Gifted education is a broad and evolving field, with important implications for children, families, and educators. The Belin-Blank Center's faculty and staff include leading experts in the field whose research and outreach efforts can help you understand this important educational landscape.

Research Areas

With an extensive and in-depth body of work, the Belin-Blank Center has produced cutting-edge research in gifted education and talent development for over 30 years.

Our primary areas of focus include twice-exceptionality, equity and access to opportunity through a talent search model, and academic acceleration.  Learn more.

Featured Reports

As scholars at a major research institution, educators, and even parents of our own gifted children, we are uniquely positioned to translate the body of gifted education research into practical use for families and educators.

With our watershed report A Nation Deceived and its follow-up publication A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students, the Belin-Blank Center brings together the research on academic acceleration and offers practical approaches to implementing one of the most well-researched and effective interventions for academically talented students.

The Packet of Information for Professionals – 2nd Edition (PIP-2), available through our Assessment and Counseling Clinic, is designed for professionals who work with gifted and talented students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and/or specific learning disability (SLD). 

Much of our research has revolved around equity for rural gifted students, in an effort to prevent these students' geography from determining their access to opportunity. In addition to our peer-reviewed journal articles, we have published a series of three reports on these issues. Gifted Education in Rural Schools: A National Assessment provides a comprehensive documentation of gifted education in rural schools in order to take the pulse of gifted education in rural schools. Gifted Voices from Rural America profiles schools and educators who creatively developed programs to serve their gifted and talented students while maintaining their rural identity. Gifted in Rural America: Faces of Diversity focuses on the ethnic diversity of gifted students in rural schools. 

Schools looking for guidance developing policies on acceleration will benefit from Developing Academic Acceleration Policies: Whole Grade, Early Entrance, and Single Subject, available through our Acceleration Institute. 

Presentations

Multiple times each year, we present the Belin-Blank Center's newest research findings throughout the United States and internationally. Get a glimpse of where we've been and where to catch us next. Learn more.

Publications

Engaging the research community and moving the field of education forward, our research is a fundamental part of who we are as a Center. Learn more.

Events

The Belin-Blank Center hosts several research-based events designed to share the latest findings with fellow researchers, policy makers, school administrators, educators and parents.

Summit on the Neuroscience of Twice-Exceptionality

A collaboration between the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and the Belin-Blank Center aimed to move the field's understanding of twice-exceptionality forward by exploring the neural, genetic, and behavioral underpinnings of twice-exceptionality, in order to better serve twice-exceptional students in educational environments. For institutions and individuals interested in understanding more about this emerging area, this summit opened doors to leading research and experts in twice-exceptionality. The event took place in 2021, but full recordings are still available.

Belin-Blank Advanced Leadership Institute

The Belin-Blank Advanced Leadership Institute (B-BALI) is a gifted education and talent development conference designed for educational administrators. Our aim is to present attendees with practical information, using existing research and tools to help make data-driven decisions. Speakers include nationally-recognized experts in gifted education research and policy, as well as administrators and educators. More information coming soon.

Wallace Symposium

The Wallace Research Symposium, held every few years, is the premiere scholarly conference for the latest research findings in gifted education and talent development.