Study Says Gifted Black Students More Likely To Get In Gifted Programs If They Have Black Teachers

More and more evidence is proving that, as far as Black kids go, homeschooling should be a part of every family’s plan to get their children the best education that they can get. Even if you do not home-school your children full time, all Black parents should have a home-school plan that they follow as a supplement to school.

As the article below suggests, there are many Black kids who are gifted but unfortunately they never get into gifted programs because they are perceived as “dumb” or incapable.

According to atlantablackstar.com:

Over-represented in special education classes, Black students are only half as likely as white students to be placed in public school gifted programs.

As reported by U.S. News & World Report, only 2 percent of Black students and 3 percent of Latino students are in gifted-and-talented programs.  In contrast, 4 percent of white students and 6 percent of Asian students are enrolled in such classes.  Why are the gifted classes mostly white and Asian?  A study suggests that many bright children of color are being passed over for advanced programs, and the intervention of Black teachers may provide the key.

Perhaps some would explain the disparity by noting that Black children are poorer with fewer resources and less access to these opportunities, as if this is the end of the story.  Others would simply attribute the difference to a so-called low aptitude among Black children, suggesting that Black children aren’t good enough or smart enough.

The study —”Discretion and Disproportionality: Explaining the Underrepresentation of High-Achieving Students of Color in Gifted Programs” — was conducted by two Vanderbilt University researchers and published in the journal AERA Open.  The research looked at more than 10,000 elementary school students and found that Black students are 66 percent less likely and Hispanic students are 47 percent less likely than whites to be assigned to gifted programs.  However, when accounting for past differences in reading and math scores, the white-Hispanic gap in gifted classes was nearly zero.  However, Black students with equally high achievement were steered into advanced programs half as often as whites.