Center for Gifted Education

In 1987 the College of William & Mary began a commitment to the education of gifted students, hiring a scholar of national distinction and creating a new center for research and development in gifted education. The Center for Gifted Education was to be a model for defining ways to address the needs of an often neglected group of learners in public schools: gifted students. Joyce VanTassel-Baska was appointed as the Jody and Layton Smith Professor in Education and the founding director of the Center for Gifted Education. She came to the college with a vision for gifted education and more than 20 years of experience in the field. She created an environment that supported graduate studies, research and development, and a laboratory for working directly ...