NORWALK — Maybe you wouldn’t have thought she was smart.

A lanky girl with big brown eyes and dark skin, Mackenzie Jackson was not necessarily picked for this summer program for displaying conventional academic achievement. She was picked, though, for her leadership and out-of-the-box perspective — smarts of a different kind.

“I like when we get to play outside and get smarter, too,” Mackenzie, 6, said in a kindergarten classroom at Brookside Elementary this week.

She had just come back from outside, where her class jumped like bunnies, waddled like penguins and crawled like inch worms for the class’s measurement unit.

The classroom is one of four in Brookside for a summer program called Supporting and Promoting Advanced Readiness in Kids, or SPARK, a statewide project out of the University of Connecticut to include more underserved populations in academically talented tracks. The idea is that by giving students a jump-start through summer programming, they will be more likely to follow advanced programs later on in their academic career. Continue reading…

By Jane Clarenbach/School Administrator, September 2015

“Now I view myself as a talent scout, always thinking of how I can challenge my students so that I can see what they are capable of.”

-Lisa Rogers, gifted education specialist, Marietta, Ga.

With what seem to be ever-increasing demands on educators and limited resources, turning all teachers into trained talent scouts would appear to be a lofty ideal in K-12 education. But absent such a commitment to proactively identify talent by knowing what to look for and nurturing it to the point of excellence, countless students go unidentified for advanced learner services. This results in a significant amount of talent going undeveloped or underdeveloped, which is a loss not only for the students but also for their communities and our nation. Continue Reading…

by: Cindy Wolfe Boynton

Neag School of Education faculty member Catherine Little received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s revitalized Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program to better serve gifted and talented students being stymied by extreme poverty, race, disabilities or other barriers.

It was the largest Javits award given to a single researcher this year.

2014 Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Grant Winners

• University of Connecticut: Catherine A. Little

Continue reading…

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education announced today (Oct. 15) that it is receiving $4.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education to support its ongoing efforts to improve programs for gifted and talented students nationwide.

The Neag School of Education was the recipient of major funding for two grants in the most recent round of funding by the U.S. Department of Education’s revitalized Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education program. The Javits funding strengthens Neag’s position as a national leader in gifted and talented education and research. Continue reading…

By: Colin Poitras, UConn Today

Mention an education achievement gap and most people think of students struggling to reach proficiency in core academic areas.

But UConn faculty member Catherine Little’s research focuses on the other end of the spectrum – talented and gifted students struggling to advance their academic skills because of limited opportunities. Continue reading…

By Kathleen Schassler, The Middletown Press

MIDDLETOWN >> U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, and Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, spoke to officials, faculty and graduate students connected to the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Educationat Wilbert Snow Elementary School on Wednesday. Continue reading…

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