ABSTRACT

The urgency, importance, and complexity of addressing equity in the identification of students for gifted programs cannot be overstated. Project ExCEL is a federallyfunded Jacob K. Javits project designed to find and serve high-ability, low-income English language learners, using problem-based learning (PBL) as the curricular platform for universal screening. PBL is an inquirybased method of instruction adapted from medical schools. The ExCEL Model contains three indispensable key elements: systemic approach, community of collaboration, and continuous improvement. Project ExCEL focuses on the intersectionality of teacher professional learning and curricular innovation, using PBL and intensive scaffolded support for implementation, with the goals of expanding teacher professional learning to find and serve historically underrepresented populations of gifted middle school students. Project ExCEL utilizes the implementation of a PBL unit as a dynamic curricular intervention to identify potential by using the model created by Shaklee for observational assessment of impoverished students.