{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03433616742969261, 'fraction_numerical': 0.021255722694571617, 'mean_word_length': 5.346473029045643, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Multicultural Issues: Closing the Achievement Gap: How Gifted Education Can Help

TThe field of education faces many challenges in its effort to ensure excellence and equity for all students. The subfields of special education and gifted education are being challenged in particular because of persistent accusations of inequities relative to culturally diverse students. For example, a litany of studies, reports, and works from popular press detail the pervasive overrepresentation of Black and Latino students in special education (Artiles, 2003; Donovan, 2002; Eitle, 2002; Harry & Klingner, 2006) and their underrepresentation in gifted education (Ford, Moore, & Milner, 2005; Frasier et al., 1995). The most recent data from the Office for Civil Rights (“Elementary and Secondary,” 2002) reveal that efforts to rectify the two representation issues have not been effective (see Table 1). A number of studies, as well as conceptual and theoretical pieces, have been conducted in response to this stubborn and pervasive problem of Black and Latino students achieving lower than White students (Barton, 2003; Ferguson, 1998; Jencks & Phillips, 1998). That is, theologians, policymakers, administrators, and educators have offered their views on this issue, but the “Black-White” achievement gap has been resistant to change. Despite federal legislation (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Javits Act of 1988) demanding educational reform, and numerous intervention and prevention efforts (such as Head Start, preschool, and talent development programs), the gap persists. The research and literature base is replete with concerns and frustrations regarding not only the underrepresentation of Black and Latino students in gifted education, but also their low performance when compared to White students. Specifically, data indicate that Black and Latino 17-year-olds often have the math and reading skills of White students who are 13 years old (e.g., Barton, 2003). There are other gaps as well, for example, in grade point averages, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment and completion rates (Ferguson, 2002). What factors contribute significantly and consistently to the achievement gap? And, what role can gifted education play in helping to close the gap? In this column, I offer three propositions. First, the underrepresentation of Black and Latino students in gifted education is one of the many issues that should be discussed in efforts to both understand and close the achievement gap. Second, I assert that too little attention has been given to the achievement gap problem in gifted education; we have not, as a field, considered how underrepresentation might contribute to the gap. Finally, I propose that although dozens of variables have been reported as contributing substantively to the achievement gap, we have not considered how increasing access to gifted education (and decreasing representation in special education) for Black and Latino students can make a difference in narrowing the gap (Ford & Moore, 2004).