The first of three volumes of Project PRISM, a program designed to help classroom teachers (grades 6 through 8) provide for the needs of their gifted and talented students without removing those students from the mainstream of education, outlines the project's background and achievements. Sections review the following project aspects (sample subtopics in parentheses): training (workshop and graduate course content); identification (procedures for identifying academic, art, and music talent); services (workshops, independent study, mentorship, curriculum adaptation, in school minicourses, and resource materials and curriculum aids); a model independent study program; brief summaries by classroom teachers of class activities for gifted and talented students; counseling (individual and group counseling for students, parent and teacher workshops); parental involvement; program evaluation; and program adaptation (training, project timeline). Sample forms are appended. (CL)