Annotated Bibliography

The Classroom Practices survey was conducted by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) to determine the extent to which gifted and talented students receive differentiated education in regular classrooms across the United States. The survey samples included a general sample of 3,993 third and fourth grade teachers working in public school settings. A survey instrument called the Classroom Practices Questionnaire (CPQ) was developed to obtain background information on the teachers, their classroom, and their school districts as well as their perceptions of their teaching behavior related to gifted and average students in their classes. The major finding of this study is that 3rd and 4th grade teachers make only minor modifications in the regular classroom to meet the needs of gifted students. Some classroom teachers also attempt to eliminate material that students have mastered, provide the opportunity for more advanced level work, give students some input into how classroom time is allocated, and expose gifted students to higher level thinking skills, however, these modifications are not used widely. The survey also revealed that the regular classroom services provided to gifted students in schools with formal gifted programs are similar to those provided in schools without formal programs.

Using a questionnaire developed for a 1985 national survey of educational practices for gifted students in both public and parochial schools (the Sid W. Richardson Study), this study surveyed 273 Iowa school districts in 1993 to determine types of programs in existence in Iowa schools and how Iowa schools differed from the nation’s schools in its responses. The study gathered information on 16 program types, which constitute practices or approaches judged appropriate for gifted students. Program types are: (1) enrichment in the regular classroom, (2) part-time special class, (3) full-time special class, (4) independent study, (5) itinerant teacher, (6) mentorship, (7) resource rooms, (8) special schools, (9) early entrance, (10) continuous progress, (11) nongraded school, (12) moderate acceleration, (13) radical acceleration, (14) College Board and Advanced Placement participation, (15) fast-paced courses, and (16) concurrent or dual enrollment. Comparison with the Richardson findings suggested that, overall, Iowa schools had more negative significant results than positive significant results. These negative results included significantly fewer supervisory staff responsible for gifted programs, significantly lower per pupil expenditures, and significantly fewer schools with special funding for gifted students. Positive results included significantly more schools in which all teachers participated in in-service training and significantly more use of libraries.

An evaluation by principals and teachers made over a two-year period of the educational and social adjustments of 43 children admitted early to the first grade is reported. In 30 instances, the evaluations were completely positive; in only five instances were any negative evaluations obtained, and these did not totally characterize the five children. The examining, counseling, and evaluative procedures are described.

Reported are the findings of a study of the effects of academic acceleration on the social and emotional adjustments of students. Subjects included 1,247 12 to 14 year olds who scored in the top 1% on a national mathematics examination. The advantages of academic acceleration are emphasized.

A study investigated the freshman year experience of exceptionally able students entering colleges at least two years early. Academic achievement and social adjustment were considered in relation to college type, student residence at home or away from home, degree and beginning of academic acceleration, and student adjustment mechanisms.

This study explored the role of self-concept and family environment variables in the psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement of 180 students (104 male, 76 female) at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS), a residential early-entrance to college program in which students complete their junior and senior years of high school while earning 60 hours of college credit.

To explore the psychosocial adjustment of TAMS students, the researchers administered the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale as a composite measure of self-concept, the Family Environment Scale to assess perceptions of family environment, and the Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire (SACQ). First-semester GPA was the measure of academic achievement.

The results supported the hypothesis that adjustment to college and academic achievement may be predicted by a combination of family environment factors and overall self-concept. Specifically, adjustment to college (as measured by the SACQ) was predicted by overall self-concept and the Family Environment factors of family cohesion, conflict, and expressiveness. Academic achievement (first-semester GPA) was predicted by overall self-concept and the Family Environment factors of family cohesion, organization, control, and conflict.

While the authors stipulated that their findings might not be generalizable to other early-entrance to college programs, they suggested that measures of self-concept and family environment might provide useful information for early entrance programs. Programs might increase retention, support adjustment, and encourage academic achievement if they inform students and families about the role of family and self-concept factors.

This monograph discusses two studies that investigated weighting grades and waiving classes for gifted students. Data were gathered from 19 interviews with teachers, counselors and administrators in four high schools, questionnaires filled out by 189 high school administrators, 80 school policies on weighting grades and 19 policies on waiving classes, and attitudes of 15 college admission directors. Research results indicated that the majority of schools weighted some classes, although there is no consistency among schools as to which classes or grades are weighted. However, all schools which weighted grades had one thing in common: a commitment to defining excellence and to giving credence to what excellence means to them through the process of weighting grades. Respondents stated a correlation between their decision to weight grades and their interest in reinforcing able students to take demanding courses. The study on waiving classes also showed a lack of national consistency on how classes are waived. One constant did occur: no class is waived unless students show mastery of materials. When students are allowed to skip/waive lower-level classes, such classes usually generate no credit and students are often required to take more advanced classes in the same academic discipline.

The prospective study of adolescent girls enrolled in a residential early college entrance program investigated whether socioemotional adjustment could be predicted by prior personality and family characteristics. Adjustment was assessed from staff, student, and peer perspectives over the course of one academic year. Results indicate consistent predictive relationships between the Jackson Personality Inventory, the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents, the Family Environment Scale, the Parent Adolescent Communication Scale, and four outcome adjustment measures. The importance of studying individual differences in how students adjust in acceleration programs is emphasized.

The article describes replies to a questionnaire by recipients of the MacArthur Fellows Program, an award given to individuals with uncommon abilities across a wide spectrum of creative pursuits. Replies touch on school and family backgrounds, acceleration, importance of grades, recognition of achievement, extracurricular activities, and significant teachers.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative influence of each of seven variables in predicting educational attainment, and by inference, adult economic success for high achieving, academically gifted students. A secondary analysis was performed using longitudinal data from the base year and a third from follow-up reports of the 1980 High School and Beyond senior cohort survey. A total of 1,227 subjects were selected for the secondary analysis who met the following criteria: graduation from a public high school, self-reported grades indicating high achievement,self-reported participation in an academic or college preparatory program. Educational attainment, a reliable predictor of adult economic success, served as the dependent variable. A backwards stepwise logistic regression was conducted. Independent variables included academic acceleration, extracurricular participation, personological factors (self-concept, locus of control, educational attainment one thinks one will achieve, educational attainment with which one will be satisfied), and parental expectations. These variables were previously identified as individually related to educational attainment. Three control variables were included throughout the regression: socioeconomic status, sex, and academic achievement as a composite measurement of four tests. Three of the seven independent variables remained in the final logistic regression model. These were, in order of significance, educational attainment one thinks one will achieve, parental expectations,and educational attainment with which one will be satisfied. Within this model, socioeconomic status and sex had no effect in predicting Bachelor's degree attainment, although academic achievement test score did. Within this sample and model, the odds of Bachelor's degree attainment for a subject who thought he/she would obtain a Bachelor's degree were 5.38 times the odds for subjects who did not foresee Bachelor's degree attainment. The odds of Bachelor's degree attainment for a subject whose parents indicated the subject should go to college were 2.84 times the odds of attainment for subjects whose parents did not indicate college. The odds of Bachelor's degree attainment for a subject who believed he/she would not be satisfied with less than a Bachelor's degree were 1.81 times the odds of attainment for subjects who indicated they would be satisfied with less than a Bachelor's degree.

Certain highly able and motivated young adolescents can successfully pursue full-time college-level studies without unreasonable compromises to psychological and social adjustment. Ways in which an adequate program facilitating early college entrance might be structured are suggested.

Students (n=63) who entered college by age 14 supplied data on the number and ages of friends, time spent together, and degree of shared intimacy. By junior year, early entrants appeared to have established relations with older students of breadth and depth equivalent to those already existing with age mates.

This study investigated those few lackluster achievers as could be identified, using loose criteria, in a college-level program of academic acceleration. Underachieving males appeared less psychologically mature and appeared to suffer more internal conflict than achieving males, but underachieving females evidenced greater maturity than their counterparts.

Interviews with the coordinators of 37 gifted education programs (20 rural and 17 urban) indicated that rural school districts are less likely to use ability grouping or academic acceleration and are more likely to use sporadic extracurricular activities. An earlier survey of 171 teachers also found fewer program options in rural areas.

This study surveyed underachieving gifted students and their parents in order to: determine the extent and sources of positive and negative attitudes toward educational acceleration; compare the views of parents and students for congruence; and compare the perceptions of successful students and their parents with the views of identified underachieving students and their parents. Data from 15 students and their parents indicated few concerns that acceleration would have negative effects on leadership, academic achievement, or creativity. The overriding concern of parents and students was for the potentially negative effects that acceleration would have on social and emotional development. Eight of the parents indicated that they had considered acceleration for their children, seven of these decided to accelerate their children, and all but one of the seven stated that the decision to accelerate worked out well. Parents and students from the underachieving sample held generally similar perceptions of potential harm compared to a sample of successful students and their parents.

This study of 905 academically talented students (ages 12-16) who completed a 1-year course in high school biology, chemistry, or physics in a 3-week summer program found that the fast-paced courses effectively prepared subjects to accelerate in science, and that talented students could begin high school sciences earlier than generally allowed.

The career aspirations and the factors influencing career decisions were investigated for a group of extremely precocious females to determine why some enter math/science careers and others do not. Using the multiple-case study approach, 15 mathematically precocious females' career paths were characterized. These females had scored before age 13 at least 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test-Mathematics (SAT-M) (frequency top 1 in 60,000). Questionnaires completed at age 13, in 8th grade, and after high school graduation were used; in-depth telephone interviews at 19 to 21 years provided further data. Extremely mathematically precocious females have focused career goals by age 18; two-thirds had entered math/science fields by age 19-21. These math talented females viewed their career choice as a reflection of interests, which stemmed from early family influences and educational opportunities.

This study interviewed students (n=24) participating in the University of Washington's Early Entrance Program. Students were unanimous in their satisfaction with their choice to forego major high school social events and found attitudes toward them sometimes annoying.

Describes an early-entrance program that enables gifted adolescents to enter college without attending high school. A study involving 31 participants indicated varying degrees of comfort in diverse social situations; however, all believed themselves to be more mature than had they gone to high school.

This follow-up study of gifted students who had either entered the University of Washington before age 15 (n=61), qualified for early entrance but chose the normal high school path (n=36), or were nonaccelerated National Merit Scholarship finalists (n=27) found that early entrants entered graduate school in greater numbers than did the other groups.

This study investigated policies about the use of content acceleration and grade skipping for gifted students in middle and secondary schools by 105 school districts. Results indicated that only 15% of responding districts had formal policies about grade skipping, whereas 57% had informal policies effectively preventing grade skipping. Formal content acceleration policies were likewise rare and/or vague.

Fourteen sets of parents and 11 gifted students who had been accelerated (early kindergarten entrance, grade skipping, and subject skipping) were interviewed. All parents and students indicated they would make the same decision again. Administrator attitudes became more positive, but teachers perceived some student adjustment problems.

The questionnaire responses of 24 markedly accelerated young students at the University of Washington were compared with those of 24 regular-aged university students, 23 National Merit Scholars, and 27 students who had qualified for acceleration but instead elected to participate in high school. Accelerants appeared as well adjusted as all comparison groups.

This reprinted article originally appeared in 1999 in Roeper Review, 2(13), 174-179. (The following abstract of the original article.) An exploration of the issues and concerns of the parents of gifted preschoolers and preschool kindergarten teachers surrounding early identification and programming for giftedness was undertaken using a survey. The response rate was 51% for 91 parents and 52% for 44 teachers. The majority of parents reported that early identification can (91%) and should (74%) be done, while teachers acknowledged each at 78% and 50% respectively. The practice of differentiated curriculum was supported by 76% of parents and 32% of teachers surveyed, while the educational option of early entrance was supported by 37% of parents and 7% of teachers. The physical domain was superseded by both social-emotional and intellectual domains in the levels of importance for early entrance consideration by both respondent groups. Parental requests for information were categorized as resources or additional challenge, disciplinary techniques, educational options, and parenting guidelines. Teachers required information on balancing differing development rates. A comment on this article by a group of guest editors is appended.

This study found that accelerated students (n=365) and students (n=334) in gifted classes had better perceptions of their social relationships and emotional development and fewer behavior problems than did regular students (n=323). The accelerated eighth graders who entered school early or skipped elementary grades did not report social isolation, emotional difficulties, or behavior problems.

This study discusses goals and objectives of the Advanced Academy of Georgia at the State University of West Georgia, a residential early-college-entrance program for gifted juniors and seniors. Included is a comprehensive progress report, entering SAT scores, student academic performance, retention rates, and scores on the Dimensions of Self-Concept. (Contains references.)

No abstract available.

Coordinators of gifted education, school psychologists, principals, and teachers (554 respondents) were surveyed concerning their attitudes toward early admission and acceleration. Though negative reactions were weak along some dimensions, practitioners from each category expressed consistently conservative sentiments toward the value of acceleration and viewed the process as potentially hazardous.

Contends that aptitude and achievement tests designed for much older students are invaluable for finding extremely high ability at younger ages. Results of the first two years of the Study of Mathematically and Scientifically Precocious Youth are examined to show that considerable educational acceleration is not only feasible but also desirable for gifted young people who are eager to move ahead. Skipping school grades, taking college courses part-time, studying in special courses, and entering college early are inexpensive supplements to regular school practices. The usual in-grade, non-accelerative "enrichment" procedures often recommended for intellectually gifted children are not advocated. An heuristic overview of the main assumptions and findings of the study thus far is presented.

This article describes common student traits found from analysis of self-reported experiences of six radically accelerated gifted youths. It concludes that intellectual ability far above the average and student eagerness to accelerate are prerequisites for successful radical acceleration. Descriptions by two students of their accelerated programs are included.

No abstract available.