"Giftedness" in K–12 Schooling: A New Eugenics

• In Event: Dystopian DNA? Public Education, Genetics, and the Popular Imagination

Abstract

Objectives
The notion that people are inherently different has long provided an ideological justification for class, racial and gender divisions. In education, ‘racial geneism’ is the belief that genes shape the nature of ethnic group achievements and inequities (Gillborn, 2016), a notion that has returned to political and academic arenas at an alarming rate.

Rudimental and dangerous ideas about the genetic heritability of intelligence, and a supposed ‘biologic basis’ for the Black/White achievement gap, are again influencing the thinking of the political elite (Dorling & Tomlinson 2016; Gillborn, 2016). The falsehood of ‘potential’ is especially prominent where deterministic assumptions are strongest i.e. children are born with the potential to be very-able, average, less-able, unable or disabled. The belief that every child should be educated to fulfill that potential (as determined by IQ or subjective teacher recommendation) is pertinacious, and infers that a child has a ‘fixed maximum ability’ (Dorling & Tomlinson 2016).

This paper quantitatively exposes how the presence gifted and talented programs for the ‘most able’ in Florida, serve to exacerbate enduring ‘achievement gaps’ by race, and fuel segregation under the guise of science (behavioural genetics).
Theoretical Framework
This paper is informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT), a perspective that contends that race is a historically patterned, contextually specific and multifaceted social construction (Gillborn, 2016). Thus, any science that gives support to the argument that White people are intellectually superior to Black people (i.e. Gould, 1981; Herrnstien & Murray, 1996; Plomin [see BBC, 2015]), is not only deeply erroneous, but fundamentally dangerous.
Methods/Modes of Inquiry
This paper uses a mixed method approach combining analysis of key policy texts alongside official statistics to critically expose the so-called ‘achievement gap’ by race/gender/eligibility for free or reduced school meals/gifted certification.

Data Sources & Evidence
This paper focuses on key policy texts between 2002 and 2015, the period in which No Child Left Behind was the main law governing law for K-12 education. The quantitative analysis uses official standardised test data from the State of Florida (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and English Language Arts) and original survey data.

Results and Conclusions
This paper demonstrates:
1. The misuse of IQ/standardised test data to justify inequality on the basis of ‘intelligence’.
2. That gifted certification disproportionately privileges wealthier-whiter students and preserves the racialised status quo.
3. That the myth about ‘ability’ and pre-determined potential is comforting; especially for those who are awkward with, or unaccepting of, the degree of inequality by race present in the nation’s schools.

Significance of the Study
Many of the arguments offered in defence of behavioural generics rest on beliefs that take for granted (and further legitimise) a view of the world shaped by White hegemony. Seeking to scientifically justify ‘achievement gaps’ by race for example, rather than confronting the systemic inequalities that create those patterns of inequality, absolve those with power and privilege from responsibility and reinforce White hegemony.





Author

• Claire E. Crawford, University of Birmingham