used tests focus solely on math and verbal reasoning, spatial talents remain neglected (Lubinski, 2010).…”