Understanding the Sample

Multiple factors such as rural designation, population, free/reduced lunch eligibility, and availability of gifted resource teachers contributed to each participating district’s unique profile and the diversity in the sample of treatment and control schools. This chapter provides an overview of the districts included in the Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools project, located in small coastal communities on Virginia’s eastern shore, nestled within the foothills of the Appalachian mountains of Virginia and Kentucky, or situated within the rich farmlands of central Virginia. The chapter includes descriptions of how services were provided to gifted students in each district (e.g., pull-out instruction by a gifted specialist, differentiation within the general classroom setting, afterschool enrichment programs) as well as summaries of each district’s identification processes prior to the implementation of the alternative methods of identification used in the project.