Today our guest is Anthony Vargas - the Director of Advanced Academics and Gifted and Talented Education for the Maryland Department of Education. We talk to Anthony about creating and supporting more equitable Gifted and Talented programs and he emphasized the need to shift our thinking towards finding potential and growing talents. Anthony shares about the 3 areas that need to be changed to shift to a talent development and reminds us that we are all leaders and can make positive changes in our schools. He also shares ways that can help us see the different talents that our students have.

Learn more:

• EdWeek Article: https://www.edweek.org/leaders/2023/a-leader-whos-busting-down-barriers-to-gifted-education

Anthony Vargas is the Director of Advanced Academics and Gifted and Talented Education for the Maryland Department of Education and former Supervisor of Gifted/Talented and Advanced Programming for Manassas City Public Schools. He received his bachelor's degree in secondary social studies education from Millersville University, and started his teaching career at Manassas Park Middle School. After completing his first year, Mr. Vargas attended Arkansas State University where he later received his master's degree in gifted and talented education. He then revamped the middle school gifted program and provided more professional learning opportunities to staff. Mr. Vargas then took on a position as a gifted resource teacher in a neighboring county while completing an additional master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Virginia. In his current role, Mr. Vargas has increased representation of historically excluded students in programming and has expanded enrichment opportunities. Raised in poverty without having access to many opportunities himself, Mr. Vargas intimately knows the struggles of many of his students and unwaveringly places emphasis on supports for everyone.