Public or private schools: A dilemma for gifted students?

Abstract

This study addressed the issue of whether public and private schools were different in their frequency of meeting the needs of the gifted for acceleration, curriculum integration, and critical thinking skills. Twenty‐four school programs were studied using director interview questionnaires, teacher surveys, document analysis, and observation. Significant differences were found for the use of critical thinking skills with gifted students by public school teachers while private school teachers reported and were observed using more acceleration with the gifted. There were no differences in either private or public schools for curriculum integration.