WASHINGTON – The National Association for Gifted Children, the leading advocate for our nation’s high-ability and high-potential learners, commends Congressional leaders for increasing funding for the Jacob Javits Gifted Education program by 20 percent in Fiscal Year 2016.

The funding increases the Javits program to $12 million in FY16 and provides additional resources to develop evidence-based best practices to identify and serve gifted students from traditionally underrepresented communities.

“NAGC commends Congressional appropriators, especially Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Barbara Mikulski, for continuing to recognize the impact and efficacy of the Javits program.  The increased funding in 2016 is the largest investment Congress has made in the program,” NAGC Executive Director M. RENÉ ISLAS said.

The Javits program enjoys a proven track record of success in developing strategies and interventions used in classrooms throughout the nation to identify and serve high-ability students regardless of their race, ethnicity or economic status. Javits-funded research has yielded new approaches to identify students from underserved populations and has produced a range of approaches that can maximize student ability.

The Javits increase comes just a few days after President Obama signed into law an overhaul of the nation’s elementary and secondary education law that includes for the first time a number of provisions focused on gifted students, particularly in the areas of better training and supporting teachers to work with these students and improved reporting of advanced student achievement. 

“This additional investment in the Javits program brings to the close a banner year for gifted education policy and funding at the federal level, and gives us a stronger foundation for continued progress in 2016 and beyond,” Islas said.

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The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) is a membership organization whose leaders support and develop policies and practices that encourage and respond to the diverse expressions of gifts and talents in children and youth from all cultures, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic groups. NAGC invests its resources to train teachers, encourage parents, and educate administrators and policy makers on how to develop and support gifted children. NAGC’s State of the Nation in Gifted Education provides a biennial analysis of state laws and policies to support high-ability and high-potential students. 

CONTACT:  Cathleen Healy, chealy@nagc.org/202-365-4636