Center for Talent Development (CTD), established in 1982, is a direct service and research center in the field of gifted education and talent development based at Northwestern University.
CTD offers in-person and online educational programs for students age 3 through grade 12, and resources for their families, and educators, including: Online enrichment, honors, and AP courses Service-learning and leadership programs Weekend and summer programs Assessment and consulting services, including above-grade-level assessment, through Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search Parent seminars Online communities for students and parents Program evaluation, professional development, and curriculum units for schools CTD also works with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support their scholarship programs, which are designed to advance the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need.
History
CTD began as a research and talent assessment program and soon after grew to include educational programs in several different forms. Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, CTD's founder and former director, started the Midwest Talent Search Project at Northwestern University in 1982. LetterLinks, a distance education program (later known as Gifted LearningLinks), began the same year and transitioned from mail correspondence to online courses in 2002. Summer and weekend enrichment programs were launched in 1983. Northwestern University officially established the Center for Talent Development in 1984. In 1999, the Civic Education Project joined CTD, introducing service-learning, civic engagement, and leadership to the curriculum. The center has since added programs and services for families, educators, and schools.
CTD's current director, Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, has served in her role since 1987. She served as president of the National Association for Gifted Children from 2011 to 2013, from whom she received the Early Scholar Award in 1987, the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2009, and the Gifted Child Quarterly Paper of the Year Award in 2011. She received the Mensa Award for Excellence in Research in 2013. Olszewski-Kubilius has been interviewed by Education Week and The Boston Globe for her research in the field of gifted education and talent development. Her work has been published by the Association for Psychological Science, Prufrock Press, Scientific American, Roeper Review, Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, Asian Pacific Education Review, Parenting for High Potential, and Gifted Child Quarterly.
Talent Search
Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search (commonly referred to as "NUMATS") is the above-grade-level assessment program within Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development. Originally called the Midwest Academic Talent Search (MATS), NUMATS was started in 1982 by Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska. This research-validated program aims to provide families and educators with insights into participants’ academic strengths, measure growth, and help connect students with supplemental enrichment, accelerated programs, and appropriate school-based curricula and courses.
Above-grade-level assessments (using tests intended for older students) and interpretive information, such as that provided by NUMATS and similar talent search programs, give a more accurate measurement of aptitude than grade-level assessments for higher-achieving students, particularly for those students who are scoring at the highest end of their grade-level standardized assessments. NUMATS above-grade-level assessment is based on the work of Dr. Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Stanley was an advocate of accelerated education for academically advanced or gifted children. He founded the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins and initiated a related research project, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), which is an ongoing, longitudinal study of the talent development of individuals identified as gifted. Further research continues to support the model and explore its applications for identification, placement, and academic acceleration. Published in 2004, a report titled A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students found above-level testing to be useful in identifying candidates for acceleration and eliminating the ceiling effect many high-ability students experience on grade-level tests.
Through NUMATS, students in grades 3 through 6 take the PSAT™8/9 (a test designed for students in grades 8 and 9). Students in grades 6 through 9 may take the SAT® and/or ACT® (tests designed for students in grades 11 and 12).