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Graduate Follow-up Studies as a Means to Advance and Improve a Program for Excellent Students

Abstract This article describes a program for excellent students that views research as an inseparable part of its development, and utilizes research findings as a means to aid formulation and implementation of policy changes. Eight nationwide graduate follow-up studies have been conducted on the program. Their findings were studied comprehensively, and policy changes were subsequently made, several of which are presented here. Possible factors are raised which may explain how these changes were actually implemented and did not “sit on a shelf collecting dust” as so often happens in educational research. This process produced a model wherein policy initiates research, which yields findings and conclusions, and in turn leads to policy changes and additional research, leading to the program’s development and improvement.