296 Volume 20 ✤ Number 2 ✤ Winter 2009 ✤ pp. 296–324 t Intellectual Estuaries: Connecting Learning and Creativity in Programs of Advanced Academics Ronald A. Beghetto University of Oregon James C. Kaufman California State University at San Bernardino he emergence of ability testing in the United States during the early 20th century sparked interest in identifying students for placement in advanced academic programs (for a review see Kaufman et al., in press). Early on, administrators used IQ scores almost exclusively as the criterion for placing students in advanced academic programs. However, not long after Lewis Terman irst used intelligence tests to identify “gifted” school- children, psychologists and educators in the United States appealed for broader conceptions of learning that speciically included creativity (e.g., Guilford, 1950; Marland, 1972). hese calls for broadened conceptions of learning were fortiied by researchers (e.g., Torrance, 1959a, 1959b, 1959c; Yamamoto, 1964) who demonstrated empirical links between creativity and academic achievement. Unfortunately, the prototypical K–12 curriculum often fails to include creative thinking as an explicit curricular goal. he situation is somewhat better in the curriculum and instruction of advanced academic programs where creativity typically is identi- ied as an important ability to be cultivated. However, even when nurturing creativity is identiied as a curricular goal, it often