For gifted education, the resolution of the budget and appropriation uncertainties surrounding 2012 spending worked out slightly in our favor.  Although federal funding for the Javits program was lost last year, NAGC (in
collaboration with CEC) was successful in getting some “gifted” language into the omnibus appropriation bill that was passed by Congress in December 2011. Specifically, the bill urges the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), the main research arm of the federal Department of Education, to include gifted education and gifted students explicitly as part of its research agenda.  The exact language is as follows:

Omnibus 2012 Appropriations Bill - Report Language on Gifted Education:
The Committee strongly urges IES to continue support for research and development activities related to gifted and talented education, particularly for underrepresented populations, to support a National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, and to ensure that the condition of gifted and talented students is reported in key national reports produced by the IES.

The next steps are that NAGC and CEC and their supporters in Congress will write to IES to elaborate on the intent of Congress regarding that language.  While IES has never been opposed to funding gifted research, this will show that Congress wishes it to become higher priority. 

In other national advocacy news ~ NAGC has a data collection workgroup that is working with IES and the National Center for EducationStatistics (NCES) to make suggestions that will result in more national data
being collected on gifted students and gifted education;

NAGC has on its website a new set of resources on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and how they can be differentiated for high-ability students, and will include this topic as a webinar early in 2012;

The State of the States report from NAGC was covered by the Wall Street Journal and Education Week, and
op-ed templates will be available for use as state legislatures come back into session in 2012.

The NAGC State Affiliate Conference and an Acceleration Summit will be held in Washington in March 2012.