In terms of selection criteria, sending the message out on this forum is far from the only thing I've done, and each vehicle I've used to get responses has been chosen because I knew I would get respondents who fit the criteria for giftedness stated at the beginning of the survey. Anyone who does not fit those criteria should not be taking the survey. Of course I can’t be certain that people are not lying about fitting the criteria,
And finally, g2mom is correct; this is a qualitative, preliminary survey, aimed primarily at identifying avenues in need of deeper research that I cannot begin to realize given that I am not currently teaching in a school or associated with an academic institution (I finished my MA in December and will start my PhD in August), and thus have no support for this research, financial or otherwise.
Suggestion: send this survey out to other forums, like mothering.com, but remove the giftedness requirement. Instead, insert a question asking if the respondent's child has been tested for admission to a TAG or other giftedness program. If so, was the child admitted? You could use the "No" respondents as a group of non-gifted students for comparing to the gifted ones.
