Access to gifted and talented education: Alternative strategies for underrepresented students.

摘要

This research is an exploratory analysis of equitable procedures in the identification of gifted and talented LEP/Bilingual Hispanic students. The research methods used involved the formulation of five program descriptions based on ethnographic interview data, and a case study and analysis of the Bilingual Identification Project, a pilot program utilizing multiple criteria in the identification of gifted students.;The study was conducted in 1986, two years after State regulations for Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs required identification of all ethnic groups to within 10% of their population in the school district. The Bilingual Identification Project (BIP) is one program that addresses the need for fair, equitable, and comprehensive identification procedures for gifted and talented students.;Findings from the research indicated that gifted and talented students do exist among underrepresented populations and that limited teacher awareness of gifted characteristics, low teacher expectation, the slow rate of GATE program referral and follow-up, and inappropriate instrumentation were major contributing factors to the underrepresentation of culturally and linguistically different populations. The study also concluded that factors which contributed to greater identification of LEP/Bilingual Hispanic students were a broader definition of giftedness, increased staff support in identification and instruction, follow-up services in referral, early intervention and nurturing through enriched curricular exposure, multidimensional assessment strategies and GATE program placement based on committee consensus.;Recommendations are that district GATE programs reflect a broader definition of giftedness and intelligence, more inservices for teachers be conducted on characteristics of giftedness and strategies for curricular enrichment, program models such as those described in this study be expanded and operationalized in all grades K-12, research continue in the development of equitable assessment tools, and that district findings in terms of GATE identification and programming be disseminated to other district as well as to the community at large.;In the case study and analysis of the BIP, perceptions of administrators, psychologists, and teachers regarding the program's net impact are discussed. The BIP's major impact was that it promoted higher teacher expectation, increased access to GATE programs for students in all ethnic groups, and provided recognition and motivation for culturally and linguistically different Gifted/Talented students. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).