have high expectations for all students. This model required a partner-
ship among teachers, instructional specialists, principals, and parents to
work on the goals together and to be consistent with implementing the
research-based strategies.
Bright IDEA was implemented as an integrated approach to trans-
forming the classroom for kindergarteners, 1st and 2nd graders into a
vibrant community of learners and problem solvers. This unique K–2
research model, funded by the Javits Program of the United States Depart-
ment of Education, was designed and implemented by the North Car-
olina Department of Public Instruction and the American Association for
Gifted Children at Duke University. The model was used as a response to
a legislative mandate to increase the number of gifted children from
underserved populations into challenging academically and intellectu-
ally gifted programs. Based on the success of Project Bright IDEA 1, a
pilot intervention program (2001–2004) for closing the achievement gap,
Project Bright IDEA 2 (2004–2009) was awarded the Javits grant to offer
the program to more schools and to research the effects on gifted pro-
grams from nurturing the potential of students in regular classrooms from
underserved populations.
Te a c h e r s a n d p r i n c i p a l s f r o m t h e d e s i g n a t e d s c h o o l s h a v e a l l b e e n
trained and are in the full implementation phase of learning new ways of
teaching gifted strategies and the Habits of Mind, through a concept-
based curriculum, to all of the K–2 children in the research project.
Bright IDEA Goals
The project has four goals: (1) to increase the number of gifted stu-
dents from underserved populations via changing the dispositions and
capacity of regular classroom teachers to wisely use curricula tailored to
teaching those students; (2) to study the extent to which such strategies
increase the number of 3rd grade students from underrepresented popu-
lations who enroll in gifted programs; (3) to advance the quality of these
students’ metacognitive and cognitive skills; and (4) to create a research-
based multidimensional, preidentification model for gifted intelligent
behaviors based on Costa and Kallick’s Habits of Mind (2000) and on
Frasier’s Traits, Attributes, and Behaviors (Frasier, 2003–2004).
322 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind