Mathematics Education for Gifted Students

Three Minnesotans were among the 25 secondary students invited to a special training session held on the campus of the Naval Academy at Annapolis this past summer. This program, designed for students who represent an important national resource in a technologically competitive world, is held each summer. Students qualify for invitation on the basis of a series of examinations conducted by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The over-representation of Minnesota is noteworthy because it reverses a long-standing pattern in which our best students have been underrepresented in the MAA program to identify outstanding students of mathematics. The results in 1990 do not themselves signal a reversed trend, but taken together with other indicators, they do encourage those of us who have worked over the past ten years to improve opportunities for Minnesota math students. Before beginning this review, it is important to stress that specific efforts to improve mathematics education in Minnesota have always recognized the importance of context. A program for gifted students is short-sighted if it is not developed in a way that recognizes the plethora of problems we face and also strengthens mathematics education for all students