The Darity Report on Closing the Achievement Gap for At-Risk and Ethnic Minority Students was commissioned by the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to address the issue of disproportionality among underrepresented populations into Academically Gifted programs. Dr. William Darity and Colleagues provided Data on K-12 Students that showed inequities. Recommendations were made in the report for strategies t-o address the issues in K-2 Curriculum and Implementation. One of the recommendations was. to develop a K-2 Nurturing Program that would raise the level of literacy for students. A Pilot Program was developed by the Exceptional Children Division in NCDPI do use gifted strategies and curriculum to teach all elementary students. The Pilot Program was funded by NCDPI and AAGC carried out in five school districts in North Carolina, which led to a federal grant to expand the research. Project Bright IDEA became a model for K-2 Students. The pilot program was from 2001 to 2004 and the federal project from 2004 to 2009.
|