Designing Services and Programs for High-Ability Learners

Jeanne H. Purcell is the consultant to the Connecticut State Depart-ment of Education for gifted and talented education. She is also director of UConn Mentor Connection, a nationally recognized summer mentorship program for talented teenagers that is part of the NEAG Center for Talent Development at the University of Con-necticut. Prior to her work at the State Department of Connecticut, she was an administrator for Rocky Hill Public Schools (CT); a pro-gram specialist with the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, where she worked collaboratively with other researchers on national issues related to high-achieving young people; an instructor of Teaching the Talented, a graduate-level program in gifted education; and a staff developer to school districts across the country and Canada. She has been an En-glish teacher, community service coordinator, and teacher of the gifted, K-12, for 18 years in Connecticut school districts and has published many articles that have appeared in Educational Leadership, Gifted Child Quarterly, Roeper Review, Educa-tional and Psychological Measurement, National Association of Secondary School Principals' Bulletin, Our Children: The National PTA Magazine, Parenting for High Potential, and Journal for the Education of the Gifted. She is active in the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and serves on the Awards Committee and the Curriculum Committee of NAGC, for which she is the co-chair for the annual Curriculum Awards Competition. Rebecca D. Eckert, Ph.D., is an associate clinical professor in Teacher Education at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, where she works with preservice teachers as they navigate the joys and challenges of their first classroom experiences. In her former role as the Gifted Resource Specialist for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), Rebecca helped to redesign the NAGC website and develop practical resources for educators and advocates of gifted students. Her previous work at The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented included participation in Javits research at both the elementary and secondary levels. Her research interests include talented readers, recruitment and preparation of new teachers, arts in the schools, and public policy and gifted education. She is a former middle school teacher with experience in geography, history, and theatre arts.