Based on test results, students may qualify for participation in CTY s summer or online courses, the CTY language immersion program, or the CTY Civic Leadership Institute.

Applicants must be in grades two through eight (or grade equivalents for home-schooled students). Last year, approximately 63,000 students enrolled in the CTY Talent Search. Information about the appllication process, fees, and deadines is available in the organization’s FAQ.

We spend incredible resources helping those who obviously need our help, but virtually ignore a group just as vulnerable. Did you know…

• “gifted students drop out at the same rates as non-gifted kids”
• “one-fifth of dropouts test in the gifted range”

One of the contributory factors to lower funding for gifted children is No Child Left Behind, which “has forced schools to deeply subsidize the education of the least gifted, and gifted programs have suffered.” The most important factor, though, is that as a society we have a feeling that smart kids will figure it out on their own. “[Yet] we know Alex Rodriguez had to practice to become a great baseball player,” and “like a muscle, raw intelligence can’t build if it’s not exercised.” But unlike athletic prodigies, there are few resources for academic prodigies.

So, are we ignoring some of our country’s brightest young minds? And what can be done to help? The article profiles one effort to provide education to the gifted. But one of the simplest solutions is also the cheapest: Grade skipping, “[which] research shows … usually works well both academically and socially for gifted students.”