Date of Award
Summer 1964
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Education
Recommended Citation
Krause, Charles Willard, "A study of the accelerated program in the Chesterfield County school system" (1964). Master's Theses. 229.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/229
Comments
Differences among students have been recognized for many years. Many attempts have been made to provide ror these differences by the local and state school systems of the country. A variety or programs has been tried with varying degrees of success. Harold G.Shane, Professor of Education and Dean of the School of Education, Indiana University, has listed thirty-six grouping plans for providing for pupil differences at all grade levels. One vital fact to be gathered from the literature on the subject of the gifted child is that there is no one basically satisfactory method of providing for his needs. Each school system must work out its own program according to its own needs and materials with which it must work.
The Chesterfield County School authorities had for some tme recognized the need for some special work for the gifted, but it was not until 1958 under the direction of Mr. J. R .Tucker that any definite program was organized. Since 1959 Miss Thelma Crenshaw has supervised the program. This thesis is an attempt to study in detail the methods used by the principals in carrying out the program in the local schools, to evaluate the program, and to make suggestions for improvement.
The program developed in Chesterfield County, as elsewhere, was in response to public demand for more mathematics and science in the school curriculum. The problem is to describe three phases of the accelerated program, namely, (1) a description of the program as it now functions in each of the high schools, the subjects involved, and student participation it it ; (2) an evaluation of' the program as reported by students, teachers; counselors, and administrators; and (3) an attempt to explore possible methods of improving the program. The purposes of this study are (1) to give a review of the actual practices or the individual schools as they provide for the brighter students, (2) to ascertain the effectiveness of the program, (3) to suggest ways to make the program more effective, and (4) to discover some ways or improving the coordination of the program.