Gifted Endorsement Program

Empower gifted students to reach their full potential with a 100% online teaching endorsement.

Add a gifted education endorsement to your Pennsylvania teaching certification with California University of Pennsylvania’s four-course (12-credit) program. Through a combination of online classes and hands-on fieldwork, you will:

Become knowledgeable about the foundational ideas, theories, and resources for gifted education.
Master strategies, methods and techniques for developing and delivering differentiated curricula appropriate for meeting the academic and emotional needs of gifted learners.
Define and learn to recognize how intelligence, aptitude, achievement and creativity manifest in the gifted learner.

Cal U has more than 165 years of experience training top teachers in Pennsylvania and beyond. Our gifted education teaching program is consistent with the Pennsylvania Department of Education Gifted Guidelines, the National Association for Gifted Children K-12 Programming Standards, and guidelines set by the Council for Exceptional Children.

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Program Highlights: Gifted Education

Faculty Expertise: Work closely with top education professors who have experience as classroom teachers and can relate theory to real-life experiences. Our faculty members are available and approachable. They are here to answer your questions, provide personal assistance and give you the resources you need for career success.

Fieldwork: Complete field experiences that involve outlining collaborative curriculum modifications gifted learners, working with gifted learners in a camp setting, examining data collected on individual students to make determinations associated with assessment and identification of gifted and talented learners, and evaluating organizational options for gifted services in a school district.

Top Accreditation: This graduate degree program is approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Cal U's education programs have also been accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) since 1954, and we are continuing with the successor organization, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). See CAEP reporting measures of program impact and outcomes.

Learn more about applying

$57K

Gifted and talented teaching specialists earn an average of $57,000 per year at a national level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

68K

The number of students in Pennsylvania are considered gifted and would benefit from specialized instruction, according to the National Associate for Gifted Children.

Program Benefits

Benefits of earning your Cal U gifted education endorsement include:

Online asynchronous courses that enable you to complete the endorsement program from anywhere and at any time.
Comprehensive field experiences in real-world gifted education settings.
Job placement support from faculty, alumni and Cal U’s Career and Professional Development Center.
Specialized credentials that can advance your teaching career and lead to new opportunities within your school or district and beyond.

Graduate Outcomes

With increased accountability measures and high-stakes testing, school districts are putting a higher priority on curriculum efficiency and teaching methods. This shift can lead schools with available funds to hire educational specialists. Cal U’s gifted endorsement program prepares you for specialist teaching jobs such as:

Gifted education specialist.
Gifted program teacher.
Master teacher.
Talented and Gifted (TAG) teacher.

Gifted Education Endorsement Courses

Curriculum

Course	Credits
EDU 701 Foundations of Gifted Education	3
EDU 702 Instructional Design and Strategies for Gifted Education	3
EDU 703 Assessment and Identification of Gifted Students	3
EDU 705 Program Models for Gifted Education: Service Delivery Options	3
Total	12

Admission Requirements

Admission Requirements (Regular)

Bachelor's degree in teacher education with a GPA of 3.0 or higher (Students with a GPA below 3.0 may apply for conditional admission)
Official transcripts from an accredited undergraduate institution
Teaching certification in the State of Pennsylvania
Current resume or Curriculum Vitae
International Global Online Applicants

Conditional Admission Requirements

Conditional Admission may be granted with the following modifications of the Regular Admissions Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in teacher education with a GPA of 3.0 or higher will be reviewed for a decision

Provisional Admission:
Applicants who have provided unofficial documentation of test scores, prerequisite courses, transcripts or lack of letter(s) of recommendation may be admitted provisionally.

This policy also applies to undergraduate students who apply for graduate admission pending bachelor degree completion. Upon receipt of all official documents, a student will be changed from Provisional Admission to either Regular Admission or Conditional Admission. Provisional Admission students may take classes for one term but will not be eligible for Federal Financial Aid.

How to Apply:

Complete the Graduate School Application
Submit the nonrefundable $35 Application Fee
Mail official transcript to:

School of Graduate Studies and Research
California University of Pennsylvania
Box 91
250 University Ave.
California, PA 15419

For additional information:
Email: calugo@calu.edu
Phone: 1-866-595-6348

A gifted education endorsement teacher speaks to class.

Top Accreditation

Cal U education programs have been accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) since 1954, and we are continuing with the successor organization, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

A student uses a computer to learn online.

Online Courses

Cal U's gifted endorsement program is designed with a classroom teacher's schedule in mind. All courses are offered exclusively online, so you can complete this endorsement anywhere, any time, as long as you have a high-speed Internet connection.