School Counselors’ Perceptions and Experience With Acceleration as a Program Option for Gifted and Talented Students

Abstract

This article presents findings from a national survey of 149 practicing school counselors who are members of the American School Counselor Association. The survey gathered information on school counselors’ perceptions of and experiences with acceleration as a program option for gifted students. Results indicate that, although school counselors’ opinions are being solicited in decision making regarding acceleration, they do not possess training and accurate information regarding acceleration. Hence, training and professional development focusing on the research-based practices of acceleration are needed to ensure that school counselors give accurate advice and guidance concerning gifted students’ education. Future research is needed to compare and contrast the effectiveness of accelerative decision making between school counselors who are trained and untrained in acceleration programmatic options. Putting the Research to Use School counselors are ubiquitous to schools and it is expected that they will assume an important role in the academic planning of students. In addition, they are looked to for consultation on the social and emotional development of students and how these dimensions may help or hinder academic choices. This study indicates that school counselors are prominent in the academic and social issues of gifted students when it comes to the issue of acceleration. Parents and educators do look to counselors for information and perspective regarding acceleration and counselors do provide their perspective. Also, acceleration has become a more prominent option for gifted students in schools. Unfortunately, the information and perspectives of school counselors on acceleration is not based on formal training and familiarity with the research but on informal information and limited knowledge of the research. School counselors are not well prepared to fulfill their role in helping parents, educators and students make sound decisions regarding acceleration. This study makes it clear that there is need for formal training of school counselors in the research and practice of acceleration both at the preservice and inservice levels. School counselors should participate in acceleration decisions because they bring a general and comprehensive understanding of the student. However, they need a specific understanding of acceleration in order to be effective in such decisions.

Skip a grade, learn more? Estimating the effects of grade skipping on students' language skills using propensity score matching

“…There are several forms of acceleration; one is to skip a whole grade individually (see Southern & Jones, 2015, for an overview of forms of acceleration). Educators in the U.S. and Germany have a rather critical view of grade skipping and prefer to use other ways to support gifted students (e.g., content-based forms of acceleration, differentiated instruction, enrichment; Siegle, Wilson, & Little, 2013;Sparfeldt, Schilling, & Rost, 2004;Wood, Portman, Cigrand, & Colangelo, 2010). Indeed, students who skip a whole grade individually face several challenges: academically, they have to make up a whole year of the curriculum on their own; socially, they have to integrate into a new class, make new friends, and cope with being younger than everyone else.…”

Grade Skipping From the Perspective of Teachers in Germany

“…Similarly, in a sample of gifted educators who were generally in favor of accelerative measures, Siegle et al (2013) found that, although grade skipping was viewed quite positively overall, it was still the least favored fast-tracking option besides early entrance to kindergarten. Consequently, U.S. guidance counselors recommended grade skipping less frequently than other fast-tracking options such as dual enrollment or advanced placement (Wood, Portman, Cigrand, & Colangelo, 2010). The authors interpreted these findings as indicating that skipping a grade is seen as a more "radical" measure, which carries the risk of negative consequences for social and emotional adjustment because a return to the former class is virtually impossible or would at least constitute a public failure.…”

Facilitating Grade Acceleration: Revisiting the Wisdom of John Feldhusen

“…This reluctance to grade acceleration was found in America (e.g., Southern, Jones, & Fiscus, 1989), Germany (Heinbokel, 1997), Australia (Vialle et al, 2001), and The Netherlands (Hoogeveen et al, 2005). There are multiple explanations for these concerns, including practitioner unawareness (Southern, Jones, & Fiscus, 1989;Wood et al, 2010) about and negative experiences with grade acceleration (Gagné & Gagnier, 2004). Some studies (e.g., Hoogeveen et al, 2005) on educator attitudes toward acceleration found that only a couple of negative experiences could cause educators to have reservations about every acceleration decision.…”

“…As Feldhusen et al (1986) noted, this resistance has often arisen from concerns about children's affective welfare, and research has demonstrated that teachers (Hoogeveen et al, 2005;Southern, Jones, & Fiscus, 1989), counselors (Wood, Portman, Cigrand, & Colangelo, 2010), administrators (Southern, Jones, & Fiscus, 1989;Vialle et al, 2001), and parents (Rimm & Lovance, 1992) have all expressed such concerns. This reluctance to grade acceleration was found in America (e.g., Southern, Jones, & Fiscus, 1989), Germany (Heinbokel, 1997), Australia (Vialle et al, 2001), and The Netherlands (Hoogeveen et al, 2005).…”