Date of Award

Spring 2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership

First Advisor

David Gullatt

Abstract

Gifted academic achievement has been identified as a major area of interest for educational researchers. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there was a relation between the quality of gifted programs as perceived by teachers, coordinators and supervisors of the gifted and the achievement of the same gifted students in 6th and 7th grades as measured by gains on the iLEAP from Spring 2008 to Spring 2009 in Louisiana public school districts. Also, the researcher compared gains of gifted public middle school students to the gains of regular education students in the same grades. Demographic information was used to create a profile of the sample surveyed.

The results of the present study showed that there was no significant difference between 6th and 7th grade gifted student (Spring 2008 to Spring 2009) iLEAP Scaled gain scores and those of their non-gifted peers when controlling for Spring 2008 iLEAP Scaled scores. Also, the results showed no significant difference between 6th and 7th grade gifted student (Spring 2008 to Spring 2009) iLEAP Scaled gain scores in high quality programs and iLEAP Scaled gain scores of gifted students in programs of lesser quality as defined by the Gifted Program Survey. Likewise, there was no significant correlation between 6th and 7th grade gifted student (Spring 2008 to Spring 2009) iLEAP Scaled gain scores and a district Gifted Program Survey total score addressing gifted program quality or any of the Survey sub-scores addressing gifted program quality Implications for practice and recommendations for further research were discussed.

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