IMPORTANT NOTICE

The Fairfax County School Board plans to hold three meetings over the next two months to examine and discuss the range of programs and services offered to students in the Advanced Academic/Gifted and Talented (GT) Program in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).

“The Board is committed to providing Advanced Academic/GT services to all identified students,” said Dan Storck, chairman of the Fairfax County School Board. “The purpose of our discussions is to learn about national trends, take a fresh look at the diversity of services offered in Fairfax, and determine how we can best meet the needs of our 21st century students. The Board has no intention of eliminating these highly regarded services.”

The first meeting on Monday, June 8, will explore the best program practices nationally and research that is associated with these practices. This presentation, scheduled at 1 p.m. in room 1600 of the Gatehouse Administrative Center, will be part of the Board’s regular work session.  Dr. Sally M. Reis, a national leader in gifted education will make the presentation. Dr. Reis is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Teaching Fellow in Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut where she also serves as Principal Investigator of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She was a teacher for 15 years, 11 of which were spent working with gifted students on the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has authored more than 130 articles, 14 books, 60 book chapters, and numerous monographs and technical reports.

Her research interests are related to special populations of gifted and talented students, including: students with learning disabilities, gifted females, and diverse groups of talented students. She is co-author of The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, The Secondary Triad Model, Dilemmas in Talent Development in the Middle Years, and a book about talent development in females entitled Work Left Undone: Choices and Compromises of Talented Females. Dr. Reis serves on the editorial board of Gifted Child Quarterly, and is a past-president of the National Association for Gifted Children.  She recently was honored with the highest award in her field, the Distinguished Scholar of the National Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Reis’s presentation will be posted to Board Docs on Friday, June 5, 2009. 

The second meeting, scheduled for Monday, July 13, and part of the Board’s regular work session on that day, will look at the current state of Advanced Academic/Gift and Talented Programs at the elementary and middle levels in FCPS.

The third meeting, scheduled as part of the Fairfax County School Board’s retreat July 17 and 18, will focus on general policy directions for the future of these programs and services.

All meetings are open to the public.