Jennifer L. Jolly

Twice-exceptional (2e) students are both gifted and neurodivergent, and are underrepresented in higher education research, particularly outside the United States. This exploratory qualitative study examined Australian 2e university students’ perceptions of effective supports for navigating tertiary education. Guided by Gagné’s Talent Development Mega Model, the study explored how institutional and personal supports shape academic engagement, identity, and achievement. Participants (N = 12) self-identified as 2e and were recruited from a large research-intensive Australian university. Data were gathered through open-ended surveys and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed delayed identification of exceptionalities, diverse understandings of achievement, and reliance on internal coping strategies alongside external supports, including disability services, faculty flexibility, and technology. Participants emphasised the value of flexible, strengths-based learning environments and institutional recognition of twice-exceptionality. However, existing supports were perceived as generic and deficit-focused, highlighting the need for tailored practices, staff training in neurodiversity, and collaboration to support 2e students.

Standardized and informal teacher rating scales (TRS) are survey tools that include behaviors thought to be representative of giftedness and are often used for nomination or referral to a district’s gifted education program or as a datapoint of a multi-measure approach to the identification of gifted and talented students. One of the critical concerns about TRS is whether there is a credible theory underlying survey development. This study explored whether the constructs measured by TRS could be subsumed in the Five-Factor Theory of Personality (FFTP) which is a broadly recognized personality theory with five cross-culturally stable latent constructs. The standardized scales reviewed for general education students included the Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS), Gifted Rating Scales (GRS), HOPE Teacher Rating Scale (HOPE), and Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS). We also included representative examples of non-standardized scales used to identify students from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) backgrounds. Using the five latent constructs as a priori codes, a deductive analysis of the statements from each scale was conducted. The personality traits of Openness and Conscientiousness were most noted for general and CLED scales. Agreeableness was more represented in the general scales, while Neuroticism and Extroversion were more common for CLED scales. This study offered an alternative explanation for the constructs being measured, lending credibility to TRS when they align to the constructs of FFTP, especially Openness and Conscientiousness, and the need for continued critical analysis of how existing TRS implicitly define academic talent, particularly among CLED students.

The field of gifted education in the United States faces an existential crisis due to well-founded charges that many school programs fail to identify students who reflect the diversity of the overall student population. In this study, we used a mixed methods light approach to explore gifted education coordinators’ perceptions of equity and underrepresentation in their school districts as well as their experiences with practices used for gifted identification and programming. Overall, findings aligned with prior research: Gifted education coordinators reported Black and Latinx students as the most underrepresented groups in their school districts. Universal screening, referrals, and teacher rating scales were the most commonly used practices reported. However, gifted education coordinators also perceived referrals and teacher rating scales as contributors to underrepresentation. Qualitative data provided insight into participants’ closed-ended responses and revealed salient themes. Important implications for research and practice are also discussed.

The current study examined the underidentification of students with disabilities for gifted education programs, otherwise referred to as twice-exceptional students. This study utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K). We estimated that approximately 17% to 18% more students with disabilities should have been identified for a gifted education program as having statistically similar achievement scores to those students without disabilities in gifted education programs. Alternatively stated, students with disabilities should make up 10.8% of gifted programs, or about 1 in 9 students in gifted programs should be twice-exceptional. Students with disabilities who were male, non-White, low-income, and indicating more internalizing problem behaviors were more likely to not be identified for a gifted education program despite having similar achievement scores.

Parent-led, home-based education, or homeschooling, has grown rapidly over recent decades with participation rates increasing more than 100-fold to now nearly one in 25 students nationwide in the United States. However, the research base has not grown correspondingly, and homeschoolers remain understudied. We systematically surveyed a population of homeschooling families ( N = 881 responses) who had reported homeschooling a high-ability student to learn more about their characteristics and perceptions. Specifically, we report a mixed-methods analysis of the survey responses addressing whether and why these parents would or would not consider returning their child to a traditional school setting. Respondents were predominantly mothers who reported a high level of formal education and who were primarily responsible for implementing homeschooling with their child. Qualitative thematic analysis of open-ended responses yielded five main themes: preference, academics, concerns about future educational opportunities, satisfaction, and well-being. Findings both support and extend prior research with this population.

The development of both special education and gifted education as fields of study were closely tied to the origins of intelligence testing in the early 20th century. While special education’s terminology has become more nuanced and circumspect over the ensuing century, the term gifted has remained unchanged despite coming under substantial criticism in recent decades for its lack of specificity and for the innateness that the term implies as the primary cause of individual differences in ability. We examine this history and the seminal nationally disseminated reports related to gifted education, from the Marland report to the present, to consider why the gifted label has persisted. We conclude with some suggestions for how these issues might be remedied.

Twitter is a valuable resource for research because of its potential to provide insight into public opinion as well as to identify the most influential sources of information. Mixed-methods exploratory analysis was used to evaluate the discourse on Twitter regarding gifted education. The results of the quantitative analysis of the matrix of connections using NodeXL Pro indicate that gifted education Twitter is a cohesive network and that the top influencers are organizations and educational consultants. Sentiment analysis using Linguistics Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015, Pennebaker et al., 2015) software indicates that tweets related to gifted education have a mix of positive and negative emotive tone. The qualitative analyses suggest that gifted education professionals and parents engage in Twitter in similar ways to what has been described in past research: to share interesting articles and videos, to discuss current issues, promote one's ideas, and seek opportunities.