Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Gifted Education: Recruitment and Retention Issues

Ford, Donna Y.; Grantham, Tarek C.; Whiting, Gilman W.

doi:10.1177/001440290807400302

Cited by 201 publications

(262 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Some of this gap may be due to differences in measured cognitive ability of students from different backgrounds and biases in these measures. However, the standard processes for gifted screening are based on teacher and parent referrals, and there is evidence of underreferral of qualified students from disadvantaged backgrounds-suggesting that teacher/ parent discretion in the referral process may be a further barrier (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). If so, then a comprehensive and objective screening program might be able to raise gifted participation rates among underserved groups by increasing their referral rates for gifted evaluation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education

Card

Giuliano

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

124

130

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Low-income and minority students are substantially underrepresented in gifted education programs. The disparities persist despite efforts by many states and school districts to broaden participation through changes in their eligibility criteria. One explanation for the persistent gap is that standard processes for identifying gifted students, which are based largely on the referrals of parents and teachers, tend to miss qualified students from underrepresented groups. We study this hypothesis using the experiences of a large urban school district following the introduction of a universal screening program for second graders. Without any changes in the standards for gifted eligibility, the screening program led to large increases in the fractions of economically disadvantaged and minority students placed in gifted programs. Comparisons of the newly identified gifted students with those who would have been placed in the absence of screening show that Blacks and Hispanics, free/reduced price lunch participants, English language learners, and girls were all systematically “underreferred” in the traditional parent/teacher referral system. Our findings suggest that parents and teachers often fail to recognize the potential of poor and minority students and those with limited English proficiency.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education

Card

Giuliano

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

124

130

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“…In particular, we demonstrate, using rigorous methods of empirical analysis on approximately 70,000 cases, that overall, whereas Black and Latino/a students take the test for gifted-and-talented admission at substantially lower rates than their White and Asian counterparts, the gap in test-taking rates is significantly smaller for those enrolled in public pre-K programs, where there is greater access to information about the gifted-and-talented programs and its test for admission. We likewise find the same results when comparing subgroups defined by students' family and neighborhood characteristics (e.g., students in free-lunch programs versus not, students who speak English at home versus not, students who come from recent immigrant families versus not, and students who come from neighborhoods that consist of a greater versus smaller percentage of Black and Latino/a families and of populations with college degrees or higher).Our study contributes to the literature by uncovering this important relationship between public pre-K and gifted-and-talented test taking and by extending the work of numerous researchers in the field of gifted education (e.g., Davis, 2010;Ford, 1998;Ford, Grantham, & Whiting, 2008;Kitano, 2003;Moore, Ford, & Milner, 2005) who have urged educators to collect and analyze data to identify variables that positively and negatively influence the recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse students for gifted education. It also extends the work of numerous preschool equity researchers who have explored enrollment in public pre-K as a potential avenue to reducing gaps in achievement by focusing not on achievement but on attendance in public pre-K as a potential avenue to reducing gaps in test-taking rates for the NYC gifted-and-talented admissions test.…”

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confidence: 53%

Public Pre-K and Test Taking for the NYC Gifted-and-Talented Programs

Weinberg

2016

Educational Researcher

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The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) gifted-and-talented programs aim to support all students of exceptional learning potential within the public school system. Using proprietary data made available to us by the NYC DOE, we show, however, that substantial disparities exist in the rates of gifted-and-talented admission test taking, the first step in the process of accessing these more challenging educational opportunities. While Black and Latino/a students take the test for gifted-and-talented admission at substantially lower rates than their White and Asian counterparts, we find the disparity to be significantly less for those enrolled in public prekindergarten programs. We likewise find similar results when comparing other subgroups defined by students' family, borough, and neighborhood characteristics. These results suggest that public prekindergarten gifted-and-talented attendance could have played a role in ameliorating the gaps in test taking by providing greater access to information about the gifted-and-talented programs across subgroups of students.Keywords: early childhood; educational policy; equity; gifted and talented education; gifted education; hierarchical linear modeling; preschool equity research; public pre-K; regression analyses; social stratification; urban education FEATURE ARTICLES JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 37 subject matter knowledge, and challenging coursework, which are known to be related to student learning (Goldhaber & Brewer, 1997;Meyer, 1999;Phillips, 1997;Phillips & Chin, 2004;Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 1998;Tach & Farkas, 2006). In the interest of equity, these findings point to the importance of designing challenging educational opportunities and academic programs within the public school sector that are designed for students from all population subgroups. One answer to fostering academic equity among high achievers is the public availability of challenging educational programs for students with exceptional ability across all ethnic and social class backgrounds.Gifted-and-talented education programs emphasize identifying students as gifted and talented based on their learning potential through a psychometric assessment of the students' cognitive ability and school readiness at a young age and provide such students with specialized instruction so as to enable them to be educated to their full potential (Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, & Worrell, 2011). Compared to programs that select students at later grades based on their achievement to date, by identifying students early on in elementary school, gifted-and-talented programs may hold even greater promise for promoting children from all backgrounds to reach their full academic potential and for shrinking the reported disparities that exist with respect to college application, enrollment, and graduation.As we show in this article, however, there is an equally compelling need to create a public awareness of such educational opportunities to ensure that students from all population subgroups have equitable access to them. Us...

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“…However, research has shown that Latino students are more likely to attend ethnically and economically segregated schools of lower quality and are more likely to be tracked into less challenging classes than White students. Latino students are also overrepresented in special education classes and, along with students from other minority groups, are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs (Ford, Grantham, & Whiting, 2008). The differences in educational experiences are believed to greatly restrict the access that Latino students, especially ELL students, have to high quality instruction and opportunity to learn the core curriculum.…”

Section: Opportunity To Learnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing the Quality and Equity of Education for Latino Students: A White Paper

Young

Lakin

Courtney

et al. 2012

ETS Research Report Series

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This white paper provides an overview of the issues that affect the quality and equity of education in grades K-16 for Latino students in the United States. This paper is organized chronologically to reflect the typical educational timeline for students in the United States, and we focused on several key transition points in the educational timeline: from elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school, from high school to college, and from a two-year college to a four-year college. Each of these transition points can pose challenges for every student, but in this paper, we focused specifically on the unique challenges that Latino students encounter. It is our hope that this paper will provide an impetus to action and will serve as a guide for future directions for collective research efforts on the critical issues regarding the education of Latino students in the 21st century.Key words: Latino students; Hispanic students; academic achievement; educational transitions; student demographics ii Executive SummaryToday, the state of education for Latino students in the United States is at a crisis point.The loss of human and social capital that results from the underachievement of Latino students is a significant barrier for our country in meeting the demand for an educated and talented workforce to compete globally in the 21st century. On an individual level, when Latino students are not provided with the same opportunity to receive a world-class education as other students, they are denied the chance to fully realize their potential as students, workers, and citizens. The present conditions of education for Latino students will not improve unless concerted efforts are made to effect change from educators, politicians, policy makers, researchers, and parents. ETS, as the world's leading assessment organization, should play a central role in advancing the quality and equity of education for Latino students in the United States through our work in assessment, research, and outreach. This goal is the very embodiment of our corporate mission to advance quality and equity in education for all people worldwide.As a step toward meeting this goal, this white paper was commissioned by ETS. It was written to provide an overview of the issues that affect the quality and equity of education in grades K-16 for Latino students in the United States. The paper is organized chronologically to reflect the typical educational timeline for students in the United States. We focused on several key transition points in the educational timeline: from elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school, from high school to college, and from a two-year college to a fouryear college. Each of these transition points can pose challenges for every student, but in this paper, we focused specifically on the unique challenges that Latino students encounter.To preview the ideas and topics in the white paper, we highlight three key findings on the current status of education for Latino students in Am...

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Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Gifted Education: Recruitment and Retention Issues

Cited by 201 publications

References 51 publications

Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education

Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education

Public Pre-K and Test Taking for the NYC Gifted-and-Talented Programs

Advancing the Quality and Equity of Education for Latino Students: A White Paper

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