A Study of the Effects of Formats for the Delivery of Gifted/Talented Instruction in the Southwest Allen School Corporation.

The study investigated the effectiveness of and attitudes toward two delivery systems (an enrichment pull-out program and a self-contained classroom) for gifted/talented instruction in Southwest Allen County, Indiana. The effects on fifth-grade students (N=38) enrolled in the program and sixth-grade students (N=45) who had experienced the program 1 year prior were compared. A quantitative study compared students' performance on the Developing Cognitive Abilities Test (DCAT) and writing samples. Results indicated that, although some writing sample scores from fifth-grade students were significantly higher for students in enrichment pull-out programs, the differences did not retain their significance when scores were adjusted for differences in ability. The sixth-grade results demonstrated that students in the self-contained classroom had significantly higher scores on the quantitative subtest and on the total DCAT when their scores were compared to the enrichment pull-out. A qualitative study involving administrators, teachers, students, and parents found that the community preference for a delivery system was influenced by the past experiences of parents, by the affinity of parents toward the neighborhood school, and by the number of gifted/talented students in the school attendance district. Appendices contain admission policies and gifted curriculum, survey instruments, subjects' scores, and writing samples. Contains 11 references. (Author/JDD)