In conversations about equity, engagement, and academic challenge, few voices have been as influential as Zaretta Hammond. Though she is not a researcher in the field of gifted education, I think her work has major implications for our field. For educators of gifted and high ability learners, her work offers a powerful reminder that rigor and cultural responsiveness are not competing priorities. They are inseparable.
If we want more students, especially those from historically underrepresented groups, to be truly ready for advanced learning, we must understand how culture, cognition, and relationships intersect.
Who Is Zaretta Hammond?
Zaretta Hammond is an educational consultant, former classroom teacher, and national expert in culturally responsive teaching. She is best known for her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, which bridges neuroscience and culturally responsive pedagogy in practical, classroom-based ways.
Through her description of the neuroscience of learning, her Ready for Rigor framework, and her professional learning organization Ready for Rigor, Hammond has helped educators move beyond surface-level engagement strategies toward deeper instructional transformation. Her work challenges teachers to build students’ intellective capacity so that they can operate independently at high levels of cognitive demand (“Intellective capacity is the increased power the brain creates to process complex information more effectively,” p. 16 from Corwin Press’ upload of Chapter 1 of Hammond’s book).
Why this matters for gifted education: Many students with high potential are never identified for advanced services. Hammond’s work helps us examine not only who is in gifted programs, but whether our classrooms are structured in ways that actually cultivate advanced thinking in culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
Brain Science and Cultural Responsiveness
One of Hammond’s most powerful contributions is her clear explanation of brain science and its direct connection to culturally responsive teaching.
In the professional learning materials connected to her work, educators explore:
- Brain rules for cultural responsiveness
- Key brain structures involved in learning
- The connection between brain science, student achievement, and student behavior
Her central message is simple but profound: When we understand how the brain learns, we can design instruction that increases students’ intellective capacity rather than merely delivering content.
The Brain’s “Hardware” and Learning
Hammond uses a metaphor of brain “hardware” to help educators understand what is happening neurologically during learning.
Key insights include:
- The brain’s attention system is activated by positive emotion, curiosity, novelty, and meaningful challenge.
- Stress, especially social-emotional stress such as stereotype threat or fear of embarrassment, can inhibit higher-order thinking.
- Learning strengthens neural pathways through productive struggle, feedback, and repeated cognitive processing.
This has enormous implications for both achievement and behavior. What may look like disengagement, defiance, or low motivation is often a brain protecting itself from threat or overload.
Why this matters for gifted education:
Gifted students are often assumed to be naturally self-regulating learners. However, if a classroom environment triggers stress or lack of belonging, even high-ability students may underperform. Conversely, students with high potential who have not yet developed advanced processing skills can grow those skills through intentional cognitive routines and appropriate challenge.
Brain science reminds us that intelligence is developed through use. It is not simply discovered.
The Brain’s “Software”: Culture
Hammond extends the metaphor by describing culture as the brain’s “software.”
If the hardware is the physical brain, then culture is the operating system that tells the brain how to interpret the world, what to pay attention to, and how to respond.
Culture influences:
- Communication patterns
- Norms around independence and interdependence
- Perceptions of authority
- Approaches to problem solving
- Comfort with competition or collaboration
- Interpretations of behavior
In her framework, teachers are encouraged to understand three levels of culture (surface culture, shallow culture, and deep culture) and to recognize archetypes such as individualism and collectivism. These cultural patterns shape how students engage in learning tasks, participate in discussions, and respond to feedback.
Why this matters: When classroom norms align with one dominant cultural operating system, students from other cultural backgrounds may be misinterpreted. For example, a student who values collaborative processing may appear dependent rather than relational. A student who hesitates before speaking may be labeled disengaged rather than reflective.
For gifted education, this is critical.
Identification practices, participation structures, and even definitions of leadership often reflect individualistic norms. If we do not recognize culture as software, we may mistake cultural difference for lack of ability.
When we intentionally design instruction that honors multiple cultural ways of processing, we unlock intellectual potential that might otherwise remain hidden.
Culture does not lower rigor. It shapes how students access rigor.
The Ready for Rigor Framework
Another important contribution to the field of education is Hammond’s Ready for Rigor framework (see page 17 of Corwin Press’ upload of Chapter 1 of Hammond’s book). This framework organizes culturally responsive teaching into four interconnected areas:
- Awareness
- Learning Partnerships
- Information Processing
- Community of Learners and Learning Environment
The goal is clear: Students are ready for rigor and independent learning.
Let’s unpack each area and connect it directly to gifted education.
1. Awareness: Knowing and Owning Your Cultural Lens
Hammond emphasizes that teachers must:
- Know and own their cultural lens
- Understand levels of culture
- Recognize individualism and collectivism
- Understand how the brain learns
- Acknowledge socio-political contexts around race and language
- Recognize personal triggers around race and culture
Why this matters: Gifted identification and advanced coursework often reflect dominant cultural norms about what “smart” looks like. If we do not interrogate our own assumptions, we risk overlooking students whose brilliance does not match traditional behavioral or linguistic expectations.
For gifted coordinators and classroom teachers, this work is foundational. Awareness shapes referrals, recommendations, grading practices, and interpretations of behavior.
2. Learning Partnerships: Balancing Care and Push
Hammond reframes the teacher-student relationship as a learning partnership. In this partnership, the teacher:
- Reduces stereotype threat and social-emotional stress
- Balances high expectations with strong relational trust
- Cultivates student self-efficacy
- Gives students language to describe their learning moves
Practical strategies include:
- 2×10 relationship building
- Selective vulnerability
- Class greeting systems
- Practicing affirmation
- Creating a student-centered pact
- Using wise feedback that combines high standards, belief in capability, and actionable steps
Why this matters: Brain science tells us that students must feel both safe and challenged for optimal cognitive growth. A learning partnership reduces threat and increases the mental energy available for complex thinking.
In advanced classes, rigor without relationship produces compliance. Relationship without rigor produces stagnation. Gifted students need both.
3. Information Processing: Building Intellective Capacity
One of Hammond’s most important contributions is connecting brain science to instructional design.
She outlines an Ignite-Chunk-Chew-Review process:
- Ignite: Capture attention through emotion, curiosity, puzzles, or movement
- Chunk: Break complex information into manageable pieces
- Chew: Actively process through discussion, routines, storytelling, metaphor, and analysis
- Review: Apply learning through games, real-world problems, or long-term projects
She also emphasizes:
- Teaching cognitive routines explicitly
- Using oral traditions such as storytelling and rhythmic language
- Connecting content to culturally relevant examples
- Providing authentic processing time
- Using formative feedback to deepen understanding
Why this matters: The brain grows through active processing, not passive listening. Gifted learners thrive when instruction emphasizes patterns, systems, relationships, and metacognition.
If students are not explicitly taught how to process complex information, many will struggle silently. That struggle is often misinterpreted as lack of ability rather than lack of cognitive scaffolding.
4. Community of Learners and Learning Environment
Hammond emphasizes creating classrooms that are intellectually and socially safe.
Key elements include:
- Making space for student voice and agency
- Building around communal talk and task structures
- Using rituals and routines that reinforce learning culture
- Applying restorative justice principles
- Emphasizing collective responsibility
She also highlights the importance of classroom design. Décor and symbols should reflect authentic cultural assets, not token artifacts.
Why this matters: A strong sense of academic belonging fuels engagement and supports students’ academic mindset. Hammond defines academic mindset through beliefs such as:
- I belong to this academic community.
- This work has value for me.
- My ability grows with effort.
- I can succeed at this.
Before students will consistently engage in rigorous thinking, they must hold these core beliefs. Academic mindset is the foundation for rigor. It determines how the brain interprets challenge. When students believe they belong, they are more willing to take intellectual risks. When they see value in the work, their attention system activates. When they understand that ability grows with effort, they interpret struggle as development rather than failure. When they believe they can succeed, they persist long enough for neural pathways to strengthen.
For gifted learners, this is especially important. Many have been praised primarily for being smart rather than for using effective strategies. When they finally encounter true challenge, they may withdraw if their identity is tied to effortless performance. A strong academic mindset reframes advanced learning as growth, not proof of status.
When students experience belonging and competence, they persist through challenge. Persistence is essential for advanced learning.
The Academic Mindset Cycle
Hammond outlines a cycle:
- Academic Mindset
- Engagement
- Effort
- Task Performance
- Feedback on Progress
Feedback strengthens mindset, which fuels deeper engagement and stronger neural pathways.
This cycle mirrors what we know about talent development. Advanced performance is not built on praise alone. It is built on meaningful challenge, strategic feedback, and visible growth.
Overall Implications for Gifted Education
For those of us working in gifted education, Hammond’s work pushes us to ask critical questions:
- Are we building intellective capacity or just sorting students?
- Are we creating classrooms where diverse gifted learners experience belonging?
- Do our instructional strategies reflect how the brain learns?
- Are we providing both care and push?
Culturally responsive teaching is not a separate initiative from gifted education. It is essential if we want to uncover and develop talent in students who have historically been overlooked.
How to Use Hammond’s Work in Your School or Classroom
If you are a teacher:
- Start with learning partnerships. Implement 2×10 conversations with a focal student.
- Audit your feedback. Does it combine high standards with explicit belief in capability?
- Use Ignite-Chunk-Chew-Review to structure complex lessons.
- Explicitly teach students how their brains grow through effort and feedback.
If you are a gifted coordinator:
- Embed Ready for Rigor language into professional development.
- Examine identification data through an awareness lens.
- Support teachers in designing instruction that builds processing skills, not just content coverage.
- Include brain science as part of your advocacy for appropriate challenge.
If you are a parent:
- Help your child understand how his or her brain grows with effort.
- Encourage reflection on learning strategies, not just grades.
- Advocate for challenge within a classroom environment that also feels safe and affirming.
Your Turn
Reflect on your own context:
- How does your current classroom environment/gifted program support or hinder optimal brain functioning?
- How might cultural “software” be shaping participation and perceptions of ability?
- What small shift could you make this month to increase both belonging and intellectual challenge?
Zaretta Hammond’s message is clear. Equity is not about lowering standards. It is about strengthening instruction so that more students can rise to high standards.
For those of us committed to supporting gifted and high ability learners, that is work worth doing. Please share your insights and experiences in the comments below so we can help each other with this important work! ~Ann
Teaching for Talent 