The Role of Curriculum in Identifying Gifted Behaviors and Gifted Potential*

Kristen Seward, Ph.D.
NAGC Curriculum Studies Network Chair
Clinical Associate Professor in Gifted, Creative, and Talented Studies
Purdue University

Enriched and accelerated curriculum differentiates gifted education from regular and special education, and in typical education practice, this advanced curriculum is initiated after students have been identified for gifted programming. For this blog, however, I’d like to consider the important role curriculum serves in identification of gifted behaviors and gifted potential, particularly for students with limited opportunities to learn (OTL) prior to and throughout formal schooling and for students from underrepresented populations. Specifically, how does curriculum front-loading support equitable identification practices?

We’ve been searching and re-searching (pun intended) for the best identification assessment or combination of assessments for years with minimal gains in access, equity, and missingness (Gentry et al., 2019). Our efforts to develop identification processes that increase equitable access to and selection for gifted programming have resulted in complicated systems that utilize multiple quantitative and qualitative measures that are difficult to combine, further complicating the identification process, while students from underrepresented populations continue to be left behind (Cavilla, 2013). Curriculum front-loading holds great potential for resolving this identification conundrum. Front-loading is “the process of preparing students for advanced content and creative and critical thinking prior to identification or before advanced-level courses are offered” (Briggs et al., 2008, 137), thereby ameliorating concerns related to students’ opportunities to learn or to long-standing criticism of traditional identification processes. 

As more schools adopt the talent development model of gifted education, front-loading before and after formal identification makes sense. Prior to identification, front-loading enriched and accelerated curriculum allows students with gifted potential opportunities and time to develop their intellectual abilities and academic skills, including problem-solving and creative thinking (Cavilla, 2013). In addition, learning experiences that incorporate students’ interests and meaningful choices in how they learn and/or the products they create allow teachers special opportunities to identify talent in ways they may have otherwise missed. In a very real sense, front-loading provides the opportunities to learn that some students may have missed, thereby leveling the playing field, so to speak, prior to formal identification. In addition, front-loading is cost-effective and fiscally responsible. Districts can direct funds designated for gifted education to their schools to support teachers and students as opposed to sending funds to testing companies to purchase costly assessments. Because curriculum front-loading is implemented with students (not done to students on a specific day and time like a test), it naturally aligns with the gifted programming schools offer. These important considerations follow recent recommendations researchers have developed for evaluating identification processes based on Cost, Alignment, Sensitivity, and Access (CASA) criteria (Peters et al., 2022).


Front-loading also promotes equity and access after formal identification by providing students with deeper and broader exposure to essential concepts, questions, and vocabulary in the content areas needed for future success in rigorous coursework (Cavilla, 2013). In addition to identification, excellence gaps represent another persistent problem in gifted education metrics. Excellence gaps represent the stark variations in gifted students’ academic performance across demographic groups, with underrepresented populations scoring much lower than well-represented populations of gifted students (Plucker et al., 2017). Front-loading provides an avenue for equitable access to and potential for success in advanced programs for students already identified for gifted programming (Meyer & Plucker, 2021). What’s more, curriculum front-loading has been promoted as “the foundation for any comprehensive intervention efforts [to reduce excellence gaps]” (Plucker et al., 2017).

The importance of teacher training in this curriculum front-loading expansion of the identification process cannot be overstated. First, teachers must be trained to deliver an enriched and advanced curriculum in a way that increases the teachers’ opportunities to identify talent. Teachers trained to identify gifted behaviors and gifted potential observe and interact with students engaged in hands-on, minds-on learning experiences over several days, not one lesson or one day. Effective programming for gifted students often involves integrating advanced curricula with instructional strategies to enhance learning outcomes (Callahan et al., 2015). Many curriculum models in gifted education emphasize the use of confluent approaches that combine advanced content learning with enriched experiences to serve gifted students effectively (Sak & Ayas, 2020). 

Second, teacher training must include the identification of gifted behaviors that are representative of the cultures, languages, disabilities, and economic diversities that students bring to the classroom. Observing and noting students who persist through difficult tasks, who ask intriguing questions related to the content, who take charge of a small group of learners on a project, who demonstrate empathy when working with others, or who demonstrate divergent thinking are only a few of the ways gifted potential can be identified through behavior. Note that some of these behaviors are academic in nature, but others point to social and emotional characteristics that are common among learners with gifts, creativity, and talents. Teachers may use a teacher rating scale that yields reliable results and focuses on academic and social behaviors that indicate gifted potential, such as the HOPE Teacher Rating Scale (Gentry et al., 2015). Teachers may find such scales especially helpful for identifying students from underrepresented populations. 

Although research on front-loading is sparse, what exists is positive and promising, especially when schools that have expanded their identification processes to include curriculum front-loading have identified gifted behaviors and gifted potential in students from underrepresented populations. 

*This blog was created with the assistance of scite.ai.