Broaching as an Equitable Approach to Counseling Black Students in Advanced Academic Courses and Programs

When submitting for this special issue on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), these authors were guided by the unwavering belief that discrimination has no place in educational settings and segregation and integration are ideals that have yet to be realized in U.S. schools and gifted programs in particular. Consequently, at the forefront of this submission is the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education in which segregated schools, classrooms, and programs based on race were declared illegal and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court avowed the ending of separate and unequal education in America; and desegregation was to occur with all deliberate speed. That was six decades ago, and this law and associated legal mandates have yet to be fulfilled, particularly in gifted education, Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and other courses for advanced learners (e.g., honors and International Baccalaureate classes).It is unprofessional and unethical to promote and permit the inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities to students based on race, which frequently occurs with Black students. Inequitable or unjust resources and opportunities contribute to and promote educational disparities, and create a vicious cycle in which Black students are denied access to school programs that are essential to reaching their academic, intellectual, socio-cultural, and fiscal potential and that can help close achievement gaps. Gifted education has promoted such racial inequities. For decades, educators, policymakers, and legal personnel have failed to recruit and retain an equitable percentage of Black students in gifted education and courses for advanced learners (e.g., Advanced Placement classes). This lack of accountability has resulted in de facto segregation and is witnessed in McFadden v. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46, settled in 2013. In this unprecedented gifted education case, the court affirmed that, in creating a separate gifted education program for Hispanic students only, this school district violated the United States and Illinois constitutions' equal protection clauses. Rather than developing one gifted education program for elementary school students that provided language support when needed, this district created a separate gifted program for Hispanic students who had exited English Language Learner (ELL) programs. Judge Gettlemen (who presided over McFadderi) noted that establishing a separate gifted education program based on race perpetuates the problems that our nation's civil rights laws were created and authorized to prevent.This court case revives issues of disparate impact, which will be discussed later. This case is a notice to states and other districts to eliminate discrimination (intentional and unintentional) in gifted education practices for identification, programming, and services. With discrimination and under-representation in mind, these authors present trends (2009-2011) regarding the representation of Black students in gifted education using data from the Office for Civil Rights Data Collection (U. S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, 2011; CRDC: These files are state and national estimations. The 2009-10 estimations are based on a rolling stratified sample of approximately 7,000 districts and 72,000 schools and on reported data from those districts that responded to the survey). Under-representation is clearly persistent and nationally pervasive. Next, these data are positioned within the context of Brown where it is argued that gifted education must become desegregated and integrated. De facto and de jure segregation in gifted education must end, with all deliberate speed before another 60 years passes.BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GIFTED EDUCATION DEFINITIONS WITH CULTURAL IMPLICATIONSSimilarly to many terms, 'gifted' eludes consensus. Traditional definitions of giftedness (almost exclusively normed on and conceptualized on middle-class Whites) have been primarily operationalized in two ways: (a) by high scores on IQ tests (130 and higher) and (b) by high scores on achievement tests (often at or above 92nd percentile). …

Although limited research exists on the appropriateness of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs for gifted secondary learners, these courses serve as the primary methods of meeting the needs of gifted students in most high schools. This qualitative study investigates how a broad range of gifted secondary students perceives and evaluates the curriculum, instruction, and environments within AP and IB courses. Interviews with 200 students in 23 U.S. high schools revealed that although students believe that AP and IB courses provide a greater level of academic challenge and more favorable learning environments than other existing high school courses, the curriculum and instruction within AP and IB courses are not a good fit for all learners, particularly those from traditionally underserved populations. Recommendations for increasing the fit of AP and IB courses for—and consequently for increasing the participation of—students from traditionally underserved populations are discussed. Putting the Research to Use: Nearly all of the students in our study indicated that AP and IB courses were the first courses in which they experienced genuine challenge, and the first academic environments in which they felt comfortable with their advanced abilities and academic interests. This indicates that many gifted students have to wait until the last few years of their school careers to encounter courses appropriately matched to their needs. Infusing greater rigor into the K-12 curriculum and allowing gifted students to spend at least part of the day with like-ability peers would go a long way in ensuring that gifted students' academic and social/emotional needs are being met throughout their school careers. Additionally, many former AP and IB students indicated that these lecture-heavy courses were not a good fit for their preferred modes of learning, suggesting a need for a broader range of gifted services at the high school level than AP and IB courses alone.

The Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs serve as popular choices for many intellectually gifted high school students. This article describes an aspect of a larger study that examined 5 intellectually gifted females’ perceptions of their educational experience while enrolled in one of the programs. Using the phenomenological method of qualitative research, this study reports that the participants identified various challenges within the curriculum as part of the overall AP and IB experience. In addition, the participants believe that the teachers in these programs heavily influenced their perception of their experience in the program.

Participation in advanced academic programs such as Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) has been associated with higher student achievement and college readiness. In addition, AP and IB are widely recommended and implemented as services for gifted and talented students. Students who participate in these programs tend to be more successful in college admissions, scholarships, college grade point averages, and college completion rates. Black and Hispanic students do not generally participate in AP and IB programs at the same rate as same-school White students, leaving White students to benefit disproportionately in the transition from high school to college. This study analyzed ethnicity gaps in AP and IB programs longitudinally from 2001 to 2011 in 117 suburban high schools. Results indicated that AP/IB participation increased for all students over time ( d = 0.74). There were ethnicity gaps in 2001 and again in 2011 between Black and Hispanic student AP/IB participation and White student AP/IB participation, and the gaps neither increased nor decreased substantially over time. This study also examined school factors associated with AP/IB ethnicity gaps and found that overall schoolwide college readiness and the proportion of minority faculty at each school were moderately associated with changes in the magnitude of the gaps. Teacher experience and changing student demographics in schools showed little to no association with changes in the magnitude of the ethnicity gaps.

Research has shown that students in Advanced Placement (AP) classes and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs experience higher levels of stress compared to students in general education classes. Elevated stress can serve as a risk factor for students’ academic and mental health problems. Given the documented stress of these students, additional investigations are needed to more fully understand how students experience these curricula and the factors associated with positive student outcomes. Thus, we set out to identify factors associated with success among AP/IB students, with an emphasis on exploring potentially malleable factors that could be targeted with existing or newly developed interventions. Data were collected via self-report measures and school records from 2,379 students (Grades 9-12) enrolled in AP or IB in 20 school programs in one state. We examined the relationships among 34 predictors (e.g., stressors, coping styles, student engagement, family factors, school factors, and demographic features) of success. Success was represented by five outcomes in two domains: mental health (life satisfaction, psychopathology, school burnout) and academic (GPA, AP/IB exam scores). Better outcomes in both domains were associated with higher levels of achievement motivation and cognitive engagement, as well as lower levels of parent–child conflict, stress from major life events, and use of avoidance coping strategies. Higher levels of affective engagement, use of approach coping, and authoritative parenting were robust predictors of positive mental health outcomes and unrelated (in multivariate analyses) to academic outcomes. Findings have implications for subsequent development of intervention efforts targeting factors associated with student success.

In this article we discuss how school leaders address challenges when implementing innovative international education curricula, namely International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Specifically, we frame challenges in curriculum implementation of and transition between IB programs from a “disconnection” perspective. We have often noticed when innovative programs are parceled together without preparation and thrust at great speed at schools, they become disconnected. The hasty implementation of multiple IB programs simultaneously at a school also causes disconnection. Drawing on extensive interview data from principals, mid-level leaders, and teachers in five IB schools adopting multiple IB programs in Asia, we detail curriculum disconnection facing IB schools and how school leaders, including teacher leaders, address such challenges by weaving various disconnected points, namely instrumental, intellectual, cultural, professional, and communicative disconnections. Based on findings from the multisite case study, we argue that school leaders in the case of IB schools adopt a range of leadership strategies to weave disconnection points. We reframe the leadership strategies as two aspects of distributed leadership: distributed instructional leadership and teacher leadership. In conclusion, we suggest that a central facet for successful leadership of IB schools that adopt multiple IB programs is about finding, focusing, and facilitating ways to address disconnections in curriculum implementation of and transition between different IB programs.

The need for changes in education can be summarized in four main areas: the challenges posed by future societies, shifts in the qualities and skills required of talent, a sharp decline in the school-age population, and the transition to a lifelong learning society. Despite significant efforts to reform education to meet these evolving demands, it is difficult to deem these changes successful. One reason for this is the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which is heavily based on multiple-choice questions. The CSAT focuses on knowledge acquisition, often encouraging lecture-style teaching, where students have limited opportunities to express their thoughts. As a result, students may achieve high scores by simply memorizing the content delivered by the teacher. While the CSAT remains a standard due to its perceived objective fairness, it falls short in accurately measuring a student's true academic ability. In response to these challenges, the International Baccalaureate (IB) program has been proposed as an alternative educational model. While the IB program has sparked various debates, this paper analyzes the discourse surrounding the IB program through the lens of convergence education, dividing the discussion into four key areas: autonomy, relevance, equity, and realism. In the area of autonomy, we examine concerns that the introduction of the IB program may effectively outsource public education. In terms of relevance, we explore whether the IB program is accessible to the majority of students or if it primarily serves the top 1%. Equity is discussed in relation to whether the introduction of the IB program would widen or help bridge the educational gap among students. Lastly, in terms of realism, we assess the practical feasibility of implementing the IB program in public education. This study also includes zoom interviews with domestic IB experts to gather their perspectives on the introduction of the IB program in public education.

PurposeInternational mindedness (IM) is a core element of International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Implementation of IM varies with the type of international school and where the IB school is situated. This article seeks to understand the tensions that three teachers experienced while teaching the IB Diploma Program history curriculum.Design/methodology/approachFor this study, three IB teachers examined their experiences teaching the history curriculum. This article offers relevant research on the difficulties in implementing IM and the following tensions: (1) situating the IB curriculum; (2) with hegemonic privilege and (3) in high-stakes testing.FindingsIM can be integrated into the history curriculum to make the history curriculum relevant for the global community. While each interviewee enjoys teaching in the IB program and believes the IB history curriculum offers opportunity for IM, they also feel the history curriculum would benefit from modification. Each interviewee's points of view bring a relevancy and an authenticity for why tensions exist when teaching IB diploma history.Originality/valueThere is a gap of research in how and to what extent teachers implement IM into the IB high school history curriculum. Further, teachers' views regarding the IB history curriculum and whether the history curriculum facilitates one's teaching IM is largely anecdotal. Thus, this study is unique in its offering three interviews by IB high school history teachers on IM and the tensions they feel when teaching about and attempting to implement IM.

This is the third in a series of articles * Reprinted with kind permission of G/C/T. reporting on the Richardson Study, a national investigation of educational programs and practices designed for high ability students, including the gifted and talented. The first article treated continuous progress and non-graded schools. The second focused on Advanced Placement as a form of honors. Here we report on the International Baccalaureate Program as another form of honors, and on concurrent enrollment in high school and college. Concurrent enrollment can be regarded as a part-time early entrance to college. The various programs and approaches to meeting the needs of able learners are by no means mutually exclusive. It would be appropriate for a school or a district to incorporate a number of the options examined in this series in a comprehensive program for excellence in education. A non-graded elementary or middle school might well feed a secondary school offering Advanced Placement courses: some high schools combine their Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes and allow the students to select the examinations they will take. The Richardson Study is based in part on a national survey sent in the spring of 1982 to over fifteen thousand schools and districts, public and private, throughout the nation. In addition, I explored the topics presented here by visiting schools and by inviting six persons to meet with the Richardson Study Committee to discuss the topics from their separate perspectives. Three are actively involved with the International Baccalaureate (IB), three equally committed to concurrent enrollment.

PurposeThe International Baccalaureate (IB) programme centers on developing students' international mindedness. Central to this effort is the programme's “Learner Profile,” which details ten attributes that teachers seek to cultivate through classroom instruction. This article reports on the ways that middle grades and high school social studies and English teachers in Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) IB programmes are attempting to implement the Learner Profile as part of their classroom practice to support students' international mindedness.Design/methodology/approachThe project was carried out as a two phase, sequential mixed-methods design. Phase I entailed a survey of IB teachers and programme coordinators across CPS to assess the incorporation of the Learner Profile into instruction. Phase II consisted of mixed-methods case studies of CPS IB programmes selected partially on Phase I data analysis.FindingsWe find that while teachers express high levels of familiarity with the Learner Profile attributes and confidence in incorporating them into practice, we find wide variation in the actual implementation. Taken as a whole, we find CPS programmes take divergent approaches to incorporating the Learner Profile based on differences in understanding of the attributes and its purposes as well as key organizational facets related to implementation.Originality/valueUltimately, we argue that the wide variation and lack of explicit incorporation of the Learner Profile into classrooms is related in large part to the broad, indistinct nature of “international mindedness” as a concept. The programme would benefit from creating more space for teacher and students to critique the concept, especially those working from non-Western traditions.

In virtually every school district nationally, Black students are underrepresented in gifted education programs, including advanced placement (AP) classes. This underrepresentation exists regardless of grade level and school type. Building on a previous publication, this article addresses a central question in gifted education: Why does underrepresentation among Black students persist in gifted education despite efforts to rectify the problem? The authors review factors affecting this stubborn and pervasive educational, social, and moral issue and outline recommendations for both the recruitment and retention of African American students in gifted education. The authors' major premise is that educators' deficit orientation about African American students has a direct and profound impact on these students' being able to gain admission to gifted programs. The authors contend that educators must move beyond a deficit orientation to that of dynamic thinking if underrepresentation is to be reduced; dynamic thi...

AP courses are courses taken in high school in which AP tests, led by the College Board, dictate whether or not college credit is given to students prior to the end of their high school matriculation. In high school, the inequity within AP courses for Black male students can impact college entrance. Many studies discuss the impact of AP courses on college entrance for Black male students, but few studies explore the inequity from the perspective of educational professionals. To improve the inequity in high schools, it is vital to address this concern among professionals. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of Black male students in AP courses via semi-structured interviews with teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators to discover critical factors that impact success in these courses, particularly culturally relevant support. The following three questions were the focus of this study: 1) What are the lived experiences of educational professionals that explain the challenges Black male students faced before, during, and after admittance into Advanced Placement (AP) courses 2) How do educational professionals explain the ways in which their institutional structures support or inhibit the success of Black students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and 3) How do educational professionals understand culture as a contributor to the success or failure of Black students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. A total of 8 educational professionals participated in this study. The findings of this study revealed that educational professionals view support in AP courses for Black males differently to the extent that registration into AP courses by Black males is affected. The recommendation after reviewing the findings of the study is for educational professionals to receive professional development on how AP courses are closed to Black male students and develop an approach that is culturally sensitive once Black males are enrolled in AP courses. Keywords: advanced placement, cultural relevance, institutional racism, resource inequity, systemic achievement gap

Problem and goal. The article is devoted to studying the possibilities of working with the Moscow Electronic School project. The goal was to develop programs to improve the training of teachers in Moscow schools. This goal required to design a model for improving the training of teachers working under the International Baccalaureate programs in the field of education informatization, to develop the content of teacher training, to organize and conduct such training, based on an active study of the possibilities of the Moscow Electronic School project for teachers of International Baccalaureate schools, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed training program. Methodology. In the course of the study, a set of methods was used: analysis of normative documents related to the professional training of teachers, study of literature, including those presented by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), search and analysis of the resources of the Moscow Electronic School project library, study of the experience of using services in the system education of the city of Moscow, a pedagogical experiment. Results. The article presents a fragment of a pedagogical experiment to improve the training of teachers working under the International Baccalaureate programs, aimed at developing skills in working with the Moscow Electronic School project. The study confirmed the relevance of the problem, which consists in the need to improve the training of teachers in Moscow schools working under the International Baccalaureate programs in the field of education informatization, including in the field of work with the resources of the Moscow Electronic School project. The results of the study allowed to find approaches to solving the identified problem. Conclusion. It is proposed to supplement the content of the discipline Modern Teaching Technologies in the framework of the masters training of teachers working under the International Baccalaureate programs, with topics related to studying the resources of the Moscow Electronic School project in the activities of a teacher working under the International Baccalaureate programs, as well as a system of practical work that takes into account the specifics of the International Baccalaureate school.

In virtually every school district nationally, Black students are underrepresented in gifted education programs, including advanced placement (AP) classes. This underrepresentation exists regardless of grade level and school type. Building on a previous publication, this article addresses a central question in gifted education: Why does underrepresentation among Black students persist in gifted education despite efforts to rectify the problem? The authors review factors affecting this stubborn and pervasive educational, social, and moral issue and outline recommendations for both the recruitment and retention of African American students in gifted education. The authors' major premise is that educators' deficit orientation about African American students has a direct and profound impact on these students' being able to gain admission to gifted programs. The authors contend that educators must move beyond a deficit orientation to that of dynamic thinking if underrepresentation is to be reduced; dynamic thinking recognizes the cultural assets—the strengths and promise—of African American students. Essentially, changing our thinking about differences among children from cultural backgrounds that are different from our own is one promising strategy for recruiting and retaining Black and other culturally diverse students in gifted education.

Black students in Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs are often subjected to biases, as well as barriers to success. Some of these biases and barriers include deliberately leaving culture and race out of the curriculum, lower education expectations, and entering higher levels of school discipline. Separately and combined, this leads to academic/educational violence. In this article, we discuss one aspect of barriers— instructional violence —on Black GATE students. We incorporate Boykin’s Afro-centric cultural styles framework for educators to avoid and end instructional violence. Boykin’s culturally asset-based framework is intended to assist educators in becoming culturally responsive and competent when working with Black GATE students. We draw implications for other minoritized students; although combined, minoritized represents the majority of students in public schools, despite some being inequitably underrepresented in GATE.