Administrators' perceptions of full-year acceleration at high school

Abstract

There is a plethora of literature supporting the strategy of acceleration for gifted students (Colangelo, Assouline & Gross, 2004). The conundrum, given the research evidence covering decades, is why in recent times, the strategy is so rarely utilised in schools. The claim made in the literature is of teachers' negative attitudes, which result in non-implementation (Hoogeveen, van Hell & Verhoeven, 2005; Patrick & Townsend, 1993; Vialle, Ashton, Carlon & Rankin, 2001). Recent research (Wardman, 2009), however, reported that New Zealand high school teachers are in favour of the strategy; many having experienced the success of students permitted acceleration in single subjects. The focus must ..