Montgomery Township School District has a longstanding record of being able to meet the needs of high academic achievers.  However, the New Jersey legislation, The Strengthening Gifted Education Act, established the following requirements for school districts:

• To develop an identification process for identifying gifted and talented students in order to identify student strengths in various intellectual abilities, creativity, or in specific academic areas
• To develop and document appropriate curricular and instructional modifications used for gifted and talented students indicating modifications to content, process, products, and learning environment.   
• To consider the Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Programming Standards
• To provide the time and resources to develop, review, and enhance instructional tools for helping gifted and talented students acquire and demonstrate mastery of the required knowledge and skills specified by the standards at the instructional level of the student
• To actively assist and support the professional development of teachers, educational service staff, and school leaders in the area of gifted and talented instruction.

To that end, MTSD has established the Voyagers/Expeditions Program.  This program will be grounded in a concept called The Genius Hour, which will encourage students to pursue personal areas of interest, while also fostering design and divergent thinking skills.

Given the unique needs that each identified student will bring into the program, the program is designed as a structured learning experience in which students can select individual, pair, and group projects that suit both their interests and talents.  Although a faculty member would be there to guide learning decisions, provide feedback, and assist in locating resources, a core tenant of the program would be student choice.  

Policy & Legislation

• District policy 
• Gifted & Talented Education Act
• NJSLS for Gifted and Talented