evince
Truthmatters
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-black-students-odds-of-being-labeled-gifted/
Black students are half as likely as white students to be assigned to gifted programs, even when they have comparably high test scores. But the racial gap in “giftedness” largely evaporates when a black student is taught by a black teacher, according to new research published this week.
Black students taught by black teachers are assigned to gifted programs at almost the same rate as white students, and three times more often than black students with similar academic ability and family background who are taught by teachers of other races, according to the study by Vanderbilt researchers Jason A. Grissom and Christopher Redding. The race of a black child’s teacher made a particular difference in whether he or she was identified as gifted in reading.
The results raise “serious concerns,” the authors wrote, in a nation where 80 percent of black elementary school students are taught by teachers of other races.
Gifted programs are meant to help talented young people meet their potential. “Yet our results show that identification of gifted students depends, in part, on factors having little to do with student performance or ability that lead students to be assigned disproportionately on the basis of race and ethnicity,” the researchers wrote.
The study was published in AERA Today, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Educational Research Association.
Federal data show that 6.6 percent of all students are labeled gifted, but there are big differences among groups: 12 percent of Asians and 7.9 percent of Whites are in gifted programs, compared to 3.9 percent of blacks and 4.6 percent of Latinos. Among the many possible reasons for that discrepancy, the researchers wrote, is bias among teachers who often play a key role in deciding which students should be considered for or placed in gifted programs.
Black students are half as likely as white students to be assigned to gifted programs, even when they have comparably high test scores. But the racial gap in “giftedness” largely evaporates when a black student is taught by a black teacher, according to new research published this week.
Black students taught by black teachers are assigned to gifted programs at almost the same rate as white students, and three times more often than black students with similar academic ability and family background who are taught by teachers of other races, according to the study by Vanderbilt researchers Jason A. Grissom and Christopher Redding. The race of a black child’s teacher made a particular difference in whether he or she was identified as gifted in reading.
The results raise “serious concerns,” the authors wrote, in a nation where 80 percent of black elementary school students are taught by teachers of other races.
Gifted programs are meant to help talented young people meet their potential. “Yet our results show that identification of gifted students depends, in part, on factors having little to do with student performance or ability that lead students to be assigned disproportionately on the basis of race and ethnicity,” the researchers wrote.
The study was published in AERA Today, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Educational Research Association.
Federal data show that 6.6 percent of all students are labeled gifted, but there are big differences among groups: 12 percent of Asians and 7.9 percent of Whites are in gifted programs, compared to 3.9 percent of blacks and 4.6 percent of Latinos. Among the many possible reasons for that discrepancy, the researchers wrote, is bias among teachers who often play a key role in deciding which students should be considered for or placed in gifted programs.
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