When he taught seventh-grade social studies in a Westchester County, N.Y., school, Nicholas Colangelo noticed bright students who weren't being challenged, but didn't know what to do about it. The lack of options for those students stuck with him, and he began studying the education of gifted students while working on his doctorate. Over the years, Colangelo, now a professor of gifted education at the University of Iowa, has written and presented a number of papers on what schools can do to challenge their students. Colangelo spoke at a conference on gifted education in April in Westford. He co-authored ''A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students," a two-volume report published last year to familiarize schools and parents about the various options for bright or gifted students. In an interview with Globe correspondent Cyra Master, Colangelo talked about his research on gifted students.

Q: What are the different ways schools can advance a gifted child?

A: Basically what acceleration comes down to means moving a child through the curriculum at a faster rate or a younger age. That can be done two ways: bringing advanced material to the child, so if your son is in third grade, we would bring fourth-grade math to him . . . so that he would be challenged but still stay with his age-mates. The other way is that we move him through the system a little quicker, from third grade to fifth grade so when he is older he can graduate earlier. So either the material moves and the child stays, or the child moves. If the thing is the child is really good in math, he can take math with fifth-graders but then come back [to third grade.] If you're going to be grade-skipped, you need to be strong all around and take into account interpersonal and social maturity. If the material comes to you, cognitive ability is much more important than . . . interpersonal skills.

Q: You used the terms bright, gifted, high ability, etc. synonymously in your report. What do these phrases mean?

A: The word gifted is so loaded, it generates a lot of different feelings for people. Interchangeably we use highly able, capable, readiness. Acceleration is all about if your [child] is ready for that curriculum. That is the issue. [Those words] trigger so many other emotions in people, but the bottom line is readiness. Teachers respond well to that because they know they have kids ready for something different. The issue is do you try to meet that.

Q: Do you see parents pushing their children to skip a grade or go into higher-level math or reading when they may not be ready? How do you deal with that?

A: When I sense a parent is wanting a child to accelerate when there is no good cause, I'll show them evidence and say 'If you do this, I don't think it would be good. Why would you want to put a child in a situation not the best possible for them?' And they usually back off. We have this in academics and sports; parents feel their kid is ready for something they're not. When a child is skipped to a grade, that child should be among the best in that grade. If they are not, then that grade skip should not have happened. For example, if you bring a ninth-grader up to a varsity team, it makes no sense to bring him up and have him sit on the bench. That's one of the things, when parents are pushing, I will use and say the only way it's good is if she's going to be [excelling] in the setting.

Q: What about using private tutors, specialized camps, and summer courses to challenge bright students rather than advancing them to another grade?

A: One of the reasons I am very much in favor of acceleration is that it's financially equitable. It really is cheap compared to so many things in education. It matters because I think there are a lot of things we do for gifted kids that are very expensive, like summer camps [at colleges.] As blunt as I can make it: What does it cost the school to send a fourth-grader to a fifth grade? At the most, desk space. They're not hiring a new teacher; they're not building a new building. They can do something really worthwhile and not always have to pay a heavy price.