The purposes of the study were to 1) determine if responses from teachers to items on the pre- and post- administration of the questionnaires would change after viewing the Tap Tapes series and 2) provide members of the Tap - A - Talent committee with recommendations on how to proceed with the inservice process if, in fact, the process should continue.The pre- and post- questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected teachers of grades one through five employed by the school corporation during the 1980-81 school year. Usable questionnaires were returned by 101 teachers and constituted the sample for the study.Data reported represented changes in responses to items on the pre- and post- questionnaires as tabulated by number and percent.The following conclusions were formulated from the summary of the findings based on teacher responses on the pre- and post- questionnaires:1. Teachers who viewed all or some of the seven-part Tap Tapes resulted in a small but positive increase in desired responses in the questionnaires.2. The responses of teachers who viewed none of the Tap Tapes reflected a decrease in the number of desired responses in the questionnaire.3. While many teachers participating in the study reported, by the responses, an overall agreement with the statements in the questionnaire prior to viewing the Tap Tapes, the data reflect a general strenthening of views and attitudes by teachers following the viewing of the tapes.4. The video-tapes, mini-workshop series, known as Tap Tapes, appeared to be an effective inservice component.

This study identified school and district level variables relevant to the relationship among advanced academic achievement, as defined by a score of 3, 4, or 5 on at least one Advanced Placement exam, and high school context, opportunities for social support and advanced academics, and district support for high ability students in grades K-12. Using school and district-level data from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), district level data on services for high ability students from the IDOE Division of Exceptional Learners, and school-level data from College Board, 49 variables are described for 339 public high schools. A hierarchical linear regression was applied to 15 independent variables thought to be most relevant to the explanation of the variance among high schools. After review, a second hierarchical regression was conducted with 9 retained independent variables explaining 80% of the variance in high performance. The retained variables included size of the graduating class, SAT average, demographic classification according to local population density, percentage of the community with less than a high school education, number of different AP exams offered by the school, ratio of the number of students scoring between 55 and 80 on the math portion of the PSAT to the number of graduates, ratio of the number of students taking SAT Subject Tests to the number of graduates, percentage of the school corporation enrollment identified as high ability, and the number of grade levels and subject areas in which advanced instruction differentiated for high ability students was offered for at least 150 minutes per week. The variables included in the first regression are delineated for the highest 34 (10%) and lowest 34 (10%) performing schools on the dependent variable to construct profiles of a high and low performing school. High performance is limited in small and rural schools. The overarching finding is that schools make a significant difference in the opportunities and development of high performance in adolescents of high ability. Future research directions are suggested and implications of the findings for policymakers are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology