The impact of Georgia's revised gifted education policy on placement and instruction of gifted and talented students in the Atlanta Public School System

• Main Author: Thomas, Inez D.
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center 2003
• Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/1249; http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2762&context=dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if Georgia's revised gifted education policy resulted in an increase in the number of students placed in the program for gifted and talented students. Further, the study sought to determine if significant differences occurred in the instructional program after the revised policy was implemented. This study was based on the premise that the revised policy, with its broadened definition of giftedness and changes in eligibility requirements, would result in significant increases in the number of students placed in the program. Additionally, it was theorized that the new guidelines would bring about changes in the instructional program as it relates to instructional strategies, curriculum, and assessment. This was a quantitative study that involved the causal comparative method. To determine if the policy resulted in increases in the number of students placed in the program, the researcher collected data from the Atlanta Public School System's Department of Research, Planning, and Accountability and compared the figures for the three years before and the three years after the revised policy was implemented. In order to determine if the instructional program changed significantly, a survey was administered to teachers who taught in the gifted program under both policies. The research examined thirteen hypotheses to determine the main effects of the independent variables of the initial and the revised gifted policy upon the number of students placed in the program and the instructional program overall. The findings revealed that, of the thirteen hypotheses, nine were accepted and four were rejected. While there were increases in the number of students in the program, these increases did not constitute a significant difference. The major changes in the instructional program were found in the curriculum, assessment, and the strategies used at the elementary level. Since nine of the thirteen null hypotheses were accepted, it was concluded that no significant difference can be attributed to the implementation of the revised policy.