I'm with member Fugitive. The book is VERY deceptive. It lists basic themes and ideas, it's scary to think that someone who needs this level of sophomore book would be in charge of any type of Gifted Program.
It's a recipe-connect-the-dot content for an area that is VERY complex from one district to another. (who needs a model for an email? who still needs coaching to surf the web and make a copy paste?)

As a text book for a student teacher, I'm not impressed either. Unacceptable content for a Grad student, and not impressive for an undergrad program. This tiny tiny tiny book makes some academically and socially unacceptable shortcuts such as the figure 4 page 29: prodigies are high performing well supported (family and school) kids, while low SES unsupported students are underperforming.

This type of presentation of diversity in identification would only suggests that the authors have never worked in a real diverse environment, where the cliches are often reversed, adding complexity to the identification conundrum. Two stars because it's not a bad book, and can be useful in the right hands. ( )

This was a very good book about how to work with GT students. There was good insight and ideas you can use in a everyday classroom.

I found this book to be barely serviceable and more than a bit thin. If you're into the administration and coordination of programs for gifted students (and those words, "Administrators" and "Coordinators," are in the subtitle) and need a set of Cliffs Notes for bandying jargon and basic ideas about, this book will do. There are also lots of forms and questions from which one can crib. Almost half of this book consists of appendices (84 pages out of 174 total) and there is no index whatsoever (read that again: NO INDEX). Of the eight chapters preceding the appendices there is a very noticeable and liberal use of white space. On further inspection, the appendices also suffer from the "page inflation." Of the 184 paginated pages ten of them are totally blank. Perhaps some of these could have been used in an index at the end? But no.

Discussion of actual methodology and statistics is close to nonexistent. The entire focus is on the most basic evaluation techniques. I'd recommend getting a different book on program evaluation in general rather than this work.

Typical section from Chapter 2: Sample Survey Items for Program Design - two questions for "All Teachers" and two questions for "Program Teachers." The two questions (yes, only two, and 1/4 page is white space) for Program Teachers are (1) In your opinion, to what extent do the services provided for gifted students at your grade level meet their needs? and (2) In your opinion, to what extent do the services provided for gifted students at grade levels other than your own meet their needs? These two question are typical of something I'd never considered before: question inflation. There's a lot of that in this book, too.

This is the type of book that non-educators might look at and wonder if our education dollars are being wasted by purchasing it. ( )

“Gifted Program Evaluation: A Handbook for Administrators & Coordinators” by Kristie Speirs Neumeister, Ph.D., and Virginia H. Burney, Ph.D., is exactly what the title describes. It is copublished with the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC.org). It is a must have for any school or district that is going to implement a gifted program or wants to revamp their gifted program so that it can reach and help as many gifted children as possible.

Many people feel that gifted children shouldn’t have extra resources allocated them, that they don’t need help in school because they are smart, that teachers will challenge them appropriately in mainstream classes, or that we shouldn’t make other children feel bad about themselves since they aren’t gifted, thus we shouldn’t have a gifted program (or that a gifted program is elitist). All the above are myths that only go on to hurt children who need extra resources, challenges, teachers that are trained in gifted teaching, etc.

This book is designed for people who are in the educational system already (administrators, teachers) who are working with gifted children or who will be working with gifted children. The first half of the book is dedicated to setting up or evaluating gifted program in their school/district. It begins with “Conducting an Internal Evaluation” and details how to set up a committee, what the scope of the committee will be, and the structure of the committee. Included is a sample timeline with that date a task should be done, what specific task that is, and who the person responsible for completing the task should be. Then it moves on to “Program Design.” In this section it breaks down into a description of services and the roles/responsibilities of all those involved. It stresses the importance of clear communication between all individuals. Included are the specific responsibilities of the administrator and the classroom teacher. One of the things that I really liked about this book is how they include sample survey items for evaluating program design and also sample structured interview prompts/questions related to program design that allow opened ended answers from those it is given to. Sample surveys and sample structured interviews are given throughout the book to help administrators and teachers get detailed information for those in the educational system about areas in the gifted program that are working and what areas need improvement in. Chapter 3 takes us into “The Identification Process” and chapter 4 then proceeds into “Curriculum and Instruction.” This book breaks down, chapter by chapter, the whole process from start to end, including how to evaluate the program’s effectiveness and if you may even need to get someone from outside the program to come in and review it.

The second part of the book includes eleven appendixes that give samples of the “Student Survey,” “Teacher Survey,” “Parent Survey,” “All Teachers” survey, sample cover letter or e-mail for parents who are asked to participate in the survey, a list of structured interview questions, checklist for program elements, data collection, and more. It is clear and easy to follow and makes it easier for all those participating since everything is broken down and samples of surveys and questions are included.

This book is a must have for those who affect the gifted program in any way. It is a great resource to help teachers and administers determine if their program is up to par and what to do if it isn’t. Although not geared towards parents, they too can benefit from this book and learning what questions to ask about the gifted program in their child’s school.

***Book was received through LibraryThing Member's Giveaway. It did not affect this reviewer's opinion.*** ( )