Abstract
Gifted education today faces a significant challenge in reaching equity as well as excellence. This is reflected in the disproportionate underrepresentation of children from Black, Hispanic, Native, and low-income families. This pattern of underrepresentation within programs for students with gifts and talents is pervasive and pernicious and impacts gifted education programming across all 50 states in the United States of America. This article describes the efforts of Milwaukee Public Schools, a large urban school district in Wisconsin, to address the need for both equity and excellence within their gifted education programming. The U~STRARS~PLUS model formed the foundation for changing the culture of the schools from “at risk” to “at potential”. Dedicated leadership and the combination of securing external support, developing internal trust, and building capacity across the district were critical to creating a strength-based focus within the schools. While the journey is not over, the authors hope that others can learn from Milwaukee’s experiences.
Highlights
One of the greatest challenges facing gifted education in the United States today is the disproportionate underrepresentation of children from Black, Hispanic, Native, and low-income families
When these data are disaggregated by ethnicity, the results show that for Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT)-identified gifted students, 54.3% are White, 20.9% are Hispanic, 10.9% are Black or African American, 10.0%
Each Serving the Underrepresented by Grouping Equitably (SURGE) school met the following selection criteria for participation: (1) the school is in a geographic location of the city where traditionally underrepresented families reside, (2) the school leader and staff are committed to supporting the gifts and talents of their students, (3) the school’s student demographic groups are not proportionately reflected in the district’s gifted and talented programs, (4) the school maintains an economically disadvantaged rate greater than 60%, and (5) the school has minimal access to high-quality specialty gifted and talented programs
Summary
One of the greatest challenges facing gifted education in the United States today is the disproportionate underrepresentation of children from Black, Hispanic, Native, and low-income families. This pattern of underrepresentation within programs for students with gifts and talents is pervasive and pernicious, and the board of directors of the National. Students from Black, Hispanic, Native, and/or low-income families are significantly underrepresented within gifted education programs (Rinn et al, 2020) [2]. We share Milwaukee’s journey in response to this challenge
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