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Chapter 15:

Chapter 15:. Recruiting and Retaining Gifted Students from Diverse Ethnic, Cultural, and Language Groups. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” – United Negro Foundation.

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Chapter 15:

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  1. Chapter 15: Recruiting and Retaining Gifted Students from Diverse Ethnic, Cultural, and Language Groups.

  2. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” – United Negro Foundation • “The term gifted and talented…means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capacity in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities”. (Title IX, Part A, Section 9101 (22) (p.544).

  3. Problem: • One of the most persistent and pervasive problems in education is the under representation of African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students in Gifted Education programs and services.

  4. Statistics • Since at least the 1930s reports and studies have revealed these culturally diverse students have ALWAYS been inadequately represented in gifted education • (Artiles, Trent, and Palmer, 2004; Donovan and Cross, 2002; Ford, 1998, 2004). • African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans are under represented by 50 to 70 percent. • (U.S. Dept. of EDU, 1993; Elementary and Secondary Schools Civil Rights Survey, 1998; 2000).

  5. REALITY “a mind is a terrible thing to erase” • Thus, many African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students are gifted but their gifts often go unidentified. • They are neither challenged nor given the opportunity to develop their gifts and talents. • STOP! What is this violating? “Gifted students are unlikely to develop without appropriate services.”

  6. Guiding Questions to Focus on: • Keep in Mind! • How can we recruit and retain more racial and ethnic minority students in gifted education? • How can we have gifted education programs that are both excellent and equitable?

  7. Recruitment Issues and Barriers: • Assumption: That racial and ethnic minority students are under represented because of problems associated with screening and identification instruments, specifically tests.

  8. Recruitment Issues and Barriers: • Where do we begin? The 1st step in addressing (or redressing) the under representation of racial and ethnic minority students in gifted education is to focus on Recruitment. • What is Recruitment? Screening, identification, and placement.

  9. Recruitment Issues and Barriers: • Why is this an issue? • Perceptions about racial and ethnic minority students combined with a lack of cultural understanding significantly undermine the ability for educators to recruit diverse students into gifted education and to retain them.

  10. Cultural Deficit • Deficit Thinking: • “The more we retreat from the culture and the people, the less we learn about them. The less we know about them, the more uncomfortable we feel among them. The more uncomfortable we feel among them, the more inclined we are to withdraw. The more we withdraw from the people, the more faults we find with them. The less we know about their culture, the more we seem to dislike it. And the worst of it is that, in the end, we begin to believe the very lies we’ve invented to console ourselves.” (Storti, 1989, pp.32-34)

  11. Deficit Thinking: • Hinders the ability and willingness of educators to recognize the strengths of students from diverse ethnic, racial, and language groups. • Exists when educators interpret differences as deficits, disfunctions, and disadvantages. • Focus is on the shortcomings or weaknesses rather than strengths.

  12. Deficit Thinking: Example • A student who speaks nonstandard English • Gets get grades • However, may not be referred to screening and identification if the teacher neither understands nor appreciates nonstandard English.

  13. Deficit Thinking: Moving Forward • EVERY STUDENT HAS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. • Educators must move beyond a deficit orientation in order to recognize the strengths and potential of racial, ethnic, and language minorities.

  14. Deficit Thinking: Further Influence • Deficit thinking has also influenced the definition of policies, and practices. It contributed to past beliefs about race, ethnicity, and intelligence. • Example: Human races: Ranked in a linear scale of mental worth. Immigration: Educators resorted to increased reliance on biased standardized tests. These tests almost guaranteed low test scores for immigrates and racial and ethnic minority groups who were unfamiliar with U.S. customs, traditions, values, norms, and language (Ford, 2004).

  15. Becoming Aware: • Deficit Thinking • Teacher biases and stereotypes • Lack of Understanding

  16. What You as a Teacher Can Do: • Become more aware! • Recruitment for gifted students should start as early as preschool! • Standardized tests/ Assessments should be more culturally sensitive. • Multicultural Curriculum • Focus on STRENGTHS! • Discard Monolithic definitions or definitions of giftedness that ignore the fact that what is valued as giftedness in one culture may not be valued in another.

  17. Deficit Thinking Has No Place in Education

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