Abstract
This paper discusses acceleration programs in the field of gifted and talented education in the United States, in order to clarify the characteristics of gifted and talented education in the United States through typologically analyzing its diversity with respect to articulation.
The discussion first clarifies the significance and issues inherent in acceleration programs themselves, based on changes in the principles governing gifted and talented education. The discussion then categorizes the acceleration programs employed in articulation between high schools and universities into two curriculum types (“full acceleration” and “partial acceleration”), and classifies articulation forms into four types (“advanced standing,” “integrated,” “overlapping” and “partial advanced standing”), while explaining the systematic characteristics of each. In addition, the discussion considers the development of full and partial acceleration programs at the stage of articulation between high schools and universities, focusing on their relationships with a series of educational reforms intended to improve basic academic skills from the 1980s on.
The results show that, while implementation of the “advanced standing” type of full acceleration programs targeting gifted children in the narrow sense had been impeded by educational reforms, “overlapping” partial acceleration programs were expanded into the general education system accompanying changes in the principles within gifted and talented education, and the diversity and scale of the expansion of the programs were remarkable. However, amidst these changes, “overlapping” partial acceleration programs became recognized as a method for promoting smooth educational articulation, and in addition to the future goal of talent development, a variety of other roles and functions were added to current acceleration programs, such as lowering the university dropout rate, etc. Furthermore, “integrated” acceleration programs were affected by market principles in educational reforms, and the “partial advanced standing” type of acceleration programs have been affected by the remarkable advance of Internet technology.
The aforementioned analysis shows that, amidst a series of educational reforms, gifted and talented education in the United States underwent a major transformation exceeding the previous framework of special education for a small number of gifted children, and the analysis clarifies that the focus of articulation between high schools and universities changed from “advanced standing” articulation to other articulations centering on “overlapping” articulation.
