In the book, Special Populations in Gifted Education: Understanding Our Most Able Students From Diverse Backgrounds, I was excited, and then confused when they started talking about the students that had been chosen for the study. These students were selected to participate in a study that focused on what the Gifted Black students thought about how they believed their teachers and school environment affected their academic achievements. I thought that this was going to be great, because too few studies are based on the students’ opinions. I thought the information was exactly what they were feeling, and they gave the reader information that wouldn’t necessarily be shared if these students weren’t directly asked. We as educators need to see each of our students as individuals, not as representatives of their ethnic background. What I didn’t understand was why the descriptions of the students included their skin color. Was this included because students with “light brown”,  “caramel brown”, or “medium brown” skin tones are considered Black? Is there a shade that is too black or not black enough? As I read the study, I was hoping that these details would be mentioned as a factor for why the students felt the way that they did, but it wasn’t mentioned. (Castellano, J. A., & Frazier, A. D. (2011a). Special populations in gifted education: Understanding our most able students from diverse backgrounds. Prufrock Press. p. 106-108).

Social and Emotional Well Being During Covid

In the book, Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners my big takeaway was that as educators, we need to be responsible for the social and emotional wellness of our Black students. In chapter 8 , “ The call to action has come on the heels of the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks - demanding that everyone do mor work in promoting social justice, especially for the Black population in the United States.”(Castellano, J. A., & Chandler, K. L. (2022) p. 150). For me, during the world wide pandemic, it was hard to see all these events unfold, for what seemed like, every time I turned on the TV. At that time, I was the Gifted Facilitator, but because I only had 17 students identified, I had to teach half time, online Kindergarten as well. At  the end of the school year, everything worked out ok, academically. I didn’t have many Black students in class, but I had missed the opportunity to talk to them, individually, about how they were feeling. I wanted to be one more adult that they could talk to if they had any questions about what was happening. I mentioned it a few times during class, that if anyone wanted to talk about what was happening in the world, I could re-arrange my schedule to make that happen. But, no one ever wanted to stay online for a chat. I believe that that year, in particular, everyone needed just one more person to help. I wanted to be that person, but because of the pandemic, my students got a watered down version of me. I would like to hope that all of my students see me as someone who is consistent and fair; someone who would take the time to help a student in whichever way I could. I want all of my students to know that their social and emotional wellness is important to me. That is why I chose to become a Gifted Facilitator. (Castellano, J. A., & Chandler, K. L. (2022a). Chapter 8. In Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners. Routledge.) 

Three Questions:

Do students, who are not part of the cultural majority, have similar concerns or obstacles when it comes to being gifted?

Is it enough for my students who are a part of the cultural majority, to be sympathetic to a situation when they themselves will never have to face it?

Are there simulations that my students can participate in, safely, that will allow them to experience what it is like to be in the cultural minority?

What struck/surprised/confused you about this part of the reading?

In Chapter 5 of the book Special Populations in Gifted Education, titled "High-Achieving Black Adolescents' Perceptions of How Teachers Impact Their Academic Achievement," the authors emphasize the importance of understanding cultural contexts in the assessment of giftedness. Castellano and Frazier (2011) reference Bempechat (1998), who argued that students' perceptions of learning and academic success are shaped by how teachers respond to them and their abilities. Additionally, Garibaldi (1992) discovered that the motivation of Black students to achieve academically is significantly influenced by the expectations their educators hold for them.

Is the information still relevant? How can you connect the reading to your own experiences as an educator or student? 

According to Castellano and Frazier (2011), the theories articulated by Bempechat and Garibaldi remain highly relevant today, particularly in light of the pandemic and its lingering effects. During the COVID-19 crisis, students faced extraordinary challenges that significantly impacted their learning experiences and academic motivation. Bempechat underscores the crucial role of teachers' responses to the students. In the era of remote learning, the quality of communication and support from educators became paramount. Positive and encouraging feedback fosters resilience and ignites motivation, while negative responses can hinder student growth and well-being. Educators must recognize this dynamic to create a supportive learning environment.

Garibaldi's research on the influence of educators' expectations is fundamental. Throughout the pandemic, many marginalized students, particularly Black students, encountered significant challenges, including unequal access to essential resources and technology. By upholding high expectations, teachers can effectively combat these obstacles, instilling a deep belief in students' capabilities and encouraging them to reach for academic achievement. When teachers consistently maintain high standards and employ responsive teaching strategies, they play a critical role in re-engaging the students who may have struggled or lost motivation in these challenging times.

In conclusion, the principles articulated by Bempechat and Garibaldi remain vital in shaping the academic experiences of students, particularly for high-achieving Black adolescents as they navigate their perceptions and challenges. The responses and expectations of teachers are crucial in facilitating students' recovery and success, especially in the post-COVID educational landscape and in the face of other adversities such as dysfunctional family dynamics or conflict. In their book, “Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners,” Castellano and Chandler (2022) emphasize that practitioners in gifted education are "boots on the ground," providing direct services to gifted students. Teachers play a vital role in connecting with parents, families, school and district administrators, and often collaborate with community partners. They are uniquely positioned to advocate for equity in education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, students encountered unprecedented challenges that significantly impacted their learning experience and academic motivation. Bempechat's insights underscore the critical nature of teachers' responses to students. For example, during remote learning, the effectiveness of communication and support from educators became paramount. Positive and encouraging feedback fosters resilience and motivation, while negative responses can have harmful consequences. High expectations from teachers can help mitigate these challenges by instilling a belief in students' potential and motivating them to achieve academic success. Teachers who uphold high expectations and responsive teaching practices can effectively re-engage students who may struggle with motivation in challenging circumstances.

The conversation on race and equity and the impact of bias in the classroom/ in education has evolved over the last two years. Add three questions or concerns you have about how to teach special populations of gifted students today. 

What strategies can educators or policymakers implement to identify and support giftedness in a more diverse range of students, ensuring that all have equal opportunities for enrichment? What support systems and programs can we implement to foster students' social-emotional well-being, particularly for those who also face challenges related to their racial or socio-economic identities? How can we teachers adapt curricula and teaching methods to be culturally responsive, recognizing and valuing the strengths and perspectives these students bring to the classroom?

References

Castellano, J. A. (n.d.). A Standing Commitment to Special Populations in Gifted Education. In Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners (pp. 13–20). essay.

Castellano, J. A., & Frazier, A. D. (2011). Special Populations in Gifted Education: Understanding Our Most Able Students from Diverse. Prufrock Press INC.

Castellano, J. A., Frazier, A. D., & Long-Mitchell, L. A. (2011). Chapter 5 High-Achieving Black Adolescents’ Perceptions of How Teachers Impact Their Academic Achievement. In Special Population in Gifted Education (pp. 99–123). essay, Prufrock Press INC.

References:

Burnette, D. L. (2023, October 13). Indigenous children, survivance, and the times we are in. Medium. https://medium.com/indigenous-children-survivance-and-the-times-we/indigenous-children-survivance-and-the-times-we-are-in-20d87b50848f

Castellano, J. A., & Frazier, A. D. (2011). Special populations in gifted education: understanding our most able students from diverse backgrounds 

#2: How can teachers collaborate with Indigenous communities and families to understand and support the gifted potential of Indigenous students

#3: How can gifted programs adapt their processes to ensure the representation of Indigenous culture and heritage to increase student identification and pride in their backgrounds while also challenging them for their academic needs?

Quote #1-"Many of our cultures are built around the sacredness and preciousness of the child and growing that child into a good human being."

Reflection: While many educators have their own educational philosophies that focus on different developments of a student. Some believe that education should shape them to become better citizens, better students, and better people all around. While we all have our own ideas of how education should serve a student taking the student's cultural values into consideration should be at the heart of their educational experience.

Quote #2- "This is a time to BE PRESENT with our children. We must teach them to respond to this stressful time instead of react."

Reflection: The outcomes of some programs are focused on student achievement rather than student potential. What I mean by that is that sometimes there's too much of a focus on what they can achieve right away versus what can be achieved over a longer period of time and in the future. This can alter the way in which an educator is planning and implementing scope and sequencing in the classroom. However, connecting back to the cultural values of Indigenous cultures, it is most important to see the student for who they are at that moment, meet them to where they are at, and holistically respond to their needs and education. Their future goals can be effectively built upon following these foundational steps.

Reading: Special in Gifted Education: Understanding our Most Able Students from Diverse Backgrounds

Quote #1- "Because any notion of distinguishing human abilities from one individual to another is irrelevant for Native cultures, the idea of “intellect” is similarly irrelevant," (page 47).

Reflection: Being aware that the skills and knowledge of students make up their entire being as a person will not only impact how you approach them individually in the classroom but also how you build the classroom community for gifted Indigenous learners.

Quote #2- "Generally, teachers do a good job of incorporating hands-on instruction and the use of manipulatives in the early grades. But those tools often are dropped just when the visual-spatial learner needs them most," (page 63).

Reflection: It can be easy for educators to assume all students are similar in their needs. As a student gets older, it is more common to see these instructional strategies become less utilized as more complex content is introduced. It is important to slow down, and consider the effects of these strategies have on students of all backgrounds, ages, and content areas!

In Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners (Castellano & Chandler, 2022, Chapter 2, page 25) it stated that, “military connected students may exhibit higher academic achievement than their civilian peers, but they may also participate in gifted programs at lower rates”.  This struck me as incredibly frustrating and wrong.  If there is a population of students who are showing greater potential and we are representing them at a decreased rate then why is more action not being taken to rectify this?  It got me thinking about how we identify students using a body of evidence. This made me realize that because it is difficult to get test scores transferred from one school to another it is incredibly difficult to build a body of evidence without data. 

Castellano and Chandler also stated that “When student mobility is viewed as a deficit, rather than a strength, the entire learning community misses out on the rich experiences that military-connected students bring with them.” (Castellano & Chandler, 2022, Chapter 2, page 31).  I think this points out the very essence of gifted education.  We should always focus on student strengths instead of focusing on deficits which is very common practice with military students when they move schools and have gaps in curriculum content. 

In Gifted and On the Move, Hilt comments that “The participants held themselves responsible for losing their gifted label and expressed disappointment in themselves for not achieving at the level required to maintain the label.” (2023, page 252). This made me ponder how many students could be feeling this way when we have to retest gifted transfer students.  This will only perpetuate the “imposter syndrome” that gifted students sometimes suffer from. The impact this has on their self identity not only affects their social and emotional growth but their academic growth as well. 

Hilt also states, “Study participants built social connections around interests and values centered on their intellect and work ethic.” (2023, page 253). If we have gifted students who are already sensitive individuals that are stressed due to a recent move, then remove the label that helps solidify their identity and take away their ability to be with like minded peers, what are we leaving them with to cope? This is a grave disservice we are doing to this wonderful population who could be enriching our schools.  Fortunately, Castellano and Chandler mentioned that there are programs to assist these students such as the “Student 2 Student” which I have had the pleasure of observing in my school and help numerous military students succeed. 

1. How do we better communicate in our gifted plans and IEPs the needs and accomplishments of our military students so as to decrease the effects of frequent movement of schools?

2. Could we identify students with gaps due to economic, military moves, language or cultural barriers using their rapid growth as an identifier, not just their current scores? 

3. How do we better instruct teachers to identify students in special populations when it is difficult for some to remove biases? 

Academically advanced students experience exploring identity in a very different way than neurotypical students. Their over-excitabilities can fuel negative self-perception, leading to anxiety. These OEs can also lead to resilient personalities who bring strengths into new systems. Schools that adopt "mastery learning approaches," according to Melanie Meyer in Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners (p. 32), can capitalize on these strengths rather than bogging students down in repeating already mastered content areas or skills and utilizing that time saved on skills NOT addressed as yet.

A flexible approach like this allows the student to be less stressed by academic concerns and to focus on fitting in in other areas of the receiving school's culture or exploring new academic or extracurricular activities.

The readings assigned regarding the military-attached child were fairly recent, but I believe the issues are still quite relevant. I personally have many military family friends who have gifted students; without fail, they homeschool their students to both have more control over what their students are taught and to provide the consistency in service that public schools do not provide.

My experience working with Black students has been overwhelmingly that the lower-income groups in Black culture typically do not see the same value in education as their “mainstream teachers.” This is not to say Black students and their families place no value on education as a whole. Far from it. But, many Black students I’ve worked with view education as a required burden, and often as an attempt to “Whiten” their communities. I’ve seen student after student create a career plan which included college only as a tool to continue in athletics. Yes, of course there are many White students and students of color who are not Black who view education the same way, but I have not found as sweeping a cultural bias discrediting education in these populations, with the possible exception of the Southern Ute Tribe here in the Durango/Ignacio area (but that’s another matter).

My experience has shown me that in many cases, Black students and their families in low-income populations don’t “not believe in education” — they simply view their situation as hopeless, (this is especially true among Black male students) — “No matter what you do, the man won’t let you get ahead!” sort of thing. I’ve seen this time and again and I worked to change this thinking by giving these students Black role models they previously may not have been aware of – Colin Powell, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston. In many cases, I think students don’t know what they don’t know about why education is important and what they can achieve with learning. I think this is often one of the greatest challenges for the educator to overcome.

Has this changed over the past 13 years? Yes, some. Black leaders have taken more prominent positions and have broken through some barriers, and, as pointed out by Collins and Dunn (2022) on page 150 of Identifying and Serving Diverse Gifted Learners, Black culture has gained popular support through society’s reactions to unfortunately horrible events, but we still have further to go. Black students still too often see their only path to success as being an athlete or a rap star. It is absolutely true that “By listening to the voices of academically achieving Black students, we are likely to hear what has meaning and significance for them about their education” (p. 100, Long-Mitchell, 2011 as written in Colangelo, Frazier, 2011) But, especially in low-income Black populations, what has significance is often limited by students’ lack of knowledge of wider society.

The balance educators must find honors and protects Black culture and yet offers experiences of a wide enough nature to show students opportunities in society they have never been told exist. I believe this was true in 2011, and I believe it is true today. As the text points out, relationship with and trust of teachers is, to me, the single greatest factor in educating Black students (or any students for that matter) (p. 112, Long-Mitchell, 2011 as written in Colangelo, Frazier, 2011).

Concept 2) “As with the case of Gizelle, traditional recruitment and identification of gifted students often start with teachers’ referrals (Collins et al, 2019 as quoted on p. 151 of Collins, Dunn, 2022). Reflection – The education system as a whole must incorporate better assessment tools given to every student. Only then can we be sure we miss as few gifted students as possible.

Concept 3) In her chapter “High-Achieving Black Adolescents’ Perceptions of How Teachers Impact Their Academic Achievement,” Linda A. Long-Mitchell makes a number of statements regarding how teachers can best serve Black students —

1)      Develop a positive relationship with the students

2)      Have high expectations and high standards

3)      Recognize academic potential and talent

4)      Genuinely care about students

(p. 112, Long-Mitchell, 2011 as written in Colangelo, Frazier, 2011).

Reflection – Yes. In fact, this is pretty much the recipe for a successful classroom of gifted and non-gifted students.

Concept 4) “Black students are more likely to value academic achievement and educational attainment when they view education as an effective means of social and economic improvement. However, they are less likely to place value on academic achievement if they are less optimistic about the role of education for their economic mobility” (Sanders, 1998 quoted on p. 101 by Long-Mitchell, 2011 in Colangelo, Frazier, 2011).

Reflection – Unfortunately all too often, Black students are not optimistic about their potential economic mobility, and given their history, this is a reasonable doubt.

2)      How can we change teacher expectations for Black students, low-income students, and minority students?

3)      How can we honor student cultures and still break from cultural stigmas regarding education, and then also help students understand other cultures with which they will need to interact to best achieve a positive role in society?

When considering what education is and what education is to individual's and their communities we must not limit or put aside culturally what these students learn. Traditions within cultures provides valuable education that can be mimicked in schools, but it is irreplaceable compared to what is taught within cultures. In today's society unfortunately some are quick to cast aside one culture because it does not fit their cookie cutter vision of "America". In less obvious but still racist ways of education we see this in a very prevalent way.

In one of my previous courses at UCCS for my undergrad, we discussed teaching and honoring different cultures. This for educators occurs in phases. The first initial phase is holidays and heroes, where in your classroom you simply discuss holidays and heroes. It is so easy to get stuck in this phase even though different cultures are so rich with knowledge and information. This quote made me reflect on myself as teacher, not because I do not recognize the value of culture and language and what it teaches children, but because how do I as a teacher honor that in my classroom and bring it forth to all my students?

"measurements that focus on academic achievement rather than student potential" (DeVries and Shires Golon, 2011)

This quote stood out to me as the authors wrote about why there is a disparity in enrollment numbers of minority students when referring to the identification process. When looking at any group of minority students they are starting at a starting line five yards back with huddles from their white peers when the finish line remains the same for both groups. Minority students are seen as they do not have the same potential even when they do. However, they have different needs that require an equitable education that provides access to remove those hurdles. This is something that has not changed in the past thirteen years. We as an education system look and see these hurdles and do little to nothing to remove them from students as a whole. Now teachers and some programs individual work to remove those hurdles, but federally we need to remove them as well.

This also makes me think about myself as a teacher. This year I have this amazing boy, sweet as can be. He is black and underperforms. It frustrates me as a teacher, and I will admit I am hard on him. That is because I see his potential. I know he is capable of all the things he just will not apply himself too. I question is it fair that I am placing this pressure on him more than his peers. I just see how capable he can be, and I see his skin color as a black teacher, and I want him to thrive. I wish that as a system we did this for all students and recognized that all students had the same potential instead of giving up on kids just because their starting line is further, and they have hurdles that their peers do not.

How do I as a teacher honor that in my classroom and bring it forth to all my students?

Should minority students receive the same pressure to succeed in addition to the outside pressures or huddles they have? What should that pressure look like? How do we apply that pressure?

#2 Regarding funding, it's shocking to learn that in the 2005 Congressional budget, only $11 million (around 0.02% of the federal education budget, or approximately $1 per gifted child) was allocated for gifted education. I knew the amount was limited, but seeing it broken down like that is baffling—especially given that this data is from nearly two decades ago.