On Sunday Feb 5th we had our chat about Minorities in Gifted Programs. You can read the whole transcript here. Below are the questions we discussed during the chat:
- What are some factors that lead to fewer minorities being identified and serviced in gifted programs?
- How does poverty affect accessibility to educational opportunities for gifted students?
- How can the identification process be improved to help identify more minority gifted children?
- What type of PD would be beneficial to aid regular education teachers being able to identify obvious and latent behaviors of potential minority gifted children so these students could be recommended for gifted services?
- What advice do you give to school districts looking to ensure there is a balanced and proportional student population that would strengthen their gifted programs?
Through out the chat we discussed the testing and screening issues of minorities in gifted programs. Having the correct useful testing tool is important. Some of the best ones we discussed was using Nagliari and OLSAT as tests that work well with minorities and with children who are labeled ESL. These tests are more nonverbal, and so they work well with that population.
We talked about the idea of using small groups and individual testing groups to see if that would work better than whole grade testing sessions. Having multiple faucets of information is also a great idea when deciding a child should be recommended for gifted services.
An aspect identification and screening has to comeback to professional development. Regular education teachers need to be educated on characteristics, behaviors, and issues of gifted children. Gifted intervention specialists need to have a good working relationship with regular education teachers so more students can be recognized for gifted services. Teaching teachers to really observe and correlate behaviors (positive and negative) to the need to be challenged is an important aspect of education.
Having minorities in gifted programs helps to strengthen the program as a whole. Students learn from diversity, and we all need to learn more about each others culture and customs. We live in a globally connected world these days. We need to be connected and accept the differences that make us unique.
The next #ohiogtchat will be Sunday Feb 19th at 9pm ET. We will be focusing this discussion on what kinds of Professional Development would be the most helpful to gifted intervention specialists, and regular education teachers. This will be your chance to discuss some of your favorite professional development sessions that have benefited you the most.
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http://nrcgt.uconn.edu/
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