Reviewing and Evaluating the Impact of Gifted Services: A Critical Best Practice

Gifted education programs are a form of specialized education designed to meet students’ learning needs and prepare them to excel and contribute to society. Assuring the efficacy of programs is critical. Regular program evaluations help identify priorities, select appropriate models, create coalitions for change and improvement (formative purposes), and gather and analyze data to demonstrate impact and measure or benchmark growth over time (summative purposes). This session engages participants in discussion about approaches to multi-faceted gifted program evaluations and strategies for engaging stakeholders in standards-based improvement. Success stories, cautionary tales, and common themes from evaluations will be shared.