There are 2 well-known programs that are explicitly slated as programs for gifted and talented youth-

1. The Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) program from Stanford University, and
2. The Center for Talented Youth (CTY) programs from John Hopkins University.

Each has a fairly staple and robust set of offerings which have evolved over the years and enjoyed significant student enrollment.

For the most part, with a few exceptions, both programs have fairly standardized admission procedures that are predicated on performance in standardized tests.

Philosophically, both programs take the relatively easier approach to addressing the needs of intellectually gifted children as well children with high academic ability, which is to simply accelerate the instruction/learning of standard curricular material earlier than recommended for the median child of a certain age group. Simply stated, this means that your child, if enrolled in one of these programs, would learn Algebra and Calculus (for example) a year or two [or three] before other children of the same age who are clocking along at the pace of a normal school [or home-school] curriculum. This isn’t necessarily something to look askance at, but it does bear mention that personalized curriculum, instruction and learning tuned to a specific child’s requirements represents an altogether different dimension which is conspicuously absent in these programs.

Nonetheless, the instruction, material and assessment in these programs are largely of high quality and do provide a somewhat credible alternative to having a bright child suffer a sluggish and pedestrian schedule dictated by age and grade.

Some important considerations to take into account are the child’s personal appetite for online/distance learning, and the amount of parental time available for oversight and motivation. In the later years, these programs can become fairly dull and success with these depends on the child’s personal levels of motivation. This takes nothing away from the academic merit of the products, but merely underscores a practical aspect of having these programs be a staple ingredient over the long haul. The importance of parental involvement with respect to stewardship and mentoring cannot be overstated, although the programs themselves tend not to overstate this ingredient.

In both cases, the stock set of online programs is well supplemented by residential programs during the summer that provide rich opportunities for both curricular enrichment, collaborative work and social development.

One other offering that deserves honorable mention is the Aleks program that offers a similar (and growing) battery of courses in the traditional area of Math. Although this isn’t positioned explicitly as a program for gifted kids, it provides an excellent and cost-effective alternative for non-remedial and accelerated learning. The program grew out of University of California, Irvine as part of a research project and since then has morphed into a full-fledged course pack managed by the Aleks Corporation.