Using Summer Growth Patterns in Reading to Assess the Impact of Schools on Gifted Students

• In Event: National Trends and Research and Policy Issues in the United States and Canada

Abstract

This study compared gifted and average students’ growth in reading (in a cohort of 3rd grade students from 2000 school) over 3.5 years. Contrasting summer and school year growth rates, we examined how schools change gifted and average students’ trajectories. We found that gifted students showed little change in their trajectory from school-year to summer. By contrast, average students grew dramatically more during the school year than in summer. The school year rate for gifted students was slower than average students. Whatever these particular students did over the summer in reading was as beneficial as their time spent in school. These findings support the use of alternative educational methods for gifted, such as acceleration and within class ability grouping.

Authors

• Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez, West Virginia University

• D. Betsy Mccoach, University of Connecticut