Providing access for culturally diverse gifted students: from deficit to dynamic thinking

Few school districts in the United States have successfully recruited and retained culturally diverse students in programs for gifted students. Black, Hispanic, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education programs nationally, with underrepresentation ranging from 50-70%. This article addresses two questions that are at least as old as gifted education itself" Why are diverse students underrepresented, and how can we recruit and retain more diverse students in our gifted programs? Factors contributing to the persistent underrepresentation of Black students in gifted education are presented, along with suggestions for changes. The central premise of this article is that deficit thinking held by educators about diverse students hinders access to gifted programs for them.

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A LONG-STANDING CONCERN of researchers and practitioners has been the underrepresentation of Black students in gifted programs, namely those with high intelligence test scores who were not formally identified as gifted. Educators and organizations have discussed the myriad consequences associated with gifted Black and other diverse students not being identified and served.

Few large-scale reports exist on cultural diversity in gifted education identification and placement. However, the U.S. Department of Education (1993) noted that Black, Hispanic, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education. This was also the more recent finding of the National Research Council's Committee on Minority Representation in Special Education (Donnovan & Cross, 2002). Despite such concerns, reports, and even legislation (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education, 1954), the percentage of diverse students in gifted education programs does not match their representation in U.S. schools. For example, Black students represented 16.2% of public school students in 1993, but only 8.4% of students in gifted programs; Hispanic students represented 9% of public school students, but only 4.7% of those identified as gifted (USDE, 1993). Both groups tend to be underrepresented in gifted programs by 50%.

The premise of this article is that the underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted education is primarily a function of educators holding a deficit perspective about diverse students. Deficit thinking exists when educators hold negative, stereotypic, and counterproductive views about culturally diverse students and lower their expectations of these students accordingly. Until deficit thinking becomes dynamic thinking, the unnecessary underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted education will continue.

Deficit Ideologies: Limiting Access and Opportunity

Reactions to differences among students manifest themselves in various ways, and they exert a powerful influence in educational settings.

Storti (1989) raises several relevant questions for teachers working with gifted and culturally diverse students: What are their perceptions of gifted students? How do they define giftedness? How do such definitions and perceptions affect their referral of students for gifted programs? Likewise, how culturally competent are teachers? What are their personal and professional experiences in working with culturally diverse populations? What stereotypes and misperceptions do they hold?

Perceptions--negative and positive--about racial backgrounds influence the development of definitions, policies, and practices. Gould (1981, 1995) and Menchaca (1997) noted that deficit thinking contributed to past (and current) beliefs about culture, race, and intelligence. Gould demonstrated how a priori assumptions and fears associated with different racial groups, particularly African Americans, led to conscious fraud--dishonest and prejudicial research methods, deliberate miscalculations, convenient omissions, and data misinterpretation among scientists studying intelligence. These early assumptions and practices contributed to the prevailing belief that human races could be ranked in a linear scale of mental worth, as evidenced by Burt, Broca, and Morten's research on craniometry (Gould, 1981, p. 86).

Later, as school districts faced increasing racial diversity, educators resorted to increased reliance on standardized tests--biased (2) standardized tests. As Gould (1995), Hilliard (1992), and others noted, the tests measured familiarity with American culture and English proficiency, not intelligence. This almost guaranteed low test scores for immigrants (and culturally diverse groups) who were unfamiliar with U.S. customs, traditions, values, norms, and language.

The deficit orientation was recently revived by the publication of The Bell Curve (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994) and in the works of Jensen (1984) and Rushton (2000). Menchaca (1997) also traced the evolution of deficit thinking, and demonstrated how it influenced segregation in schools (e.g., Plessy v. Fergusen, 1896) and resistance to desegregation during the Civil Rights era and today. For instance, some scholars conclude that educators continue to resist desegregation, and they use tracking and ability grouping to resegregate students racially. That is, some educators argue that the underrepresentation of culturally diverse students in gifted education relates, in many cases, to efforts to perpetuate school segregation (e.g., Ford & Webb, 1995; Hilliard, 1992). These symptoms and suggested treatments are discussed below.