The current issue of TIME magazine spotlights the Davidson Academy of Nevada at the University of Nevada, Reno as "a new model for gifted education." The Aug. 27 cover story was distributed to newsstands nationally beginning Aug. 17.
The feature, "Failing Our Geniuses," by John Cloud examines how the United States' smartest children find difficulty gaining the educational resources needed to excel. It suggests the Academy, founded by philanthropists Jan and Bob Davidson of Incline Village, Nev., and the nation's only state-supported, tuition-free public school for profoundly gifted students, could be a bastion of hope for children who earn superior intelligence quotient test scores.
The Academy, with a projected class of 45 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16, for the 2007-08 academic year, begins its second year Aug. 27. Although the students can take some of their classes in various locations on the University's 290-acre campus, their home base is in second-floor classrooms in a building at the north end of campus.
"These students have found a home at the University and it's exciting that a national audience is reading about these very talented, motivated young people and how they've acclimated to our campus," said President Milton Glick.
The TIME article credited the Davidson Academy for the unique way it supports its students' social growth on a daily basis. Studies indicate profoundly gifted young students are not nurtured socially in the typical classroom setting.
"At the Academy, they have recognized that these talented students are exceptionally gifted kids who still face challenges—for example, the need to fit in and how to channel their academic passions," Glick said. "Now, with the Davidsons' help, the University has the opportunity to share many of its resources with these students as they learn at just the right rate for them."
The TIME feature is online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html. The Davidson Academy was also the subject of a recent ABC Nightline feature, 'Profoundly Gifted' Students Find Home in Reno." The feature, which aired June 4, 2007, can be viewed at http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3244598.