Although descriptions of enrichment programs are valuable for practitioners, practices, and services for gifted students, they must be backed by evidence, derived through a synthesis of research. This study examined research on enrichment programs serving gifted students and synthesized the current studies between 1985 and 2014 on the effects of enrichment programs. A total of 26 studies were included in this meta-analysis, and the findings show that enrichment programs had a positive impact on both gifted students' academic achievement (g = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.64 -1.30, under a random-effects model) and socio-emotional development (g = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.32 -0.79, under a random-effects model). Regarding moderators of the effects, types of programs, and grade levels influenced both effect sizes of academic achievement and socioemotional development. The largest effect size was observed for summer residential programs in terms of academic achievement and for a combination of summer and academic year program in terms of socio-emotional development.
A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Enrichment Programs on Gifted StudentsAlthough a strong empirical foundation is required to advance educational practices, the literature concerning gifted education is still lacking comprehensive empirical studies to provide guidance for educational policy and practices to serve gifted students (Plucker & Callahan, 2014).Among the various practices, acceleration and enrichment have been used widely as program and curriculum models (Schiever & Maker, 2003). Both acceleration and enrichment programs have served diverse gifted students based on conceptual knowledge; however, our knowledge on practices for gifted students is often ambiguous when determining their effectiveness.Particularly, research on enrichment programs is often provided without a clear description of the specific program being studied.Despite examination of studies with experimental effects is meaningful for practitioners to determine usefulness of programs (Asher, 2003), there are limited meta-analytic studies about the effects of enrichment programs on gifted students. Statistical significance alone is not a guarantee of practical usefulness, and effect size allows researchers and practitioners to look at the magnitude of the obtained difference between the sample mean and the hypothesized population mean (Warner, 2008). Asher (1986Asher ( , 2003 noted that meta-analysis, which examines effect size strength rather than statistical significance, helps researchers and practitioners to understand the results of various studies better. Kulik and Kulik (1984) completed a meta-analysis related to ability grouping in secondary schools, and they found that when high-ability students were grouped together in enrichment classes, it had positive impacts on their intellectual progress. Also, Vaughn, Feldhusen, and Asher (1991) conducted a meta-analysis on gifted pull-out programs and found
