The Schoolwide Enrichment Model: A Talent Development Approach Resulting in Opportunities, Resources, and Encouragement for All Students

Our Beliefs About Talent Development

Talent development is understandably influenced by larger changes taking place in the world; consider, for example, the influences of the last year with COVID. Recent shifts in the goals of general education, the unprecedented changes happening in technology, and our rapidly changing world conditions all affect the field of talent development. Who would have thought three or four decades ago that students in rural school in the middle of the country could take an advanced placement or online accelerated course remotely from excellent universities, or that most of the world’s knowledge could be downloaded into a young person’s computer at any hour of the day or night? Who would have imagined that the majority of today’s jobs would depend upon computers and applications of artificial intelligence and virtual reality? These changes have been compared to the transformations that took place during the Industrial Revolution. The resulting necessity is that education must adapt to a digitally-based rather than an industrial economy.

Changes in technology and the demands of present and future job market realities have also set the stage for a new interest in the ongoing theme of our Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM, Renzulli & Reis, 1985; 1997; 2014). Simply stated, that theme is: Schools Should Be Places for Talent Development. Our talent development approach moves beyond various iterations of standards-based learning and the current knowledge-based curriculum, no matter how fast and advanced those standards and that curriculum may be. Our SEM talent development model does not standardize students. Our focus in the SEM is on development of talents, an attitudinal focus on and mindset of creative productivity, the effective application of knowledge, and a focus on equity in enrichment opportunities.