The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) recently published a monograph entitled, The Identification of American Indian/Alaska Native Children and Youth With Outstanding Talent. Written by Carolyn Callahan and Jay McIntire, the monograph covers areas of concern and special considerations in identifying American Indian/Alaska Native students with outstanding talents. Some of the topics featured in the monograph include issues of diversity, cultural assimilation or accommodation, biases of testing methods, and selecting and constructing appropriate assessment tools. Copies of the monograph can be ordered for $5.50 each from New Orders, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 Ask for document S/N 065-000-00-6421.
The 20th anniversary celebration of The National Association for Creative Children and Adults will be held in Cincinnati, OH on September 3-5. This year’s conference theme is Early Influences on Future Creativity Productivity. For registration information write: NACCA 20th Anniversary, 8080 Springvalley Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45236. The association also has a new creativity information brochure available. To order the brochure send a self-addressed stamped envelope and $1 to NACCA at the above address.
Teachers of gifted students in grades 5, 8, or 11 and Advanced Placement U.S. History instructors from New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Massachusetts are invited to apply to attend a free three-day training in Project LEGAL. The training involves using problem solving and critical thinking skills to teach students about legal issues. Supported with a grant from the National Diffusion Network, the workshop will take place August 31-September 2 in Callicoon, New York. Teachers interested in applying for the free workshops should contact Jim Carroll, Project LEGAL, Syracuse University, The Maxwell School, 513 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, phone 315-443-4720.
Classroom teachers who are interested in participating in an on-going study of attitudes towards creativity and evaluation of creative products should contact: Jonathan Plucker, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, Curry School of Education, Emmet Street, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Involvement in the initial phase of the study will require a minimal time commitment of 5 to 10 minutes.
The Center for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation (CREATE) is conducting its third annual National Evaluation Institute on July 10-15 at Gatlinburg, TN. Institute sessions will focus on teacher evaluation, administrator evaluation, support personnel evaluation, school report cards, and program evaluation standards. Participants will work with nationally known evaluators and educators, including Peter Airasian, Arlen Gullickson, Virginia Helm, Richard Jaeger, James Sanders, William Sanders, Michael Scriven, James Stronge, and Daniel Stufflebeam. For registration information, contact: Sher Keller, The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, phone 616-387-5895, fax 616-387-5923.
The nonprofit Gifted Child Society announces the opening of the nation’s only information hotline specifically for parents of gifted children. The Parent Information Network for Gifted (PING) offers weekday on-line phone consultation from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. In addition to answering specific questions, they also provide complimentary follow-up materials, suggestions about suitable reading materials for specific situations, and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of state organizations and consultants. The service is available for $3 for the first minute and $2 for each additional minute. The hotline number is 1-900-773-PING.
The Association for the Gifted (TAG) division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) awarded the NRC/GT its Certificate of Merit at the association’s annual convention in Denver on April 7, 1994. It is the first time the award has been given to an institution. In announcing the award, Karen Rogers, vice president of TAG, said, “The body of useful information about research on, and classroom practices for, students with gifts and talents that the Center has made available to all educators will stand as a hallmark in the field in decades to come.”