A survey of attitudes of parents and teachers of gifted children toward educational goals

1. Is there a difference between parent and teacher ratings on the importance of each goal?

2. Is there a difference between parent and teacher ratings on the school's responsibility in meeting each goal?

3. Is there a difference between parent and teacher rankings of the three most important goals?

4. Is there a difference in the way parents and teachers rate individual goals on importance and responsibility?

To obtain answers to these questions, a survey was conducted over thirteen school districts in East Tennessee. There were thirty-six participants--twelve teachers of gifted children and twenty-four parents of gifted children. The "Educational Goal Survey" by Dr. Keith Beery (1977) was chosen as the instrument. Each participant was asked to rate eleven educational goals on importance and school responsibility for the goals. They were also asked to rank in order of first, second and third the three goals they felt were most important.

The results showed no significant differences found between groups on the first three questions raised. There was, however, a significant difference found on five of the responses for parents and teachers when rating individual goals on importance and responsibility. This suggested a positive correlation may exist between the two categories.

Analyses of the responses showed parents and teachers were in general agreement on both importance and school's responsibility of each goal. The ranking of goals also produced very similar responses. Both parents and teachers ranked Self-Esteem as the number-one goal of importance.

It was concluded that further investigation following the stated recommendations could produce relevant and needed information for gifted program planning and implementation.