Designing Equitable and Transparent Acceleration Policies

We examined academic acceleration policies for elementary school students in Florida, one decade after the enactment of the Academically Challenging Curriculum to Enhance Learning (ACCEL) statute. We used Student Progression Plans, school board policies, and district websites to explore the status of acceleration policies in the state, compare the accessibility of information across districts, and identify policy elements that support or create barriers for students with advanced learning needs. Our findings indicated several areas of strength and opportunities for improvement in accessibility, service options, protocols, and decision-making criteria. This paper provides a practitioner companion to the full study published in Gifted Child Quarterly’s October 2024 issue. We discuss key findings, open-access resources for policy enhancement, and guiding questions for developing sound acceleration policies.Keywords: acceleration, education policy, thematic analysis