Giving
The Center for Gifted Education has been in operation at the William & Mary School of Education since 1987. The Center has been the recipient of over 25 years of continuous funding from federal, state, and foundation grants for curricula development, research, and dissemination. From the Center's inception, one of its major emphases has been the development of exemplary curriculum frameworks and units of study for classroom use with high-ability learners in science, language arts, mathematics, and social studies. Teams of content specialists and educators have collaborated in writing and field-testing units. Many Center materials have been recognized for their quality and enhancement of student achievement by the United States Department of Education and the National Association for Gifted Children. Specifically, 14 of 29 units published by an outside publisher have received exemplary curriculum awards by the National Association for Gifted Children and 7 of the problem-based science units for grades 2-8 were recognized as a promising curriculum by the United States Department of Education. Center-developed curriculum is used in all 50 states and in at least 15 other countries.
The Center for Gifted Education also serves as a training site for graduate students pursuing a master's or doctoral degree at William & Mary. Students who work at the Center for Gifted Education represent a variety of fields including curriculum and instruction, gifted education, counseling, psychology, and planning, policy, and leadership. These student professionals are engaged in research, curriculum development, instrument design, assessment projects, and direct teaching or piloting of Center materials through the Summer/Saturday Enrichment program, also coordinated by the Center. This program not only serves students in pre-Kindergarten through grade 9 in the community and abroad, but also provides a learning laboratory for curriculum projects, research, and student teaching.
We are asking for your help to take the graduate program and the Center to a new level of excellence.
What will your support do?
Graduate Programs: It will provide the flexibility of offering graduate students additional scholarship funding, ensuring that the best students attend the College of William and Mary. It will allow us to increase the graduate assistantship stipends we offer and allow those students who attend the opportunity to engage in research in the field, to attend and present at conferences, and to graduate with less debt.
Saturday/Summer Enrichment Program (SEP): It will enable us to offer more and larger scholarships to qualified students whose families may not otherwise be able to afford to send them to SEP.
Curriculum Development and Research: With your support we will be able to continue to add titles in our award-winning, research-based curriculum series. We will be able to expand our offerings by broadening the titles available at each grade level as well as expand the types of materials available. We will also be able to continue to conduct research studies to further demonstrate the effectiveness of Center-developed materials with high ability learners as well as other learners.
For information on corporate and other giving opportunities, please contact the Office of University Development at 757-221-1001.
