March 21-24, Washington, DC

By Christy Jewell-Roth, President-Elect, and Dr. PJ Sedillo, Legislative and Higher Education Liaison

We were proud to represent New Mexico at the National Association for Gifted Children State Affiliate Conference held in Washington, DC, in late March. With advocates from states across the country, we discussed local and national issues affecting gifted education. On the last day of the conference, we visited Capitol Hill and met with New Mexico lawmakers and their staff to lobby for gifted legislation before Congress. Specifically, we urged Senators and House members to support legislation known as the TALENT Act that would help close the “excellence gap” between high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more affluent peers. It would do so by reforming how the learning progress of high-achieving students is tracked and reported each year and by ensuring federal teacher training dollars can be used to support gifted education teachers.

We also applauded Congress for doubling funding for the Jacob Javits Gifted Education Grant Program last year and urged continued strong support for this initiative in next year’s (FY 2016) budget. The Javits program funds applied research conducted by universities throughout the nation to develop best practices for identifying and serving high-achieving students from populations traditionally under-represented in gifted education programs.

In the evenings, we were able to travel on the Metro and see some of what DC has to offer. We enjoyed a powerful and moving musical entitled, “Freedom’s Song,” performed at Ford’s Theater. The musical tells the story of Lincoln’s presidency, the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary since his death. We were also able to enjoy a variety of ethnic foods offered throughout the DC area.

Our experience there has energized us for gifted education work here in New Mexico. Please visit the following links to read more about the issues we discussed and the conference itself. Cory Messenger, a Javits Frasier Scholar from New Mexico, will be interviewed for the next issue of this newsletter.

(Parts of this article were taken directly from an NAGC press release.)

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About Christy Jewell-Roth

Christy Jewell-Roth is currently teaching K, 1st and 2nd grade students identified as gifted at North Star Elementary. She just finished her 26th year of teaching and holds a masters degree in Elementary Education. She is a past president of the New Mexico Association for the Gifted.