User:Callitullis/sandbox

Inequalities and Critiques

Academic acceleration and gifted programs more broadly face critique for significant and consistent under-representation of minority students - particularly students of African American and Latinx decent. In 2009, African Americans comprised 16.7% of students in general education but only 9.9% of students in gifted programs, and Latinx students 22.3% of general education but only 15.4% of gifted programs. In a majority of gifted programs, the first step is referral from a teacher. However few teachers are trained in identification and thus rely on academic metrics, a metric which is biased towards White students due to systemic inequities in intelligence assessment. A significant majority of states use some form of standardized or aptitude test. African American, Latinx and Indigenous students consistently perform lower on these exams due to a variety of cultural and institutional reasons.

Numerous potential solutions have been proposed and tried with varying degrees of success and continuation. Implicit biases and cultural differences contribute to the mis-categorization or oversight of African American, Latinx and other students of color. Teacher training in racial biases and cultural identification can lessen this discrepancy. Furthermore, universal testing and screening of students raises the representation of minority students but can face significant resource constraints. However, theories of multiple intelligence have also now led to calls for removal of IQ tests as a standard metric of giftedness. IQ tests prioritize a set binary of intelligence factors which often discounts experiential and contextual expressions. Attempts to lessen racial inequality in programs of academic acceleration and gifted education continue in experiments across the United States.