ABSTRACT
The adoption of the Common Core State Standards in almost every state is cause for gifted education as a field to reflect on its role in supporting gifted and high-potential learners appropriately in the content areas. With the new CCSS and their national focus, it becomes critical to show how to differentiate for gifted learners within a set of standards that are reasonably rigorous in each subject area. Some advocates of the new CCSS have suggested that the standards are already at such a high level that no specialized services and differentiation are needed for gifted students. Gifted learners will need to be assessed through performance-based and portfolio techniques that are based on higher level learning outcomes and that often vary from the more traditional assessments the CCSS may employ.
