The University of Iowa College of Education

Education at Iowa

Spring 2006

Table of Contents

COUNSELING, REHABILITATION, AND STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

Nation’s First School Counseling Program to Offer Gifted Education Emphasis

School Counseling faculty pictured L to R: Malik Henfield, Tarrell Portman, David Duys, Deb Johnson, and Nicholas Colangelo.
School Counseling faculty pictured L to R: Malik Henfield, Tarrell Portman, David Duys, Deb Johnson, and Nicholas Colangelo.

Next summer The University of Iowa College of Education’s nationally ranked school counseling graduate program will become the first program in the country to offer an emphasis in gifted and talented education.

Associate Professor Tarrell Portman said school counselors are in an ideal position to identify and guide students in need of greater academic challenges. The 12 credit hours of additional training, which lead to an endorsement or certificate, will equip prospective school counselors to help prevent such students from slipping through the cracks of the K-12 education system.

“Counselors have such a wide variety of tasks,” said Portman, the program’s coordinator. “We work with students in the academic, personal, social, and career areas. With the additional training, our counselors will not only be knowledgeable about general and special education, but about gifted education. As a result, they can act as catalysts for increased identification of gifted students, especially in the areas of diversity.”

That’s certainly the hope of the program’s co-developer, the Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development.

“This new program is a national breakthrough,” said Professor Nicholas Colangelo, director of the Belin-Blank Center. “School counselors have not had training in understanding the social/emotional and learning needs of gifted students. Our graduating school counselors will have a distinct advantage in the job market. But more importantly, they will be qualified to offer an important service that parents, administrators, and teachers will welcome.

“Our College of Education again takes an important lead, and I commit the resources of the Belin-Blank Center to assure the success of the new program.”

School counseling students accepted for the fall 2006 semester will begin taking gifted education classes at the Belin-Blank Center in summer 2006, one an introduction to gifted education and another on school culture and classroom management. That will be followed with a practicum in counseling skills at the center and a class titled “Counseling Gifted and Talented Students.”

Portman said the UI’s school counseling program, which has been ranked highly by U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools” guide for several years and currently stands as 13th best in the nation, began pondering the special endorsement several years ago. She said it made perfect sense to offer much of the specialized training for prospective school counselors through the Belin-Blank Center, which brings hundreds of gifted students to campus each summer for a variety of programs.

“This will allow the voice of gifted education students to be heard,” Portman said. “This definitely sets us apart from all other programs.”

Five faculty members with expertise in school counseling and gifted education comprise the team that will design and teach the additional courses. –by Stephen Pradarelli

Colangelo Named Most Influential

EducationNews.org awarded Professor Nicholas Colangelo, director of the Belin-Blank Center, with one of 10 first annual Upton Sinclair Awards for Influential Educators.

Judges described Colangelo as a proponent and advocate for gifted children and education.

“We feel he is worthy of recognition for all of his work with the report, ‘A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students,’“ EducationNews.org’s editors said. “He has consistently, cogently, and carefully worked for the education of gifted and talented children for many years, but his contributions in 2005 were exemplary.”

“Although getting professional recognition is an honor for me personally,” Colangelo said, “it’s far more gratifying to know that the Belin-Blank Center is making a real difference in the lives of educators who are working to ensure that students have opportunities to reach their full intellectual potential.”

 

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