Gifted education and common core: Accepting the challenge by making connections with the general education curriculum.

Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, and four territories have adopted or partially adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). States are working to develop plans for implementation of CCSS. On the state of Mississippi website resources related to math, English Language Arts, English Language Learners, and for parents, teachers, and curriculum developers are available. What is missing is how the CCSS will affect students served in gifted programs. This paper is an attempt to investigate conceptually and practically how implementation of the CCSS will influence gifted programming for students identified as intellectually gifted in the state of Mississippi. Ways in which teachers of the gifted, advocates for the gifted, and school districts can use adoption and implementation of CCSS to improve the quality of programming for gifted students and change the nature of the relationship between the gifted education program and the general education program are proposed. Though focused on education in the state of Mississippi, this process is one that should occur in all states and can serve as a model for CCSS and gifted education integration.