Barriers to Underserved Students’ Participation in Gifted Programs and Possible Solutions

Abstract

Gifted students' learning gains result from complex, advanced, and meaningful content provided by a knowledgeable teacher through high-quality curriculum and instruction at an appropriate pace with scaffolding and feedback. These elements exert influence that increases with dosage and within structures that facilitate student engagement in rigorous experiences, including interactions with one another. Talent development is a two-part process. First, educators and parents must provide opportunities for talent to surface, and then they must recognize the talent and provide educational opportunities that engage the emerging talent and move it to exceptional levels. Unfortunately, a variety of barriers exist that limit underserved students' participation in this process. We discuss these barriers within a proposed model of talent development. Keywords academic achievement, underrepresentation, at risk, identification of gifted children, cultural differences Gifted and talented programs and services aim to promote, enhance, and extend the talents and abilities of students. Prior to such interventions, students' potential talents

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“…Identifying a student as GT is controversial as it results in some students being labeled as GT while others are "left behind" (Borland, 2014, p. 323). Unfortunately, those from low-income and culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) populations-which typically include ELs-are more often left behind (Borland, 2003;Ford, 2014;Mun, 2016;Peters & Engerrand, 2016;Siegle et al, 2016;Worrell, 2014). Even if referred for GT programming, such students may face barriers in testing, as differences in average scores for identification have been observed among various populations (Gottfredson, 2003).…”

Educator Perceptions of English Language Learners

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