ABSTRACT
By the opening of the 1960s, signs were clear that The National Defense Education Act would fail to provide sustainable long-term infrastructure for gifted education. After nearly a decade of educational attentions being drawn elsewhere, the close of the 1960s would present opportunities for the field of gifted education to reassert itself. The field would be in a better position to take measures to secure its future and somewhat insulate itself from the erratic and volatile educational landscape through capacity building undertaken throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, allowing for sustainment over time. The National Defense Education Act heralded a significant shift in the federal government's involvement in state education and federal funding at the close of the 1950s. Elementary and Secondary Education Act became a defining policy initiative of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and his presidency, creating the mechanism to long-term federal intervention into state educational matters.
