There is fresh snow here in Kodiak, which makes for a nice cozy advent.  I've finished my coursework for the semester and so I'm ready for some family time.  As part of my studies, I've been reading a lot of published journal articles related to education.  These are all peer reviewed studies, and many of them are really interesting or timely.  I thought I'd share some over the next few weeks.  I've included citations and my own summaries.  Consider this part one of three.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Concern over equitable access to gifted and talented programs in the New York City school system led to this study, which focused on kindergarten testing rates of public versus private pre-K programs, and guardian awareness of the gifted and talented program. The authors found that students who attended public pre-K programs were more likely to be identified as gifted and talented later, and that parents of students who attended private p-K lacked knowledge about critical information regarding gifted and talented opportunities. The authors recognized that future universal pre-K programs could help to bring more equitable access to gifted and talented programs across the country.  

The authors show the importance of parent and teacher knowledge regarding gifted and talented programming.  The evidence presented shows that participation in early childhood programs increases program access.  This was a simple study that could have a big impact. This is an option for the New York City school system to pursue for more equitable demographical representation. 

    

The authors analyzed National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Common Core data between 2012 and 2016. They found that participation rates in gifted and talented programs increased faster in low-poverty schools than in high-poverty schools, although suburban schools are more likely to have gifted and talented programs than urban schools or rural schools. The lower numbers of programs in urban schools continues to contribute to the underrepresentation of minority Black and Hispanic students in national numbers that should otherwise more closely match population demographical data. This disparity will likely continue, as this study also noted that the numbers of gifted and talented programs are growing in suburban schools, while programs in rural and urban areas are declining. Continued advocacy of gifted and talented programs is recommended, and the use of universal screeners demonstrates a benefit to minority groups the most. 

The authors highlight the equitability issues in Gifted and Talented programs, and they seem to have found at least some of the major reasons for the inequity. There are simply less programs in urban high poverty schools than in suburban affluent schools.  Beyond that, suburban low-poverty school programs are growing in number, while the urban high-poverty school programs are disappearing.  It is no wonder then that there are demographical equity issues.  

At first glance, national statistics regarding gifted and talented may seem to favor a certain demographic over others.  The authors show that the overall statistics are skewed by lack of programming and that participation numbers will increase when gifted programming is offered.  They further show that low-income areas will find gifted and talented students in their schools, and will grow at faster rates than existing programs in higher-income schools. 

The implications of this study seem to suggest that efforts to improve equitability in gifted and talented should include aggressive efforts to embed programs into urban and high-poverty schools.  Once this is done, we can expect to see rapid growth and districts will close the equity gap.  Shutting down gifted and talented programs will widen the equity gap.