A Delphi study: Identifying administrative problems faced by elementary school principals in providing services for gifted and talented students

The purpose of this study was to identify through the Delphi Technique the major problems that elementary school principals face in providing services for gifted students and to determine the specific strategies principals used to resolve these problems. Procedures. Data was collected through the Delphi Technique using 170 elementary school principals from the official list of the Office for Education Research and Information, Washington, D.C. The Delphi Technique used three rounds of questionnaires. The first questionnaire was open-ended. It allowed principals to use their own creativity in listing the problems they face in providing services for gifted students. The second questionnaire asked principals to rate the problems that had been listed on a scale of "1" to "4," with "1" being "least" and "4" being "most" important. The third questionnaire asked principals to agree or disagree with the eight "most" and "least" important problems and to provide solutions to these problems. Findings. An analysis of the data generated the following results. (1) There were 38 issues that evolved from Questionnaire I. (2) Questionnaire II generated eight "most" and "least" important issues and (3) Questionnaire II generated a consensus of agreement on six of the "most" and eight of the "least" important issues, and generated solutions to the"most" important issues. Conclusions. Elementary school principals do face many problems in providing services to gifted students, but they have specific ways of resolving these issues.