"Acceleration is one of the most curious phenomena in the field of education. I can think of no other issue in which there is such a gulf between what research has revealed and what most practitioners believe"

- Borland, J. H.Planning and implementing programs for the gifted

Enrichment is not Enough

Florida

Special Instructional Programs for Students who are Gifted.(1) Gifted. One who has superior intellectual development and is capable of high performance.(2) Criteria for eligibility. A student is eligible for special instructional programs for the gifted if the student meets the criteria under paragraph (2)(a) or (b) of this rule. (a) The student demonstrates:

1. Need for a special program.2. A majority of characteristics of gifted students according to a

standard scale or checklist, and3. Superior intellectual development as measured by an intelligence

quotient of two (2) standard deviations or more above the mean on an individually administered standardized test of intelligence.

- Florida Administrative Code: 6A-6.03019

Florida – Plan B

Special Instructional Programs for Students who are Gifted. (b) The student is a member of an under-represented group and meets the criteria specified in an approved school district plan for increasing the participation of under-represented groups in programs for gifted students.

1. For the purpose of this rule, under-represented groups are defined as groups:

a. Who are limited English proficient, or b. Who are from a low socio-economic status family.

- Florida Administrative Code: 6A-6.03019

Federal

Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.

- Elementary and Secondary Education Act

National Association for Gifted Children

Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting, dance, sports).

- NAGC: What is Giftedness?

Renzulli

Gifted behavior occurs when there is an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits: above-average general and/or specific abilities, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity. Gifted and talented children are those who possess or are capable of developing this composite of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance.

- The Three Ring Conception of Giftedness

Types of AccelerationEarly Admission to Kindergarten

Early Admission to First Grade

Grade-Skipping

Continuous Progress

Self-Paced Instruction

Partial Acceleration

Combined Classes

Curriculum Compacting

Telescoping Curriculum

Mentoring

Extracurricular Programs

Correspondence Courses

Early Graduation

Concurrent/Dual Enrollment

Advanced Placement (AP)

Credit by Examination

Acceleration in College

Early Entrance into Middle School, High School, or College

- A Nation Deceived

Practitioner Objections

Acceleration is not as suitable as enrichment for gifted students.

Acceleration will cause stress and lead to problems of emotional adjustment.

Accelerating a gifted child places too high a level of academic demand on the child.

73.1%

64.0%

35.4%

- Practitioner objections to the academic acceleration of gifted children

Why Acceleration Isn'tAccepted in America

Reason #6: Acceleration is not taught in Colleges of Education. These organizations, which train teachers, do not prepare teachers and administrators to make decisions about acceleration.

- A Nation Deceived

Changing Attitudes

Teachers who attended the information meeting and received written information expressed more positive opinions about accelerated students' social competence and school achievement and motivation and less negative opinions about emotional problems after intervention.

- Teacher attitudes toward academic accelerationand accelerated students in the Netherlands

Positive Development

The results from this meta-analysis suggest that the effects of acceleration on high-ability learners’ social–emotional development were slightly positive, although not as large as the effects on academic achievement.

- The effects of acceleration on high-ability learners:A meta-analysis

Radical Accelerands

Significantly, the only children scoring more than one standard deviation above the mean on the social self-peers subscale of the SEI are children who have been radically accelerated.

- The use of radical acceleration in cases ofextreme intellectual precocity

Emotional Adjustment

[Accelerated students] displayed levels of emotional adjustment and feelings of acceptance by others that were higher than those of regular students and about the same as those of older students identified as gifted.

- Social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment of accelerated students, students in gifted classes,

and regular students in eighth grade.

Accelerand Perceptions

These findings indicate that gifted female students as well as gifted male students do not perceive their acceleration to have negative effects on their social and emotional development.

- Long-term effects of acceleration onthe social-emotional adjustment ofmathematically precocious youths.

Positive AchievementOn the SAT-M, Groups 1 and 2 scored significantly higher than Groups 3 and 4...

Groups 1 and 2 had significantly higher GPAs than Group 3, and the mean for Group 4, while not significantly different statistically from the other groups, was almost the same as Group 3.

The majority in all groups were in the top ten percent, but this was more frequently true for Groups 1 and 2, where 84% and 83%, respectively, were in this category, than for Groups 3 and 4, where 72% and 68% were in the top ten percent.

- Accelerative strategies: How effective are they for the gifted?

Planned Acceleration

This study found that the students’ personal adjustment and family environment, assessed at the beginning of the academic year, were consistently predictive of their adjustment over the course of the year.

- Socioemotional adjustment of adolescent girlsenrolled in a residential acceleration program

Planned Acceleration Pt.2

Whatever some proponents will argue, the potential risks of postponing school admission are rarely major; they can be easily overcome through later educational decisions.

- The socio-affective and academic impactof early entrance to school.

Grouping vs. Acceleration

Both acceleration and grouping are integral components of a program designed to meet adequately the learning needs of gifted students. Ironically, in the current educational climate acceleration and grouping are being pitted against each other in absurd ways.

- Educational decision making on acceleration and grouping

Grouping & Acceleration

When possible, students who are grade skipping or making an early entrance to college should do so as part of a cohort. There appear to be benefits to cohort acceleration that are more difficult to replicate when students go it alone.

- The socioaffective impact of acceleration and ability grouping: Recommendations for best practice

Grouping Benefits

For example, XYZ grouping, in which little or no effort is made to adjust curriculum to the ability level of the classes, raise the test scores of higher ability students by about 0.1 standard deviations, or by about 1 month on a grade equivalent scale.

Benefits are larger in special classes for higher aptitude learners.

The average gain from [enriched] classes is 4 months on the grade-equivalent scales of typical standardized tests... students spend as much as half their time on cultural material (e.g., foreign languages, music, art) that is not directly tested on standard achievement tests.

- An analysis of the research on ability grouping

Acceleration as Differentation & Extension

Acceleration is...beneficial academically.beneficial behaviorally.beneficial socially.

Acceleration is not...right for all gifted students.enough for some gifted students.only for gifted students.

Acceleration needs...teachers to advocate.teachers for planning.collaboration between all parties.