Being Black, Male, and Gifted in Miami: Prevalence and Predictors of Placement in Elementary School Gifted Education Programs

Abstract

Although it is well established that Black male students are underrepresented in gifted educational programs in the United States, due to a scarcity of longitudinal prospective research, little is known about the protective factors at the child, family, and school level that increase the probability of Black male students being identified as gifted during early elementary school. Using data from the Miami School Readiness Project, we followed 6,926 low-income Black males from preschool through 5th grade to describe trajectories for the 453 Black males (6.5 %) who were identified as gifted, and examined child, family, and preschool variables associated with gifted classification. Boys were most commonly identified as gifted in first and second grade, and 15 % of the identified boys did not appear to be receiving gifted courses. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that being classified as gifted in early elementary school was more likely for Black males who (a) attended public school pre-K programs at age four, (b) had higher cognitive, language, fine motor, behavioral, and emergent literacy school readiness skills before entering kindergarten, (c) spoke a language other than English at home, (d) were older upon entering kindergarten, (e) received higher grades in school, and 123Urban Rev (2013) 45:416-447 DOI 10.1007 (f) scored higher on standardized tests of math and reading. Predictors of gifted identification in the kindergarten year were different and weaker compared to identification in later years. Implications for early identification and intervention for talented Black males are discussed.

Access to gifted education among African-American and Latino males

“…Rather, other factors such as how giftedness is narrowly interpreted, teacher bias, and the procedures and instruments used for gifted identification contribute to under representation in gifted education (Ford, 2010;Ford and Moore, 2013;Ford and Whiting, 2010;Harradine et al, 2013;McBee, 2006). Research also finds positive educational outcomes when African-American and Latina/o students are afforded the opportunity to participate in gifted education and advanced curricula (Card and Giuliano, 2014;Mattern et al, 2009;Rose, 2013;Winsler et al, 2013). However, these students often have negative school experiences replete with disproportionate suspension rates beginning in preschool (US DOE OCR, 2016).…”

“…Nonetheless, many African-American gifted males experience success and demonstrate resilience in the face of hindrances. Winsler et al (2013) found that African-American boys who started kindergarten with greater cognitive, language, fine motor and behavioral readiness skills were more likely to be identified for gifted programming. Thus, attending public school prekindergarten programs increased the chances of being identified as gifted compared to attendance at community-based preschool programs.…”

Self-Monitoring Influences Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Own Group Conformity Pressure

“…Some individuals suffer from ethnicityrelated backlash when their attempts to achieve individuation are perceived by members of their own ethnic group as deviant behavior. Theories related to this phenomenon indicate that engaging in this form of backlash is a means of maintaining certain stereotypes and eliciting own-group conformity pressure upon the target (Contrada et al, 2001;Nicholls & Stukas, 2011;Winsler et al, 2013). Previous research suggests that selfmonitoring is important for resilience against the backlash effect (Bachman, O'Malley, Freedman-Doan, Trzesniewski, & Donnellan, 2011;O'Neill & O'Reilly, 2011), thereby indicating that high and low self-monitors may perceive this form of stress differently.…”

“…A review of the literature shows that ethnicityrelated backlash often contributes to sociability problems, emotional issues such as decreased achievement gaps among different ethnic groups in many schools, but especially high schools and colleges (Fryer & Torelli, 2010;Hasana & Bagdeb, 2013;Winsler et al, 2013). The research also indicates that self-monitoring can be used to effectively thwart backlash in workplace settings (Brescoll, 2012;O'Neill & O'Reilly, 2011), and the application of this technique in school settings may help students with similar experiences reduce or thwart backlash.…”

“…In addition, several studies show that school-age children, adolescents, and college students often endure ethnicity-related backlash, while adults tend to suffer from backlash for counter-stereotypical gender behavior (Brescoll, 2012;Contrada et al, 2001;Legewie & DiPrete, 2011;Peguero & Jiang, 2016;Phelan & Rudman, 2010;Winsler, Karkhanis, Kim, & Levitt, 2013). Moreover, some college students avoid maintaining a high GPA, refrain from taking certain classes or programs, and may even force themselves to socially conform to the harassment they experience from own-group conformity pressure due to ethnicityrelated backlash (Fryer & Torelli, 2010;Legewie & DiPrete, 2011;Palmer & Maramba, 2011;Phelan & Rudman, 2010;Winsler et al, 2013).…”