Thirteen-year-old Tomeara Gosier is gifted. Fortunately for her, she is in a public middle school’s gifted program doing accelerated academic work and making friends with other exceptional learners. Had it not been for her parents’ persistence, however, Tomeara could have ended up in a class for students with low ability.
[Related: How to Access Gifted Education Services for Your Child]
Convinced from the time Tomeara was a toddler that she was gifted, and urged by her daughter’s preschool teachers to request testing, Thomas and Joan Gosier asked about testing for giftedness when Tomeara started kindergarten. But the public school wasn’t receptive to the idea.
“They looked at me as if I had 10 horns on my head,†says Joan. “‘Why are you asking that?’ they said. ‘The teacher will contact you if they feel she’s gifted once school settles in.’†The Gosiers also got mixed messages, hearing on one hand that there was no gifted program at the school, and on the other that gifted students wouldn’t be identified until third grade.
In spite of the runaround the Gosiers encountered–including excuses like the person doing the testing had been moved to a new office, she couldn’t access the files, she couldn’t get to the boxes, she was on vacation–they persisted until their daughter was tested and admitted to their public school’s program for gifted children.
Joy Lawson Davis, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Teacher Education at Virginia Union University, isn’t surprised to hear such stories. “Gifted children need support and access to be able to develop their gifts,†she says. “It’s important for them to be in programs for the gifted, if not schools.â€
Exactly what is giftedness? “It’s an individual’s demonstration of higher intellectual, artistic, or psycho-social (leadership) traits,†Davis says. “These children are exceptional in their language capacity, their number sense, their production of artwork, compared to their age peers. Their drawings tell stories–they are more detailed and have greater depth perception. We can see how their minds work by looking at their work.†She says that children who learn to read early, who love big words and use them correctly, are generally considered to show traits of giftedness.
Davis has dedicated her professional life to gifted education and to informing black parents about its benefits. In addition to earning two advanced degrees in the field, she has written the highly acclaimed book, Bright, Talented & Black (Great Potential Press; $24.95) to equip black families. According to the National Association for Gifted Children–on whose board Davis serves as chair of the diversity and equity committee–these children
comprise roughly 10% of the U.S. student population. However, a 2014 report from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found that only 26% of black and Hispanic students participated in gifted programs, even though students of color make up 40% of students attending schools that offer such programs.(Continued on next page)
Limited Access
“Across the nation,†Davis says, “black students are underrepresented at a rate higher than that of any other group. We’ve made some gains in the past 10 to 20 years, but there are millions of children in schools where their gifts are not being recognized. They can be in a school that has fantastic programs, but when you walk past, all the kids in there are white–and this happens in majority black schools.â€
Moreover, studies show that white teachers–the nation’s teaching force is 83% white–are less likely to refer black children for testing. “Teachers must refer children to be tested for giftedness,†Davis says. “Parents have the right to refer their own children–many black parents don’t know this. But the primary route across the country is teacher referrals.â€
The problem is nationwide. “Across the country, black parents don’t know about gifted programming,†Davis says.
The flagrant racial divide has given gifted programming a bad rap. “The myth is that children who have all the books, access to enrichment experiences, and other resources are gifted, and should have greater access to gifted school programs, but that’s a mistake.â€
Discrimination in gifted services has a deep and painful history. “Some in the field recognize that gifted programs came about around the same time that schools were being forced to integrate,†Davis says. The NAGC, for example, celebrates its 62nd year this year. Brown vs. the Board of Education was first argued in 1952. “The place you’re most likely to find segregation in this country is in gifted services,†Davis says.
What Families of Gifted Learners Can Do
Davis believes that black parents can effectively advocate on behalf of their gifted children–just as the Gosiers did. First, they must be involved in their children’s education.”We see an increase in black gifted children when parents get involved,†Davis says, “when parents understand gifted services and how teachers assess their students.â€
Second, the black community must embrace and support its accelerated learners. “The black community tends to resist anything that could be interpreted as elitist or separatist–setting one child apart from another,†says Davis. “We need to accept that we have students that are intellectually exceptional. Just the way we support the athletically gifted, we need to support academically exceptional
children.†She also urges African Americans to take up the advocacy mantle for all black children–not just their own. “We as a community need to accept that this is one of our responsibilities; it’s our charge to advocate on behalf of the intellectually gifted.†Exploring the NAGC website and making good use of its resources is another way parents can educate themselves.Are you getting the runaround when you ask about gifted services at your child’s school? Davis recommends taking the following steps:
- Tell your child’s teacher up to three separate times the advanced work you believe he is capable of. Ask the teacher to give your child more advanced work (say, third grade math when he’s in first grade). If each time the teacher doesn’t respond–
- Go to the teacher’s supervisor; that could be the assistant principal or principal. Give that person up to two opportunities to respond. If that person doesn’t respond–
- Go to the district superintendent (this information should be on the school’s website). The superintendent’s job is to make sure all children in the district are equitably served.
To learn more about giftedness, go to the website of the National Association for Gifted Children. Also, explore Joy Lawson Davis’s Facebook pages, Celebrating Black Genius and WeAreGifted2.