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Joseph Renzulli

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Joseph Renzulli (Educ ’66)

Other announcement on September 29, 2009

Joseph S. Renzulli (Educ ’66) is a distinguished professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, the Neag Chair in gifted education and talent development, and director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Mr. Renzulli received the 2009 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education for his guiding work in gifted and talented enrichment. The honorees were recognized at a dinner at the New York Public Library. The Prize was established in 1988 to honor Mr. McGraw’s lifelong commitment to education and to mark the McGraw-Hill Corporation’s 100th anniversary. Mr. Renzulli’s research has focused on the identification and development of creativity and giftedness in young people, and on organizational models and curricular strategies for differentiated learning environments that contribute to total school improvement. For more than thirty years, his Schoolwide Enrichment Model has been used in more than 2,500 schools nationwide. Researchers have found the program improved attitudes among students, teachers, parents and administrators toward gifted education and produced positive results in achievement. Mr. Renzulli began his career as a math, reading and science teacher in Ocean Township, N.J.