ABSTRACT
The Gifted and Talented Program Group became the Office of Gifted and Talented (OGT) in February 1972. As the OGT had no programmatic funding to support its efforts, Marland and the OGT accessed the Educational Professions Development Act to secure funding to train leaders and expand programming at the state level in gifted education. Gifted and talented organizations, in conjunction with the OGT, also provided opportunities to raise awareness of gifted children through programs such as Exploration Scholarships. The National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented (N/S-LTI-G/T) was a strategy to stabilize existing programming and proliferate the spread of programming for gifted students. The lack of funding for the OGT necessitated an alternative approach to capacity building at the state level. In addition to the infrastructure and networking of the OGT and the N/S-LTI-G/T, building leadership capacity within the field was identified as a priority–a direct recommendation of the Marland Report.
