Gifted and talented individuals (GT) are those who exhibit high levels of competency or potentiality in one or more domains. Academically gifted students make up roughly six to ten percent of the current total student body population in the United States and can be dated back as far as William Torrey Harris's efforts in 1868. The current state legislature in North Carolina requires public schools to identify and provide support to gifted and talented students, known as academically of intellectually gifted (AIG) in this state, in grades K-12. The local school district determines how to identify students and how to serve students; however, school districts must adhere to state program standards. Gifted and talented students require differentiation in the classroom in order to meet their individual educational requirements. Many times, gifted and talented students are taught in a general education class by educators who did not receive the proper training required to differentiate instruction for gifted children. Teacher who work with the gifted and talented need to grasp the concept of academic self-efficacy and how to increase high-level students' academic self-efficacy. Bandura realized people's beliefs in their own ability was correlated to their performance. Efficacy influences whether a student will attempt the work and what degree of perseverance will be applied to the work. The researcher created a quantitative nonequivalent quasi-experimental one group pre- and posttest study was to examine if implementation of strategies designed to increase reading comprehension in a gifted and talented reading class would increase academic self-efficacy, and if that growth in self-efficacy could be associated with higher eighth-grade Reading End-of-Grade (E.O.G.) assessment scores than state projections. Fifteen gifted students of various races and both sexes participated in the study. These students took the Children's Perceived Academic Self-Efficacy subscale from the Morgan-Jinks Student Efficacy Scale to determine their level of academic self-efficacy. This number was then compared to their seventh-grade End of Grade assessment data, their projected eighth-grade End of Grade assessment data, and their actual eighth-grade End of Grade assessment data. Of the fifteen students, thirteen achieved higher scores than the North Carolina state projections predicted. The recommendation for further study include implementation in a regular education classroom, implementation in a special education classroom, or implementation in one gifted classroom while another gifted classroom receives no strategies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]