Determining Accessibility and Availability of Gifted Information on School District Websites

by Rebecca M. Johnson and Jaret Hodges

Disparities exist across all facets of educational programs, including gifted programming. Inequities in gifted education have been described as a symptom of prolonged societal dilemmas leading to lack of gifted identification and limited access to gifted programs for students from underrepresented populations. Scholars in gifted education have firmly established that this is often due in part to inequitable identification practices or unwillingness to use alternative identification practices. In addition to under-identification, lack of access to or awareness of gifted programs is likely an underlying cause to the disparities in representation that plague gifted education. In essence, awareness and access are the first steps towards equity in gifted education.

The purpose of this study was to examine the accessibility and availability of information pertaining to gifted programs in Florida. Florida is a state where gifted programming is mandated. In other words, all districts are required to identify students for gifted education and offer gifted services. The aim of this study was to offer a viable step toward equity and eliminating barriers to gifted identification and participation. To achieve this, we examined information pertaining to gifted education on district websites or lack thereof. Understanding accessibility and availability of information can help frame a possible cause for gaps in equity. Considering this, we focused our study on two aspects of information: its accessibility and its availability. Accessibility is defined as the number of clicks needed to find information from the district’s homepage. Availability is defined as whether or not the information is present within a district's website. In examination of this relationship, we considered the accessibility of information via district websites to determine how difficult or how easy it is to locate pertinent information to facilitate placement of students who are gifted into appropriately matched curricula and programs.

Utilizing existing information from Florida school district websites, data was collected to determine accessibility of information on gifted programming, eligibility, identification criteria. A descriptive analysis was used to analyze our data. Specifically, we descriptively analyzed the number of clicks needed to access information pertaining to gifted education services and what information was available.

Our findings indicate that Florida websites can be improved. Improvements include ensuring that pertinent gifted information such as contact information, eligibility requirements, identification criteria, and program options are displayed in a user-friendly format on district websites. For example, based on the checklist criteria utilized in our study, we found that 56% of the websites contained no contact information, 53% contained no eligibility/identification information, and 51% contained no programming options information. Furthermore, our findings confirmed what previous literature has stated regarding relying on aesthetics alone. That is, while the visual aspects of websites are helpful, they are not enough to enable user-friendliness of websites. Both placement of information (accessibility) and presence of useful content (availability) is needed for the websites to be useful to parents of gifted students.

Accessibility should include the least embedded path to find information and the most up-to-date, useful information available for parents. In addition to improving accessibility via district websites, more outreach, education, and support may be needed for parents to be included in the process of addressing achievement gaps by having access to quality information to facilitate the academic opportunities for their gifted students. Ultimately, providing access and availability regarding gifted information via district websites is a good starting point for minimizing achievement gaps in gifted education.

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About the Article
Determining Accessibility and Availability of Gifted Information on School District Websites
Rebecca Johnson, Jaret Hodges
First Published April 6, 2023 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/01623532231162607
Journal for the Education of the Gifted

About the Authors

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Rebecca M. Johnson, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Purdue University. She earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Gifted & Talented from the University of North Texas and an Ed.S. in Educational Psychology, Gifted & Creative Education from the University of Georgia. Her research interests include social-emotional development of gifted individuals, parenting in the context of giftedness, equity in gifted education, and the intersection of giftedness and creativity. She served as assistant editor of the Journal of Advanced Academics from 2020-2022 and co-chair of the NAGC Research & Evaluation Network Graduate Student Committee from 2021-2023. She currently serves as the Assistant Program Chair of NAGC Research & Evaluation Network Committee.

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Jaret Hodges, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of North Texas. His research interests are in gifted education policy, gifted education in rural schools, and underrepresentation in gifted education programs.