Enrichment, Accelerated Placement, and Gifted Programming: A Policy Advocacy Document

The purpose of this policy advocacy document is to encourage the Enterprise School District to develop a policy for gifted, advanced programs, and enrichment services offered in the school district. Currently, the state of Illinois does not fund gifted education, making this policy advocacy document unorthodox. Renzulli (2003) said it well, opportunities and resources must be provided for these bright students to move forward, even as we support “excellence for all,” as an educational policy. This paper highlights the need for policy to address gifted, advanced pathways, enrichment services, and the related identification processes. This policy was analyzed from educational, economic, social, political, moral/ethical, and legal perspectives. Toynbee (1964) shared, “To give a fair chance to potential creativity is a matter of life and death for any society. This is all important because the outstanding creative ability of a fairly small percentage of the population is mankind’s ultimate capital asset” (p. 4)