Background <p>Teaching quality plays a critical role in effective STEM education, and improving teaching quality is often considered the most promising approach for boosting STEM achievement. However, teachers frequently encounter substantial heterogeneity in students’ aptitudes, interests, and needs, thus rendering it challenging to maintain high-quality instruction for all learners. Consequently, it has been argued that additional out-of-school programs that cater to a more homogeneous student group might better meet students’ needs, resulting in higher teaching quality. At the same time, by attending high-quality out-of-school programs, students’ evaluations of their regular school lessons might be negatively affected via comparison or reference effects. However, there is a lack of studies on teaching quality in regular classes versus out-of-school programs.</p> Method <p>The present study used data from a specialized out-of-school STEM enrichment program for highly gifted students. We compared the teaching quality in regular school classes and the enrichment program as reported by a total of 67 gifted students (IQ <i>M</i> = 133.7; <i>SD</i> = 7.2) with the perceived teaching quality in regular classes reported by their peers (<i>N</i> = 268) who were nominated for the program but were not enrolled because they scored lower on a cognitive ability test. More specifically, we compared the children’s perceptions of the motivational climate of both contexts and the teaching quality in students’ regular lessons (i.e., math classes) and the STEM enrichment program.</p> Results <p>Results showed that students participating in the out-of-school STEM enrichment program reported higher motivational climate and teaching quality in the enrichment program than in their regular (math) classes. At the same time, the perceptions of the motivational climate and teaching quality in the regular school setting of students who attended the enrichment program were similar to the perceptions of their peers who did not have access to the specialized enrichment program.</p> Conclusion <p>The findings indicate that the out-of-school STEM enrichment program we examined constitutes a valuable learning environment to meet gifted students’ needs and enhance their learning experiences. We discuss the insights we gained from gifted education in the context of different educational settings and contribute to a better understanding of perceived differences in teaching quality.</p>