• A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, by Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline, and Miraca U. M. Gross,presents research supporting the academic acceleration of gifted students. Its success led to the creation of the Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration. It can be read online for free here.

• The National Association for Gifted Children is a national organization has many resources for helping parents to understand the needs of gifted learners as well as to advocate on their behalf at local, state, and federal levels. We particularly like: Myths about Gifted Education; the Legislative Updates; Gifted by State data.

• Hoagies’ Gifted is a regularly-updated clearinghouse of information on gifted education for parents, educators, and children. We particularly like: Gifted 101, an overview on identification, testing, and gifted programs; Gifted Online Communities, including mailing lists, social networking sites, and message boards; and of course, the Best of Hoagies is a great place to start, compiling best articles, links, research, and resources.

• Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) offers webinars, articles, and other resources for understanding and supporting gifted children and adults across all areas of need: intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

• The Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa College of Education has a national and international reputation for its research, training, and service. It is a resource for educator professional development and specialized educational opportunities for students

• The Davidson Young Scholars Program is part of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. This nonprofit works to support profoundly gifted students 18 and under.We will work with families for whom this would be a valued resource to complete the application process.

• The Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education provides member resources as well as an annual conference for parents and educators.

Out-of-level testing is when students are given assessments that are normed at higher grade levels, to compare their current performance with that of older peers. This can provide helpful information for gifted students who may be performing several grade levels above what their chronological age would indicate.

• The EXPLORE Test was created by ACT for 8th and 9th graders; however, it is frequently used as an out-of-grade assessment for younger students (3rd-6th grade) to assess these students’ academic abilities.

• The SCAT Test, offered by Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth for 2nd-8th graders. The SCAT test is also used to determine entrance to the CTY online course catalog.