Gifted Program Evaluation

Book excerpt: Faced with budget challenges, many districts cannot afford to hire an outside consultant to conduct a formal evaluation of their gifted programs. Districts may wish to conduct their own in-house program evaluation. The second edition of Gifted Program Evaluation: A Handbook for Administrators and Coordinators is designed to assist administrators in designing, conducting, and reporting on an evaluation of their gifted programs. Written with the busy administrator in mind, this handbook includes an overview of evaluating programs to ensure that (1) the program structure is based on best practice, (2) students are achieving at levels commensurate with their abilities, and (3) the program develops skills that gifted students will need to be meaningful contributors in society, including higher level thinking, communication, and affective skills. The book provides all of the tools to assist evaluators, including an in-depth description of how to conduct a program evaluation, the mechanics of collecting and analyzing a variety of different data sources, and how to organize, write, and share the findings. It also features reproducibles, including interview and survey question banks, classroom observation tools, professional development forms, and program element checklists.