Gifted Minority Students Research Articles

Disadvantaged Gifted Students: Latinos

This Literature Review examines the underrepresentation of gifted minority students identified in the United States, particularly Latinos. Giftedness and Talent Programs have historically been predominantly white with a diminished minority representation in the case of Latino, Black, and American Indigenous peoples. Although it has been argued in the past, nature vs nurture is not representative of the literature today. The literature shows that underrepresentation is caused by non-inclusive testing and identification bias by teachers. This kind of teacher bias may be caused by overt or implicit prejudice and may affect student interactions and mental health even outside of the gifted space. Microaggressions have a role in these moments with gifted teachers. In particular, Latino students may be affected in unique circumstances when compared to their unidentified peers as they may experience a language barrier or experience fears concerning undocumented status.

The Lack of Minority Students in Gifted Education: Hiring More Exemplary Teachers of Color Can Alleviate the Problem

When implemented well, gifted education creates opportunities for future success. However, when gifted students are not placed in gifted programs, they typically struggle in school. Unfortunately, low-income students of color are underrepresented in gifted education. A variety of causes, including a lack of teachers of color and biased methods of identifying students for these programs, contribute to this problem. This essay focuses on why teachers of color are likely to enhance the education of gifted minority students in the United States and why few teachers of color work in school settings. It also offers recommendations for increasing the percentage of students of color in gifted education.

Exploring obstacles faced by gifted minority students through Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory

ABSTRACT For the past several decades, issues such as underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority students in gifted programming, as well as the widening of the existing achievement gap between specific minority and majority groups have persisted. The majority of gifted education researchers studying underrepresentation in gifted programming focus on consequences resulting from a single setting in which the student interacts (e.g. home, school). Consequently, less attention is given to the nested network of interactions between multiple settings that play a role in underrepresentation. It is our goal to examine the existing frameworks that have been used to understand the obstacles faced by students who are underrepresented in their school’s gifted programs. By providing examples of proximal processes and the Process–Person–Context–Time (PPCT) model, we show how Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory provides the most suitable framework for exploring (1) identification issues for underrepresented minority students with gifted capabilities who have not been formally identified for gifted programming and (2) challenges faced by underrepresented minority students who have participated in a gifted program after having been formally identified as gifted. Research and educational implications are discussed.

Blending Research-Based Practices and Practice-Embedded Research: Project Excite Closes Achievement and Excellence Gaps for Underrepresented Gifted Minority Students

In this article, we advocate for a new movement in education, particularly an approach emphasizing blending research-based practice with practice-embedded research. We do so by describing and discussing Project Excite, a working example that demonstrates such a model in the context of gifted education. We first trace the history, the impetus, and key design elements of Project Excite, a front-loading intervention aiming to develop the potential of underrepresented students for advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning from early grades. We review a line of past research and key findings on Project Excite over its 14-year journey. We then discuss the implication of Project Excite for gifted programming in gifted education. Last, we pinpoint some questions to inspire future research and practice.

Increase in Science Research Commitment in a Didactic and Laboratory-Based Program Targeted to Gifted Minority High-School Students

Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has been a growing concern. Efforts to ameliorate this have often been directed at college-level enrichment. However, mentoring in the sciences at a high-school age level may have a greater impact on career choices. The Center Scholars Program prepares gifted minority students for participation in college-level research while they are still in high school. Results from a case/comparison group study demonstrated that 86% of Center Scholars, compared to 50% of the comparison group, plan to pursue a career in science research, suggesting that high-school enrichment programs have a substantial impact on minority participation in science and research fields.

Solutions for Jay and Other Underrepresented Gifted Minority Students

Solutions for Jay and Other Underrepresented Gifted Minority Students

The Efficacy of Academic Acceleration for Gifted Minority Students

This study supported the use of acceleration for gifted minority students in math. The gifted minority students in this study viewed taking accelerated math courses as exciting and beneficial for preparation for high school and college and particularly liked the challenges they encountered while taking advanced classes. They enjoyed working ahead and having a “leg up” in school and were infused with a special feeling of being gifted and talented in taking accelerated math. Ethnicity was not a major factor for teachers’ support for acceleration. The teachers believed that acceleration provides necessary challenges for students, makes them committed to schoolwork, and enhances their academic achievement. No negative peer pressure resulting from academic acceleration was found, though the teachers were more certain than the students about the existence of negative peer culture for gifted minority students.

How the gifted brain learns

About the Author Introduction What Do We Mean by Gifted and Talented? Gifted and Talented Programs in Today's Schools Organization of This Book A Word About Elitism 1. Brain Structure and Learning Basic Brain Structures Learning and Memory Stages and Types of Memory Retention 2. What Is a Gifted Brain? Theories of Intelligence and Giftedness Psychological Characteristics of Giftedness Effect of Nurture on Intelligence Social and Emotional Characteristics of Giftedness Gender Differences Impact of Praise on Gifted Students 3. Challenging the Gifted Brain Differentiated Curriculum and Learning A Supportive Learning Environment Curriculum Content Initiative for Gifted Learners Instructional Processes for Gifted Learners The Products of Gifted Learners Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners Avoiding the Pitfall of Academics Versus the Arts 4. Language Talent Sources of Language Ability Identifying Students Gifted in Language Arts 5. Mathematical Talent Mathematical Thinking and the Brain Identifying the Mathematically Gifted Teaching the Mathematically Gifted 6. Musical Talent Why Are Humans Musical? What Is Musical Talent? Reading and Memorizing Music Developing Musically Talented Students 7. Underachieving Gifted Students What Is Underachievement? Some Causes of Underachievement Identifying Gifted Underachievers Underachievement Among Gifted Minority Students Reversing Patterns of Underachievement 8. The Twice-Exceptional Brain Identifying Twice-Exceptional Students Giftedness and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Giftedness and Autism Savant Syndrome Hyperlexia 9. Putting It All Together Identifying Gifted Students Developing and Learning Environment Strategies for the Gifted in the Inclusive Classroom Where Do We Go From Here? Conclusion Glossary References Resources Index

Fourth-Grade Teachers' Perceptions of Giftedness: Implications for Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Students

The present study sought to examine the perceptions of giftedness and identification procedures held by experienced teachers of gifted minority students. Twenty-seven 4th-grade teachers of gifted students in an urban school system with a high representation of minority and economically disadvantaged students were surveyed. Results indicated that experienced teachers still held a narrow conception of giftedness and were not aware of how culture and environmental factors may influence the expression of giftedness in minority and economically disadvantaged students. Findings also indicated that these teachers expressed concerns for approximately one third of their students qualifying for the gifted program. These concerns were based primarily on students having a skill deficit in one area, poor work habits, or behavioral or family problems. Teachers were less likely to notice gifted characteristics in these students compared to other identified students, even though both groups were identified in the same way. Implications for teaching gifted minority and economically disadvantaged students are discussed.

Identifying Gifted Minority, Culturally, Racially & Ethnically Different Children: Are We Asking All the Wrong Questions?

Over the years, there has been much concern about the identification of gifted minority students. Many have felt that racially, ethnically, and culturally different children have been or are being missed by traditional intelligence tests. This paper explores this issue and offers an alternative view and perspective.

Discover: Across the Spectrum of Grades: A Promising Alternative Assessment for Minority Identification?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of DISCOVER, a performance-based assessment developed for the identification of gifted minority students. DISCOVER is embedded in Gardner’s MI theory and consists of five activities which assess spatial, logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences. The sample consisted of 955 students from K-12 taken from 10 schools in Arizona. The results showed low observers’ inter-rating correlations, indicating that students given high ratings in activities measuring one particular intelligence were not necessarily given similar high ratings in the other activities measuring different intelligences. In other words, students who were identified in one intelligence were not necessarily identified in the other intelligences, suggesting a good fit between DISCOVER and MI theory. Another finding is a lack of significant ethnic and gender differences in identification. Finally, a total of 20.9% participants were identified, suggesting that DISCOVER might contribute to diminishing the problem of minority underrepresentation in programs for the gifted. However, further studies should focus on the predictive and concurrent validity of DISCOVER before sounding a call for expanding its use.

Identifying Cognitively Gifted Minority Students in Preschool

Preschool children were administered a screening battery consisting of nine different cognitive tasks. The participants were tracked in the public school database. Based on the children’s first-grade educational status, 2 groups were formed: one consisting of children who were in regular education and the other composed of children who were in the gifted/talented program. The children’s preschool screening scores, summed over both the identification-tasks subset and the generating-tasks subset, enabled the identification of high-performing outliers from the regular education sample who performed very well compared to the school-identified gifted sample. However, a majority of minority students among the high-performing outliers were only identified with the generating measure. The superior first-grade achievement performance of 5 of these 7 and the finding that 3 of the 7 had been placed in the gifted program in second grade, attested to the effectiveness of this measure for identifying cognitively gifted minority preschoolers.

Integrating Multicultural and Gifted Education: A Curricular Framework

This article raises a number of critical questions related to multiculturalism and gifted education. In particular, the authors suggest that culturally relevant content is lacking in gifted education programs. They make the case that gifted students of color are being shortchanged by gifted education programs that lack infusion of diversity issues; these students would benefit substantially from gifted education programs that infuse multiculturalism throughout the curricula. Last, but not least, the article introduces and discusses the Ford and Harris (1999) model for infusing multiculturalism in gifted education programs. A STATED THROUGHOUT this special theme issue, gifted education faces critical challenges as the nation becomes increasingly diverse. With the increasing diversity, there comes the need to change many school practices, not only in terms of increasing the representation of students of color in gifted education but also in terms of more effectively meeting the academic needs of students who are gifted and diverse. In other words, once gifted students of color are recruited (i.e., identified and placed), public schools are challenged to address the following questions: (a) How do we serve gifted minority students? (b) What are their academic needs? And (c) What are their interests? Over the years, many scholars of gifted education (Ford, Grantham, & Harris, 1996; Ford & Harris, 1999) have stressed the importance as well as the need for infusing multicultural education into the gifted education curricula. These scholars have also suggested that these fields combined offer great promise for meeting the pedagogical, cultural, and learning needs of students of color, especially in gifted education. In this article, we further the discourse by also stressing the impor-

An Aptitude Perspective on Talent: Implications for Identification of Academically Gifted Minority Students

The identification of academically gifted children from the perspective of aptitude theory is discussed. Aptitude refers to the degree of readiness to learn and to perform well in a particular situation or domain. The primary aptitudes for academic success are (a) prior achievement in a domain, (b) the ability to reason in the symbol systems used to communicate new knowledge in that domain, (c) interest in the domain, and (d) persistence in the type of learning environments offered for the attainment of expertise in the domain. Careful attention to the demands and affordances of different instructional environments enables educators to identify those individuals who are most ready to succeed in them. Although the principles discussed here are useful for all students, they are particularly important for the identification of academically promising minority students.

DISCOVER in Middle School: Identifying Gifted Minority Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the grades 6–8 version of DISCOVER, a performance-based assessment, and investigate its effectiveness in identifying gifted minority students. Questions examined the alignment between DISCOVER and Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences (MI) and assessed gender and ethnic differences. The sample consisted of 395 middle school students, predominantly Mexican Americans and Native Americans belonging to lower socioeconomic classes, from schools in Arizona. Results supported a good fit between DISCOVER and MI theory. That is, students identified as gifted in one intelligence were not necessarily identified in other intelligences. The 2 × 3 MANOVA (gender by ethnicity) showed no significant interaction or main effect for ethnicity. However, a main effect for gender was found with males outperforming females in math. No overall gender or ethnic differences in identification were revealed. In total, 12.4% of the participants were identified, suggesting that using DISCOVER might diminish the long-standing problem of minority underrepresentation in gifted programs.

Challenges and Opportunities for Students Who Are Gifted: What the Experts Say

Five questions were answered by 64 authorities in the gifted field: (a) What do you see as the three greatest identification, assessment, and/or definitional issues in the gifted field? (b) What do you see as the three greatest curricula, instruction, and/or program issues for the gifted student? (c) What are the three most pressing unanswered questions in the gifted field? (d) What have been the three most important research findings in the last 5 years in the gifted field? (e) What are the three most significant developments or innovations in gifted education in the last 5 years? Responses were coded and sorted according to an analytic strategy that permitted the descriptive data to be grouped into a small number of categories. Most frequent categories included a need for consensus on how to define, conceptualize, and identify giftedness; new procedures to increase the under-representation of gifted minority students; and the importance of translating research on educational innovations into practice. Research and practice implications for the gifted field are provided.

DISCOVER in High School: Identifying Gifted Hispanic and Native American Students

Based on Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, the DISCOVER assessment was designed to identify gifted minority students for placement into programs for the gifted. In previous studies, the reliability and validity of the assessment in elementary grades were examined and yielded mostly positive results. In this study, similar analyses were carried out to investigate some validity aspects of DISCOVER with secondary students. The sample consisted of 303 predominantly Hispanic and Native American ninth graders. The results provided evidence for an alignment of the assessment with the theory of multiple intelligences. Also, no overall gender or ethnic differences were found in the numbers of students identified. In addition, the results suggested that the use of the DISCOVER assessment might help in reducing the problem of minority students' under-representation in programs for the gifted, as 29.3% of the high school students who participated in this study were identified as gifted.

A framework for infusing multicultural curriculum into gifted education

Gifted education, like all of education, faces critical issues as the nation becomes increasingly diverse. School districts everywhere are challenged to more effectively meet the needs of their gifted and diverse student population, while maintaining high standards. This dilemma epitomizes the ongoing debate between excellence and equity. In particular, our field struggles with finding solutions to the persistent and pervasive under‐representation of minority students in gifted education (Ford, 1996, 1998). And once these students are recruited (i.e., identified and placed), schools are faced with a new set of questions; How do we serve gifted minority students? What are their needs? What are their interests?

Helping gifted minority students reach their potential: Recommendations for change

(1997). Helping gifted minority students reach their potential: Recommendations for change. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 72, No. 3-4, pp. 201-216.

Helping gifted minority students reach their potential: Recommendations for change

Helping gifted minority students reach their potential: Recommendations for change