Rural/urban principals' attitudes toward gifted education

Abstract

A sample of 298 randomly selected rural and urban public school principals in Kansas were mailed a 20-item survey designed to investigate principals' attitudes toward gifted education. The survey instrument also elicited information on 15 demographic variables. A total of 215 surveys were returned. A two-tailed t-test for independent groups was utilized to compare the mean responses of rural and urban groups for statistically significant differences at the .05 alpha level. Ten of the 20 survey items exhibited a statistically significant difference between groups. A profile of similarities and differences between Kansas urban and rural principals on demographic items was also drawn. Six variables showing substantial variation between groups were discovered. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of state mandated school programs for gifted, principals' support for local gifted programs, and the prinicpal's role in articulating a philosophy of gifted education. The practitioner's service delivery philosophy of special education programming for the gifted was also discerned.