Education of the Special Populations of the Gifted

Teachers’ Inability to Recognize Potential Giftedness

Teachers’ uncertainty over what characteristics to look for has created a major barrier to the identification of low SES and ELL students who are gifted. Training is vital if this barrier is to be removed. The characteristics presented in Week 1 should be very helpful to teachers in identifying potential giftedness.

Most districts start with a screening process. The screening stage consists of the nomination of students for testing. At the screening stage, a variety of data are used. For example, teachers, parents, peers, or a student may provide nominations to the principal or coordinator of the gifted program. Depending on the program, some standardized test scores may be used as a cutoff in determining who is nominated. For example, any one or a combination of the following might place a student into the nomination pool: an 85% ranking on an achievement test, two nominations, and a score of 115 on a group intelligence test.

Language Issues

Many researchers have studied the effect of nonstandard English and English Language Learners on the identification of giftedness. Some found that issues regarding the language abilities of minority and economically disadvantaged students frequently result in evaluations of them as incompetent students. Students with nonstandard speech are often rated as less competent and socially different from students with a more standard dialect. Opinions about dialect and English language proficiency may not only affect initial judgments about students’ abilities, it may also affect the way the students are grouped for instruction. Tests of communicative competence provide a much more comprehensive picture of students’ language abilities. When the focus is placed on listening for the richness of expression, the fluency, and elaboration of a story, and less focus is placed on the proper grammatical structure and high-level vocabulary, teachers are much more able to find potentially gifted students.

Lack Of Stimulating Environment

It has been speculated that low SES and ELL families do not always have the resources available to support students' educational development. However, it is incorrect to assume that these families do not engage their children in supportive educational activities. It is also incorrect to assume that these families are not encouraging the intellectual development of their children. It may be that the educational support they are providing is different from what is more traditionally viewed as helping students acquire skills necessary for school. For example, a low SES family may put great emphasis on the child’s ability to solve problems around the house, to assist with cooking at an early age, interact with people on the telephone taking messages, etc. These may not show up as building educational skills when in fact the divergent thinking, the independence, the communication skills are all there. It’s vital that teachers get to know how parents view their support and encouragement of the development of their child’s intellectual skills.

Screening/Selection Process Too Narrow

This seems to be a barrier that many districts are addressing. In Florida, Plan B was instituted in the 1990s requiring districts to develop a plan to increase the participation of students from underrepresented groups in programs for the gifted.