Meeting the Needs of Illinois’ Advanced Learners: What School Board Members Need to Know
By Pamela Shaw
As school board members, we focus on ensuring that all students in our districts have an opportunity for success. Often, we measure against grade-level expectations, but what about our students who are already working above grade level or capable of exceeding grade-level standards? What does success look like for these students, and how do we ensure their needs are being addressed by our schools? Illinois law and policy recognize the needs of advanced learners and the services necessary for their growth and development.
The first thing that may come to mind as we think of such students is to think of gifted programs. While these programs are still relevant, the field of advanced education has come to realize that far more students would benefit from extra academic challenges than just those traditionally identified as gifted. For example, according to Jonathan Plucker, Director and Principal Investigator of the National Research Center on Advanced Education at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, research using NAEP data indicates that over 15% of American elementary students are already working three or more grade levels ahead in reading, as were 6% in math, at the start of the school year.
What students would benefit from additional academic challenge? Bright students, including those traditionally identified as gifted, are the ones most often served, as are students who perform well but may not meet the identification criteria for a gifted program. Of greatest concern is that there are many students with untapped potential in our schools, including those who are in under-resourced schools, come from varied cultural, linguistic, or ethnic backgrounds, experience economic disadvantages, or are twice-exceptional learners, who are academically capable but have one or more disabilities.
In 2022, the Fordham Institute convened the National Working Group on Advanced Education, a panel of 20 national experts, including two from Illinois: Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Ph.D., retired Director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, and April Wells, former Gifted Coordinator at School District U-46 (Elgin) and a 2018 National Association for Gifted Children Gifted Coordinator Award winner. The group set out to develop recommendations for research, policy, and practice to help develop talent in students with high academic potential, especially those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.
Recommendations of the National Working Group include a number of actions we can take to ensure our advanced learners are appropriately challenged and have opportunities for growth. Districts should work to build a continuum of services to find the right fit for students, rather than cookie-cutter programs that take a one-size-fits-all approach. We need to shed the scarcity mindset that has traditionally surrounded programs for advanced learners and focus on meeting student needs. We can see ourselves as talent scouts rather than gatekeepers, an approach that broadens opportunities rather than limiting them to a small subset of students. Rather than approaching advanced education as an isolated program for a select few, schools can embrace support for advanced learning opportunities and weave them across school culture, data analysis and reporting, and professional learning practices.
Illinois has a number of laws and policies that guide advanced learning in our school districts, many of which lean heavily on local decision-making. Because of this, our influence as school board members with oversight of district policy can be highly impactful in determining access to opportunities to develop the talents of our districts’ students.
The Accelerated Placement Act, which went into effect in 2018, requires districts to allow for accelerated placement, or the placement of a student in an educational setting with a curriculum that is usually reserved for students who are older or in higher grades. This is addressed by sample PRESS policy 6:135, Accelerated Placement Program. Placement opportunities must include, but are not limited to, early entrance to kindergarten or first grade, single-subject acceleration, or whole-grade acceleration. Participation is open to all high-ability students, and policies provide for a fair and equitable decision-making process; assessments that include multiple, valid, and reliable indicators; and procedures for notification. Policies may also include procedures for annually informing the community; inclusion of multiple referrers, including the parents or guardians; written individual acceleration plans; support for newly-accelerated students; and a process to review disaggregated participation data to find and address participation and identification gaps among demographic groups.
The specific criteria for determining accelerated placement are a matter of local control, as long as they meet the above criteria. However, it is important to ensure that the assessment process for identification broadens rather than narrows advanced learning opportunities in our districts. The Illinois State Board of Education cautions districts not to charge a fee for additional testing or administrative work as part of their procedures. Such fees are considered impermissible tuition charges in violation of the Illinois Constitution’s Free Education clause and Section 14A-25, which prohibits discrimination in the context of accelerated placement. A fee might block some students from accessing accelerated placement opportunities, leading to unfair exclusion from services.
In 2021, the Education and Workforce Equity Act added a new component to the Accelerated Placement Act. The goal was to expand access and remove barriers to advanced learning opportunities at the high school level by requiring provisions for automatic enrollment into the “next most rigorous level of advanced coursework offered by the high school” for students who exceed state standards in math, English language arts, and science. In addition, students who meet state standards are to be given the option to enroll in the next most rigorous level of advanced coursework. Possibilities for high school accelerated placement might include honors courses, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate, dual credit, or enrollment in courses through the Illinois Virtual Choice Catalog. Parents and guardians may opt students out of automatic enrollment or choose alternative courses based on the student’s future goals.
Illinois also has provisions for gifted and talented children, enacted in 2005 and 2021. The 2005 legislation defined gifted and talented children as “children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with other children and youth of their age, experience, and environment,” specifically those scoring in the top 5% locally in language arts and mathematics. In 2021, this definition was expanded to include students with high performance capabilities in intellectual, creative, and artistic areas; exceptional leadership potential; excellence in specific academic fields; and the potential to be influential in critical sectors of our economic and cultural environment. Such students are present in all cultural groups, economic strata, and areas of human endeavor, and require services and activities that are not ordinarily provided by schools.
Adoption and implementation of gifted education programming is a matter of local control and is governed by sample PRESS policy 6:130, Program for the Gifted. Unlike policy 6:135, policy 6:130 is optional. The school board and administration may determine what, if any, services to offer as gifted education in the district.
The School Code offers guidance and suggested best practices for programming, identification, professional development, and services, many of which are similar to those incorporated into the Accelerated Placement Act. Other suggestions include matching identification procedures to programming and services; a fair, impartial appeals process; local norms for achievement; designation of a supervisor to oversee services who has familiarity with the characteristics and needs of gifted students; continued professional development in instructional methods for gifted students, including differentiated instruction; and an emphasis on higher-level skills attainment.
There are also provisions for twice-exceptional learners in the Illinois School Code. Legislation passed in 2009 called on the Advisory Council on the Education of Gifted and Talented Children and the State Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities to make recommendations to ISBE for “guidance and technical assistance to school districts in furthering improved educational outcomes for gifted and twice-exceptional children.” This guidance was completed and may be found on the Advanced Learners page of the ISBE website, and is centered on a strengths-based approach to teaching twice-exceptional students, with accommodations as needed. During the 2026 legislative session, Senate Bill 3533 was passed, and incorporates many of the suggested best practices suggested by the two state advisory councils as guidance for schools and allows school boards to adopt a policy for the development of a written education plan to address twice exceptional students’ advanced abilities or achievement levels through individualized services, goals, accommodations, and objectives, while continuing to provide services and support for the student’s disabilities. This legislation offers our school districts the chance to provide opportunities to one of the most underserved groups in advanced education.
One final piece of legislation to be aware of is the School Report Card Act. Data on advanced learners is to be reported for each school and district via the Illinois Report Card under Students - Advanced Academic Programs. Data reported includes the number and percentage of all students in grades K-12, disaggregated by demographic group, who have been assessed for a gifted program or accelerated placement, those enrolled in such programs, and those taught by a teacher holding a gifted education endorsement. At the high school level, disaggregated data is reported for students enrolled in advanced academic programs, including Accelerated Placement and those who are accelerated.
Taken together, these policies represent a significant shift in Illinois, from viewing advanced 18 • Illinois School Board Journal
education as an optional program for a small group of students, to recognizing talent development as part of providing an equitable education for all students. Now that we have an idea of the landscape of advanced education both nationally and in Illinois, what can we do to expand opportunities for students in our districts?
In our role as school board members, we can check our Board Policy manuals for policies 6:130 Program for the Gifted and 6:135 Accelerated Placement Program to see if they meet the requirements of the law and reflect district priorities. We can ask our superintendents if administrative procedures are in place and whether the community knows how to access advanced learning opportunities. As we monitor district performance, we can ask for data on advanced learners to be included in reports on district achievement and check what is being reported for our schools in the Illinois Report Card. We can also include the needs of advanced learners in our district strategic plans and related goals in the annual plans. In our fiduciary role, we can ensure that resources and funding are available for services and professional development in gifted and advanced education.
As school board members, by asking thoughtful questions, monitoring meaningful data, and ensuring policies support equitable access to challenging learning opportunities, we can take the lead in helping to remove systemic barriers that have traditionally prevented many of our students from accessing advanced learning opportunities. Meeting the needs of advanced learners is ultimately another way of fulfilling the board’s fundamental responsibility: ensuring that every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Pamela Shaw is Vice President of the Fremont SD 79 Board of Education in Mundelein. She serves as Past-President and Co-Chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children. She is Director of K-12 Quality Assurance for Quality Matters (QM), an international nonprofit advancing quality in digital and online learning.