Gifted+ is a virtual professional learning series designed for educators, specialists, coordinators, and district teams who want practical strategies for identifying and serving gifted learners who are often overlooked.
Through live sessions with nationally recognized experts, recorded access, and additional tools, resources, and implementation supports, Gifted+ helps participants strengthen identification systems, increase instructional rigor, and support talent development across student populations.
Join live to engage with presenters, or learn on your schedule with access to recorded sessions and implementation resources for six months from your registration date.
How well is your district’s gifted identification system working? This session introduces the CASA Criteria, a framework for evaluating identification systems across four interconnected criteria: Cost, Alignment, Sensitivity, and Access. Participants will analyze how identification decisions influence who is identified, how well identification matches services, and how resources are allocated. Through case studies and applied tools, attendees will explore how small structural changes can improve sensitivity, expand access, and strengthen alignment, often without increasing cost.
Scott J. Peters, Ph.D, Matt Makel, Ph.D., Tamra Stambaugh, Ph.D., Lindsay Ellis Lee, Ph.D.
Scott J. Peters, Ph.D., is the Director of Research Consulting Partnerships at NWEA. His research work focuses on educational assessment, research design, gifted and talented student identification, equity within advanced educational programs and services, and educational policy.
Matt Makel, Ph.D., is Professor and Research Chair in High Abilities Studies in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on academic talent development and open science research methods. In talent development, he investigates the equitable allocation of gifted identification and services as well as how schools can better meet student learning needs.
Tamra Stambaugh, Ph.D. is the Margo Long Endowed Chair and Associate Professor in Gifted Education at Whitworth University. Stambaugh’s research interests include students living in rural settings, students of poverty, and curriculum and instructional interventions that promote gifted student learning.
Lindsay Ellis Lee, Ph.D., is an educational psychologist, educator, scholar, and consultant. She specializes in gifted education, creativity, PK-20 education, and data science. Her work connects research and practice to build inclusive, data-informed systems that support the growth of advanced learners across intellectual, creative, and social-emotional domains.
Discover how to increase the rigor of instruction and provide gifted multilingual students with the opportunity to exhibit in-depth, complex thinking while also increasing achievement and proficiency in English. Activities that couple Depth and Complexity with sheltered instruction to meet both language and learning needs of gifted MLs will be shared.
Marcy Voss
Meet Marcy Voss
Marcy currently serves as an educational consultant, Facilitator for the TAGT Emerging Leaders Program, Chair of the National Association for Bilingual Education GT/Bilingual SIG, and Advisory Board member for NCRGE Project EAGLE. Marcy created the Academic Language Cards, Q3 Cards, and TALK Cards. She is co-author of Implementing Evidence-Based Practices in Gifted Education and the Diverse Learner Flip Book, and author of Teaching Gifted Multilingual Learners with Depth and Complexity.
Participants will explore the “how” and “why” 2eASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) students are often misunderstood learners. We will dive into the “hidden curriculum” and common barriers of unstated social and academic expectations in the classroom that can be stumbling blocks for 2eASD learners. Using practical frameworks and a toolkit of strategies and scaffolds that can be implemented tomorrow to make the classroom more inclusive and allow students’ brilliance to shine. Participants will understand potential characteristics and asynchrony of the 2eASD profile, analyze the “Hidden Curriculum” within their own classroom routines to replace unstated expectations with direct, clear, and cognitive (DCC) communication, and design interest-based hooks to increase engagement and reduce task-avoidance.
Julie Delgado, Ph.D.
Julie H. Delgado, Ph. D., is an Assistant Professor of Education at Carroll University. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Connecticut in Educational Psychology dual majoring in Special Education and Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent Development. Her research interests include professional learning and underserved populations, emphasizing in students who are twice- and multi-exceptional.
Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are severely underrepresented among gifted populations and other advanced learning opportunities. While reforms to identification processes, use of local norms, and thoughtful test selection are helpful, “opportunity gaps” still hold low-income students back even where identification best practices are in place. The use of talent developing “front-loaded” interventions, educational opportunities that provide “gifted education like” strength-based learning experiences to economically disadvantaged students prior to formal gifted identification, have shown promise in narrowing academic achievement gaps and cultivating cognitive skills that can lead to increased identification of low-income learners. This session explores the theory and research behind front-loaded interventions and highlights elements of front-loaded approaches that have led to accelerated growth and increased gifted identification among low-income students.
Eric Calvert, Ph.D.
Eric Calvert, Ed.D., is an education consultant and Associate Director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. Previously he served as state director for gifted education and global education initiatives at the Ohio Department of Education and as Director of Youth Programs at Purdue University’s Gifted Education Resource Institute. His research interests include educational policy, developing operationalized models for school-based talent development, and the role of technology in learning, teaching, and cognition.
Differentiating among all of the levels of needs in your classroom is a tough challenge; differentiating among your gifted learners is another thing entirely. You know that all gifted learners aren’t the same, even though they can be viewed that way when considering the resources you need. Have you ever wished you had a clone to help with everything your classroom demands? The evolution of technology as a time saving resource is something to lean into, not away from, to build capacity in yourself to meet those varied needs of your students. In this session, you’ll learn how to build a custom AI assistant using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. We’ll talk about how prompt design helps focus the AI assistant’s responses and how to guide it toward meaningful use the classroom. We’ll explore how AI assistants can help us plan as we support the wide range of learners in our classrooms who have various exceptionalities. We’ll look at ways, for example, how an AI assistant could support differentiation, provide additional depth and complexity, and help students as a brainstorm partner for learning. No tech background required. Just come prepared with a real classroom challenge and a bit of curiosity. You’ll leave with an understanding of the process and a starting point for creating an AI assistant of your own.
Tim Green, Ph.D.
Tim Green, Ph.D., is a former K–12 teacher who has been a professor of educational technology and teacher education at California State University, Fullerton since 1999. He co-directs CSUF’s online Master’s program in Educational Technology and has worked with schools and districts across the country on meaningful technology integration, instructional design, and innovation adoption. He’s the author of several books and articles on educational technology, online learning, instructional design, and educational change. His recent work focuses on helping educators make research-informed, practical use of emerging tools—including AI—without losing sight of what actually works in the classroom.
Live Session Dates:
Pricing:
Have a larger group to register? See registration form for additional package options; the larger the group, the larger the discount. Questions? Contact tagt@txgifted.org.
The registration form will require you to log in with your existing TAGT member profile or create a new profile.
You can pay via credit card or request an invoice to pay via purchase order or check. You will receive a confirmation email following your registration with program access information.
TAGT members receive reduced pricing on professional learning and access to a statewide community of gifted education professionals, and resources.
