In education, one size doesn’t fit all. In their misguided attempts to close the minority “achievement gap,” many public school systems succumbed to outside pressure to eliminate the “gifted and talented” designation, deemed an arbitrary, unfair, and culturally “loaded” term that discriminates against racial minorities. But the pendulum is slowly swinging back.
Last month, the Maryland State Board of Education approved minimum standards for GT programs statewide, including a requirement that school systems report their progress identifying gifted students as early as pre-school. Next school year, Frederick, Md., is rolling out its “Highly Able Learner Program” (a tongue-twisting euphemism for “gifted”) to provide more challenging material for high-achieving sixth-graders, and the District of Columbia recently introduced a GT pilot program in two middle schools in an attempt to reverse student flight to charter and private schools. Virginia already requires school systems to offer special services for gifted children beginning in kindergarten.
The Montgomery chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People object to the new Maryland regulations, arguing that they will have a negative effect on black and Hispanic students. Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery County, even went so far as to call the board’s decision “irresponsible.” They should really be asking why schools are not identifying gifted black and Hispanic students using a nonverbal IQ test developed by Jack Naglieri, director of George Mason University’s Center for Cognitive Development.
The test, which has been administered to hundreds of thousands of children worldwide, measures a child’s innate ability independent from their language or mathematical skills. Naglieri and his colleagues report that the percentage of children the test identifies as “gifted” is remarkably similar across racial and gender lines. It finds “the really, really smart kids who do not speak English or come from a disadvantaged background,” he told The Washington Examiner. Co-author Donna Ford of Vanderbilt University says the test is actually more valid and reliable for minority students. “Let’s stop the excuses. Why isn’t every school using this instrument?” she asks.
Former New York Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has warned that “the global marketplace will be very unforgiving to a populace that doesn’t have the skills it demands.” American students already rank near the bottom in math compared with other industrialized countries. This “international achievement gap” is why programs for all gifted children are needed more than ever.
