Advancing Minority Gifted Identification: Evidence From a Randomized Trial of Nurturing for a Bright Tomorrow

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 59
  In Roundtable Session: Studies That Highlight Essential Features of Approaches and Programs for Reducing Achievement Gaps: Lessons From All-Day Kindergarten, Teacher Leadership, Early College, Gifted Education, and Alternative Programs

Abstract

The under-representation of minority students in gifted education programs is a persistent challenge to closing the racial achievement gap. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of Nurturing for a Bright Tomorrow, an intervention designed to develop the skills and expectations required to help children attain gifted status in elementary school. Following the second year of implementation, we find that Nurturing had modest and significant effects on student performance on the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test and, for Hispanic students, on the odds of being identified as gifted. These results suggest that by the second year of a three-year trial, Nurturing has the potential to help narrow gifted rates between minority and non-minority populations.

Authors

• Angel L Harris, Duke University

• Darryl Vernois Hill, Fulton County Schools

• Matthew A Lenard, Wake County Public School System