Achieving Equity and Excellence for Urban Gifted Students
Dr. Donna Y. Ford

Until we change our thinking about children of color, they will continue to be overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted education.

Underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted education programs has been an issue for five decades. The students in gifted education are mainly White and middle class. Yet efforts have not shown success at increasing the representation of diverse students in these programs. In addition, the blacker, browner, and poorer the school district, the less likely they are to even have programs for gifted students.

Gifted education is not federally mandated. If there are gifted services, there is a state mandate for it. In some states gifted students are just identified but not served, in some they are identified and served, and in some they receive nothing.

There is a vicious circle in which teachers focus on deficits and do not refer diverse students to gifted programs. The achievement gap then widens because the gifted students get bored and drop out of school, either physically or mentally. However, even when diverse students are referred for gifted programs, they may not get placed because they come up against a culturally insensitive test for evaluation.

Dr. Ford discussed the top three reasons she sees for underrepresentation:
• Lack of teacher referral
• Culturally insensitive, biased, and unfair tests
• Issues of choice

There are three types of choices involved. First, parents of color must choose between keeping their children happy by staying in their home school or sending them to a school further away so that they can participate in a gifted program. Second, too many children of color think that “you are acting ‘White’ when you do well in school,” so they have to choose whether they want to deal with that or not. Third, administrators consider whether they want to let more children of color into the gifted programs since they fear that those increased numbers may drive White parents away.

Dr. Ford discussed a study she is just finishing in which she studied the issue of “acting White” and how children perceive that, along with reasons students do not do well in school. Acting white is often associated with being intelligent, speaking standard English, trying to be successful in school, and behaving well. Because of fear about how they will be viewed by their peers, students of color do not want be seen as acting White, which is often seen as being smart and successful in school.

Dr. Ford said that gifted education must be recognized as a need, not a privilege. In order to “desegregate” gifted education and close the achievement gap, changes must be made at four levels: school district, school building, classroom/individual, and community/family. She discussed several specific steps that need to be taken:
• Increase the identity of students of color as academic scholars and increase their belief in themselves and ability to go for what they need and want
• Prepare more teachers—both White and people of color—to be more culturally competent and provide multicultural instruction and gifted education
• Use multidimensional assessments more and get information from more sources, including parents.
• Increase families’ information about, access to, and involvement in gifted programs