Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item IMPLEMENTING FULL-TIME GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAMS IN TITLE 1 SCHOOLS: REASONS, BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS(2018) Tempel-Milner, Megan Elizabeth; Croninger, Robert G; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This collective-case study examined the implementation of community-based, full-time gifted and talented programs in three Title 1 schools within a large school system. It investigated the reasons for, perceived benefits of, challenges of, and opportunity costs of implementing full-time gifted programs in Title 1 schools. The findings from the study reveal that the community-based, full-time gifted program directly contrasts the pedagogical beliefs and instructional practices associated with Martin Haberman's pedagogy of poverty, which was the theoretical framework for this study. The program goes against the belief that students from low-income families need basic, low-level styles of teaching, and moves to a belief that students from low-income families need access to rigorous educational opportunities, similar to their more affluent peers (Haberman, 2010). The community-based program started as a way to retain students in local schools, which lessened accountability pressures at the school, as well as, provided access to gifted services for students who qualified without having to leave the community school. However, the community-based, full-time gifted program became more than a targeted program for high-ability students, as it became a culture shift across the three high-poverty schools. The full-time gifted program became an avenue to access needed rigorous, enriched, and accelerated learning opportunities which are not prevalent in many Title 1 schools in the country. The program changed instructional practices to that of high-level, hands-on, student-centered, problem-solving activities, instead of remediation and reliance on basic skills for not only the students in the full-time gifted class but across the whole school. It opened access for students who live in poverty, where typically low-income students are underserved for gifted services, which has long-term effects on their academic achievement. The schools relied on strong principal leadership and vision to guide the program, and the program was supplemented by Title 1 funds to finance staff positions that support gifted beliefs and practices, professional development, investment in curriculum resources. Across all unique cases, the budgetary and philosophy-shift challenges associated with implementing the program were outweighed by the benefits of the program.Item EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS’ PERCEPTIONS OF GIFTED EDUCATION PROGRAMS(2017) Gaines, Monica; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gifted education programs are designed to meet the needs of students who have demonstrated a need for accelerated and enriched learning experiences. Without these authentic learning opportunities, gifted students many not reach their full academic potential and may lose the desire and motivation for learning. The purpose of the exploratory study was to examine elementary school principals’ perceptions of gifted education as related to leadership and instructional practices that are used in their schools. The study sought to identify any correlations between principals’ perceptions of gifted education with effective leadership and instructional practices that supported gifted students and programs. An online survey was used with adapted items from a state–level document that outlines the criteria for excellence in gifted education programs and items from an existing perceptions survey (McCoach & Siegel, 2007). The survey was distributed to 106 elementary school principals. Responses to individual items were collapsed to create three scores: (a) Perceptions (b) the Importance of Practices and (c) Practices Used of respondents’ reports of practices used in their schools. Analyses revealed that the three highest-rated items on the Perceptions scale were indicators of support for gifted education. On the Importance of Practices scale, analyses revealed that providing staff members differentiated professional development and ensuring that they understand the identification process for gifted students were rated as the most important practices. Using pre-assessments for student learning was rated the highest for the Practices Used scale. Pearson correlations for the three summary measures show a significant, but weak relationship between principals’’ Perceptions score and the ratings of the Important of Practice score. Additionally, the data revealed no statistically significant relationship between the Importance of Practices and Practices Used scores. This study enriches the literature on perceptions of elementary principals towards gifted education and the impact their perceptions may have on programs and student outcomes.