ORIENTATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, CLASSROOM TEACHERS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS TOWARD GIFTED AND NON-GIFTED STUDENTS' ATTRIBUTES IN RELATION TO METHODS OF EVALUATING ACHIEVEMENT

This study examined the attitudes, values, and perceptual frameworks of public school administrators, secondary level classroom teachers, and community members/parents with respect to gifted and non-gifted students' achievement attributes as they relate to current methods of evaluation. The research methodology was a questionnaire-survey which was sent to thirty randomly selected administrators, thirty randomly selected classroom teachers, and thirty randomly selected community members who work with or have students at the one senior high school in the city. The data were collected and analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance By Ranks. Post hoc pairwise were computed to locate specific areas of difference using Nemenyi's procedure. The results of the three hypotheses tested were as follows: Hypothesis 1 stated that there are no significant differences among the attitudes, values, and perceptual frameworks of the three independent samples with reference to the achievement attributes of gifted students at the secondary level of public education. Samples revealed negative attitudes toward gifted students' achievement attributes. Hypotheses 2 and 3 stated that there are significant differences among the attitudes, values, and perceptual frameworks of the three independent samples with reference to non-gifted students' achievement attributes and current methods of evaluation at the secondary level of public education. Samples revealed disparate attitudes toward non-gifted students' achievement attributes and current methods of evaluation. The conclusions are as follows: Educators and community members believe that students should receive an education that best meets their capabilities, needs, and interests at the secondary level. These educators and community members feel that at the secondary level all programs and courses should be regarded as equal scholastically, and that all grades earned should have the same numerical value regardless of course content and methods of instruction. Further, educators and community members hold that current methods of evaluation are acceptable, and that any system, such as the weighting of grades, is undesirable, because it would be undemocratic, would favor the gifted and thus create an "elite" group, and would create schisms among the faculty members. In addition, educators and community members consider that the procedures used at secondary level for computing grade point averages and/or rank-in-class are satisfactory because all courses and all grades for all students are regarded equally. As a conclusion it can be stated that the gifted student at the secondary level of public education is still "the last minority.".