The National Association for Gifted Children commends Congressional appropriators for doubling to $10 million the Jacob Javits Gifted & Talented  Education Grant program for 2015.

The funding is included within the Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus appropriations package, which was released by Congressional negotiators late last night and is expected to be voted on in the coming days. The bill would fund the federal government through September 2015.

“NAGC applauds Congressional leaders for recognizing the urgent need to develop our top academic talent and to reverse the nation’s longstanding neglect of how we treat our high-ability and high-potential learners,” said NAGC President Tracy L. Cross, the Jody & Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education in the School of Education and executive director of the Center for Gifted Education at William & Mary.

“Just a few years ago, Congress completely defunded this modest yet high-impact program that seeks to develop interventions to help teachers identify and serve talented students from underserved populations that have been traditionally under-represented in gifted programs. Last year, Congress took a major first step to restore the program with an initial $5 million, and now they have moved to double its budget.

“NAGC and all who are concerned about our high-potential and high-ability students owe tremendous gratitude to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Maryland) who has championed the push to restore and now grow this program,” Cross added.

The $10 million level, if finalized, would mark the program’s highest level of funding since 2005. The increased funding will enable the Department of Education to fund additional applied research programs in the field, to continue the work of the National Center on Research on Gifted Education and to make grant funds available, competitively, to states and districts to support their work with underserved, high-potential students.”

In September, the Department awarded 10 awards to institutions throughout the nation using the restored 2014 funding. The funded projects include those focused on twice-exceptional students, English Language Learners, and students from a wide array of underrepresented populations and settings including rural, urban and Indian Reservations.

“NAGC looks forward to working with lawmakers to build and strengthen the Javits program in the coming years and to advancing other needed policies to benefit our high-potential and high-ability learners,” Cross said. Other NAGC priorities include increased training for all teachers and requiring states and schools to report on learning gains of their highest performing students just as they are held accountable for performance gains of those at the lower end of the achievement spectrum.

Contact: Nick Manetto (202) 312.7499/ nicholas.manetto@faegrebd.com