What does research say about the use of grade promotion for students who are academically gifted?

Following an established REL Northeast & Islands research protocol, we conducted a search for recent research on grade acceleration for gifted students. We focused on identifying resources that specifically addressed research on the characteristics of grade acceleration interventions and the effects of these programs. The sources searched included ERIC and other federally funded databases and organizations, academic research databases, and general Internet search engines (For details, please see the methods section at the end of this memo.)

We have not evaluated the quality of references and the resources provided in this response and we offer them only for your reference. Because our search for references is based on the most commonly used resources of research, it is not comprehensive and other relevant references and resources may exist.

Research References

1. Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., Marron, M. A., Castellano, J. A., Clinkenbeard, P. R., Rogers, K., ... & Smith, D. (2010). Guidelines for developing an academic acceleration policy. National Work Group on acceleration. Journal of Advanced Academics, 21(2), 180-203.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ880578
   From the abstract: “As an educational intervention, acceleration is decidedly effective for high-ability students. The research support for acceleration that has accumulated over many decades is robust and consistent and allows us to confidently state that carefully planned acceleration decisions are successful. Both grade-based and content-based acceleration are effective interventions in academic and social-emotional domains for high-ability students. Grade-accelerated students generally outperform their chronologically older classmates academically, and both groups show approximately equal levels of social and emotional adjustment. To be clear, there is no evidence that acceleration has a negative effect on a student's social-emotional development.”
2. Callahan, C. M., Moon, T. R., & Oh, S. (2017). Describing the status of programs for the gifted: A call for action. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 40(1), 20-49.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1130614
   From the abstract: “Using three leveled surveys of school district personnel (elementary, middle, and high school), we collected data on the current status of practices and procedures in gifted education across the nation. Results from 1,566 respondents in separate school districts to questions relating to administration (staffing), identification of gifted students, curriculum and instruction, program delivery models, financing, program evaluation, teacher qualification requirements, and professional development document a national picture of current practice. In addition, we structured data collection procedures to assess the degree to which the NAGC Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards are used to guide programming. The resulting picture of current practices was often a mirror of practices from 20 or more years ago, suggesting a need for a national dialogue focused on reshaping gifted education for the 21st century.”
3. Hoogeveen, L., Van Hell, J. G., & Verhoeven, L. (2005). Teacher attitudes toward academic acceleration and accelerated students in the Netherlands. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29(1), 30-59.
   https://eric.ed.gov/? id=EJ746278
   From the abstract: “In a survey study, we investigated teacher attitudes toward acceleration and accelerated students in the Netherlands. Teachers (N = 334) from 31 secondary schools gave their opinion about gifted education and acceleration, and evaluated statements about accelerated students. Most teachers considered a special approach for gifted students advisable and acceleration a useful intervention. Teachers' opinions about accelerated students' social competence, school motivation and achievement, emotional problems, and isolation were qualified by the quantity and quality of prior experience with accelerated students and by their opinion on acceleration in gifted education. In a subsequent intervention study, we examined whether specific information on acceleration and giftedness changes teachers' attitudes toward accelerated students. Teachers who attended the information meeting and received written information expressed more positive opinions about accelerated students' social competence and school achievement and motivation and less negative opinions about emotional problems after intervention. Implications for gifted child education are discussed.”
4. Warne, R. T. (2017). Possible economic benefits of full-grade acceleration. Journal of School Psychology, 65,54-68.
   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2017.07.001
   From the abstract: “Full-grade acceleration is an intervention in which students finish the K-12 curriculum at least one year early, usually due to early entrance to kindergarten, grade skipping, or early graduation from high school. Many studies have shown benefits during childhood for accelerated individuals, but few studies have examined outcomes of acceleration in adulthood. In this study data from five longitudinal datasets were combined to compare adult incomes of accelerated and non-accelerated subjects after controlling for five important childhood covariates. Results showed that accelerated adults earned 4.66% more per year (d = 0.044). Income differences between accelerated and non-accelerated groups were larger for women than men. A conservative estimate is that there is a $72,000 lifetime earnings difference between accelerated and nonaccelerated subjects, though this study cannot show a causal association between acceleration and increased income.”
5. Wells, R., Lohman, D., & Marron, M. (2009). What factors are associated with grade acceleration?: An analysis and comparison of two US databases. Journal of Advanced Academics, 20(2), 248-273.
   https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ849378
   From the abstract: “The benefits of whole-grade acceleration for the highest achieving students in K-12 education are widely acknowledged. However, much less is known about which personal, family, and school factors are correlated with student acceleration. Which children are grade accelerated in K-7 education? Have factors associated with grade acceleration changed over time? We analyze data from the NELS (students from 1988-1992) and the ELS (students from 2002-2004) nationally representative and longitudinal databases to answer these questions. Other things being equal, females, Asian Americans, and students living on the U.S. east or west coast were more likely to be grade accelerated. For example, females had odds of being accelerated that were 1.3 times higher than the odds of males being accelerated. Students from the northeastern region of the U.S. had odds of acceleration that were nearly twice (1.9 times) as high as Midwest students' odds of acceleration. When accelerated students were compared to older classmates of similar achievement who were not accelerated, the accelerated students showed greater gains in achievement than nonaccelerated classmates in and throughout high school. In other words, accelerated students do not just keep up with their older classmates, they actually perform better.”

Additional Organizations to Consult

National Association on Gifted Children. https://www.nagc.org/
From the website: “NAGC's mission is to support those who enhance the growth and development of gifted and talented children through education, advocacy, community building, and research. We aim to help parents and families, K-12 education professionals including support service personnel, and members of the research and higher education community who work to help gifted and talented children as they strive to achieve their personal best and contribute to their communities.”

National Center for Research on Gifted Education. https://ncrge.uconn.edu/
From the website: “With funding authorized through the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (PR/Award #R305C140018) launched the National Center for Research on Gifted Education at the University of Connecticut to address these issues. During the first three years (Phase 1), the Center examined the extent of gifted programming and student participation in three states; identifying districts and schools that showed high achievement growth rates among gifted students, including those from underserved groups; and exploring how these sites successfully identified, served, and retained students from underrepresented groups in gifted programs. The Exploratory Phase 1 work focused on identifying gifted and talented programs that had a strong commitment to identifying and serving students from underrepresented groups and that showed promise for improving student outcomes. In Phase 2 (Year 4 and 5), we are examining the effect of attending dedicated gifted classes in core content areas on students' academic achievement in reading/language arts and mathematics in a large, ethnically, economically, and linguistically diverse urban school district by comparing the reading/language arts and mathematics achievement of gifted students in three different settings: schools offering a full-time gifted-only program with gifted classes in all subject areas, schools offering a part-time gifted-only program with gifted classes in mathematics, and schools offering a part-time gifted-only program with gifted classes in reading/language arts. The Center's work extends over a total of 5 years (approximately 3 years for Phase 1, and 2 years for Phase 2).”

Center for Talent Development. https://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/resources/ctd-research
From the website: “Center for Talent Development (CTD) is an accredited learning center and research facility housed in the School of Education & Social Policy at Northwestern University. Since its founding in 1982, research has been at the core of our program design and methods. Recognized as a leader in the field of gifted education, CTD and its leadership continue to contribute ground-breaking research on talent development.”

Methods

Keywords and Search Strings

The following keywords and search strings were used to search the reference databases and other sources:

Academic acceleration

Acceleration gifted students

Full grade acceleration

Gifted students AND programs or services or interventions

Grade acceleration gifted students

Grade advancement gifted students

Grade skipping

Grade skipping AND effects or impact

Databases and Resources

We searched ERIC for relevant resources. ERIC is a free online library of over 1.6 million
citations of education research sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences. Additionally, we searched Google Scholar and PsychInfo.

Reference Search and Selection Criteria

When we were searching and reviewing resources, we considered the following criteria:

Date of the publication: References and resources published for last 15 years, from 2004 to present, were included in the search and review.

Search Priorities of Reference Sources: Search priority is given to study reports, briefs, and other documents that are published and/or reviewed by IES and other federal or federally funded organizations, academic databases, including WWC, ERIC, and NCEE.

Methodology: The following methodological priorities/considerations were given in the review and selection of the references: (a) study types – randomized control trials, quasi experiments, surveys, descriptive data analyses, literature reviews, policy briefs, etc., generally in this order; (b) target population, samples (representativeness of the target population, sample size, volunteered or randomly selected, etc.), study duration, etc.; (c) limitations, generalizability of the findings and conclusions, etc.