Advanced Learning - a new approach to gifted education

Most of you know that Telra's model differs from traditional gifted magnet school and exam school offerings. Our approach is aligned with the more recent research that advocates for education that is "proactive and locally focused on students’ present needs in specific domains."

Proactive means that student progress is assessed regularly to identify any student who isn’t being sufficiently challenged in a particular academic domain. This is in contrast to the traditional model of gifted education that uses a single set of “gating” assessments to determine which students warrant gifted services.

Local means first of all that Telra is part of the local community and reflects local values. And it means that differentiation and personalization of learning is designed relative to Telra expectations, not district or national norms.

"To meet students’ needs, schools have to become much more flexible, responsive to individual differences, and willing to provide opportunities for self-directed learning."

Present needs determine the advanced academic interventions that are appropriate for each student, but these can change over time and differ across academic domains.

Read more about this line of thinking in “A call to reframe gifted education as maximizing learning.”