Washington's High-Ability Program During the No Child Left Behind Era

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-9 - Gifted Education: Practices and Policies

Abstract

In the post-No Child Left Behind era, scholars have begun to examine the ramifications of the policies high-stakes accountability measures. Gallagher (2004) and Gentry (2006) predicted that NCLB would have a detrimental influence on gifted education programs. This research examines these predictions using administrative data acquired from the state of Washington. A mixed effects logistic regression model was used to assess the influence of not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) on the presence of gifted programs in districts (n = 294) between 2005-2006 and 2011-2012. Results suggest that schools reporting gifted programs declined from 77% of districts to 62%. Further, results from the regression suggest that those school districts no longer reporting was due to not making AYP.

Authors

• Jaret Hodges, Duke University

• Kristen Lamb, University of Washington - Seattle