Gifted and Unserved: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Promise Scholar Program on Reducing the Racial Segregation of Gifted Education

Abstract

There is a crisis in gifted education across our nation. Gifted programs are disproportionally identifying and servicing middle-class White students while systematically ignoring minority students. The Promise Scholar Program was developed by the Kent School District as a method to tackle the underrepresentation of minority students in their gifted education program. This elementary talent development model places promising minority students into gifted classrooms, exposing the participants to advanced and accelerated curriculum. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of this program as way to increase the identification of minority students for gifted education. Through the analysis and comparison of student achievement major finings include that the Promise Scholar students made similar academic growth in reading as compared to identified gifted students. Additionally, 37.4% of all Hispanic Promise Scholar students were identified for gifted services after one year of participation. More research needs to be conducted on elementary talent development models that impact the disproportionate representation of minority students in gifted education.