The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in ...

There seems to be a relationship between having a coordinating committee or team and a school policyfor gifted and talented education: 41.0% of schools taking a team approach indicate also having apolicy; whereas, only 18.2% of schools without overall coordination have a policy. Likewise, 21.3%of team-coordinated schools are developing a policy, compared to 11.4% of those schools without anoverall organising group.The nature of policies and procedures. Schools were asked to provide information regarding thenature of all written policies and procedures which specifically address gifted and talented students.The responses from the 728 schools are shown in Table 10. The most frequent issues addressed withinpolicies and procedures are the identification practices (32.8%), rationale (32.2%), and goals andpurposes (30.3%) for gifted and talented education. Similarly, 30.3% of schools reported having aregister of gifted and talented students as part of their written documentation. Very few schools(11.4%) include curriculum or programme models in written policies and procedures. Twenty-sixschools indicated that other components were addressed in written documentation. These primarilyreflected the elements probed by the questionnaire; however, some responses were perhaps unique.These included statements regarding a school’s cluster group; learning styles; teaching strategies;spiritual abilities and qualities; meeting individual needs; a report form for parents; and employmentof personnel to coordinate gifted and talented programmes (each of these was reported once).Table 10. Organisational Components Addressed in Written Policies and Procedures.Component Frequency PercentRationale 411 32.3%Goals or Purposes 384 30.2%School-based Definition 352 27.7%Identification Practices 418 32.8%Programming Options 334 26.2%Curriculum or Programme Model 145 11.4%Professional Development 281 22.1%Funding 347 27.3%Monitoring and Evaluation 314 24.7%Register of Identified Students 386 30.3%An analysis of the 728 schools responding to this question shows that 62.8% address between one andfive components in their policies. Thirty-two point two percent report that five to nine of thesecomponents are addressed. Only 39 schools (5.4%) reported that all 10 areas are included in writtendocumentation.Issues Related to Coordination of Gifted and Talented ProgrammesSchools were invited to make further comment regarding written policies and procedures for giftedand talented education. Approximately 325 (25.6%) respondents made comments. Of these a largenumber (90) reported that policies and procedures for gifted and talented students were currently beingdeveloped or under review. Respondents described schoolwide, ongoing processes, and manyindicated collaboration with and support from a gifted and talented adviser. These responses weregenerally positive, and forward-thinking. As two respondents commented:Currently in the hands of gifted and talented committee for review and upgrading. It’s along journey and we ain’t there yet!We plan to do much more – good things take time!Some schools felt that they were just getting started and had much more work to do, but were utilisingthe professional development support to get on the ‘right track.’ The following commentsdemonstrate this:170