Exploring School Leaders' Perceptions of Gifted Education Educator and Gifted Program Evaluation

Overview & Synopsis

In an effort to better support the needs of PK-12 students identified as gifted or high-ability, school leaders need to be familiar and comfortable with supporting gifted education educators and developing and evaluating gifted education programs. Gifted education educators should have defined roles and responsibilities, and school leaders need to be prepared to effectively evaluate gifted education educators. In this mixed-methods study, we explored pre-service and in-service school leaders' perceptions of evaluation of gifted education programs or gifted education educators through responses from one anonymous survey with 36 respondents and one optional, confidential interview with seven participants. The findings from our study may guide pre-service and in-service school leaders, principals, higher education faculty, and policymakers as they consider how best to develop programming and evaluate gifted education programs and gifted education educators to inclusively meet the needs of gifted students throughout their PK-12 educational experience.