Cultural Diversity & Economic Disadvantage: The Invisible
Gifted
By: Janice Amor

African American

Hispanic American

Native American

Asian American and

Caucasian children
living in large urban centers, in underprivileged rural areas and
on Indian reservations rarely are identified as G/T students.
In 1977 Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
introduced legislation to include funding for G/T
minority and culturally different children within
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
She faulted US education for:
1. devising inadequate methods for recognizing
talent among culturally different children.
2. allowing insufficient funding to provide special
programs for these children.
This era marked the beginning of various
programs and funding for G/T minorities:
1. The Head Start program
2. Educational TV programs like Sesame Street,
Barney, Dora the Explorer.
3. Bilingual-education funding
4. Desegregation
All these contributed to enhancing educational
opportunities and preparation. As a result the
drop out rate reduced!
Belief in self
Personal characteristics
Support systems
Participation in special programs,
extracurricular activities, and summer
enrichment programs
Appropriately challenging classes
Realistic aspiration
Family support
Minority and culturally different gifted children
are not easily identified.
They often remain invisible and must be
discovered or uncovered.
Indeed, because of cultural bias in test instruments and other
identification methods, many typical procedures actually obscure their
giftedness- by providing that these children are not gifted.
Identification must be based on superior potential rather than superior
performance.
Intelligence Tests: High intelligence test scores on either group or
individual tests are one valid way to identify intellectually gifted minority
youngsters.
Achievement Tests: Although it is critical that achievement scores should
not be misused because of cultural bias, it certainly is reasonable to use
them as an index of gifts and talents for minority students.
Creativity Tests: The tolerance test of creative thinking has been used in
several projects with minority students. The Group Inventory for Finding
(Creative) Talent (GIFT) and the Group Inventory For Finding Interests
(GIFFI) are self-report inventories that evaluate personality
characteristics.
Matrix Identification Models: This has been developed to bring together
data from a variety of sources and to specifically include variables that
will help identify minority and disadvantaged gifted children.
Teacher Nominations: A sensitive and caring teacher who is
knowledgeable about characteristics of gifted children may,
in fact be the very best identifier of the culturally different
gifted children.
Parent Nominations: Gifted programs should encourage
parent identification. However, special efforts are necessary
to educate those parents about characteristics of giftedness
and the advantages of the gifted programming for their
children.
Peer Nominations: Peers of economically deprived or
culturally different gifted children usually are aware of gifts
and talents among their friends and classmates.
Self Nomination: Students who believe that they are
capable and who can build a case to establish their
ability, interest and strong motivation should be given
opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities.
Quota System: A fixed percentage of culturally
different children should be included in the program,
calculated from the percentage of those students in the
school, or district, regardless of comparative test scores
or grades.
As important it is to correctly identify minority students retaining
them in the gifted programming is at least an equally great
challenge.
Thus the following components can support these disadvantaged
students:
•maintaining ethnic identity
•providing extracurricular cultural enrichments
• recognizing learning style differences and counseling
• developing parent support groups,
•using significant model
• placing greater emphasis on enrichment and
•providing for career education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_5W9kHCr
Bk
Career education for the G/T students with lower SE,
should stress the professional opportunities available
and the necessary educational preparation.
These students should have a realistic career education
program that emphasizes the lifestyle, values, ethics,
and goal that accompany that particular professional
career.
Since 1963, A Better Chance has been
opening the door to educational
opportunities for thousands of young
people of color in this nation.
Every year they place about 500 new
students (Scholars) and support over
1,900 currently-enrolled Scholars in more
than 300 of our Member Schools across
the country.
After graduation, these Scholars can look
forward to a college degree and a real
chance at making a difference in their
community.
•
To date, A Better Chance has placed more than 12,000 middle and junior high school
students in some of our nation’s finest college preparatory schools, both public and
private
• More than 96% of A Better Chance graduating seniors immediately enroll in
college
• One-third of A Better Chance Scholars come from families receiving welfare or
who are living at or below the federal poverty line
• 65% of A Better Chance Scholars come from single-parent families
• More than 4,500 volunteers nationwide contribute their time and energy to
identifying academically able children who can benefit from the A Better Chance
experience
• The 305 member schools of A Better Chance are distributed among 28 states
• A Better Chance alumni currently reside in all 50 states
• New Scholars received over $6.5 million in financial aid from Member Schools
Current Students in the ABC program
African American 65%
Hispanic/Latino
20%
Asian American
6%
Multiracial
5%
Other
Native American
4%
<1%
Source: Information from
http://www.abetterchance.org/abetterchance.aspx?pgID=970
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
Male
0.2
Female
0.1
0
1
2
3
4

Davis, Gary A. & Rimm, Sylvia B. (2010). Education of the
Gifted and Talented, 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.

A Better Chance. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from
http://www.abetterchance.org/abetterchance.aspx?pgID=959