(The author of this site is a Wilmette DST, and speaks for herself here.)

When my team and I were hired by our district in 1998 (history), we were originally called CD teachers. Our roles became more and more defined as the years continued. We realized that Wilmette already had a rich and rigorous curriculum. Our mandate from the beginning was to provide support for all classroom teachers and students, and not exclusively and solely for our identified gifted and talented students. We began to realize that curriculum differentiation (CD) did not fit (our work). Thus, we became Differentiation Support Teachers. (known as DSTs)

The development of this web site included a complete study of the terms being used for differentiation in the field. When I did a search either within a universally-used browser search (Google), on a university site (UConn and UVA, two leaders in differentiation education), a national organization site (such as ASCD or NAGC), or on large district sites the results were very similar:

• The term "Curriculum Differentiation" is most often used on sites referencing gifted and talented.
• Those sites that are still accessible were written in the early to mid-1990's. (many are no longer available)
• The term "Differentiated Instruction" is most often used on sites for both G/T and regular education. Those sites have been written between the late 1990's up to today.
• The number of accessible sites for DI were 20 times greater than for CD!!
• When I did a search where I added the two terms together, I truly found some quality information and much, much fewer links.
• The word "differentiation" was and is more universally and generically used to describe the whole mind-set behind the philosophy--the BIG IDEA for all teachers.

I decided to ask a few experts in the field for their input to this 'term confusion'. Their answers are included on the links: curriculum differentiation and differentiated instruction.