Are Excellence Gaps the Unavoidable Consequence of Expanded Opportunity for High-Performing Students?

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Two core goals of gifted education are to facilitate the achievement and growth of the most capable students while at the same time to combat racial, socioeconomic, gender, and linguistic disparities in the upper ranges of academic accomplishment. The “Matthew Effect” holds that the largest response to opportunity will be found among those who begin with the highest achievement. When achievement is unevenly distributed across demographic groups, advanced educational opportunities will tend to magnify discrepancies while at the same time increasing each group’s mean achievement. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the causes, consequences, and challenges of the Matthew Effect in gifted education. Are these goals fundamentally incompatible?

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent

Chair

• Matthew C. Makel, Duke University

Papers

• On the Origin of the Matthew Effect: Insights From a Quantitative Theoretical Model - Matthew McBee, East Tennessee State University; D. Betsy Mccoach, University of Connecticut; Matthew C. Makel, Duke University; Natasha Lynn Godkin, East Tennessee State University

• Understanding Excellence Gaps: What Can We Learn From Studying Within-School Variability? - D. Betsy Mccoach, University of Connecticut; Rashea Hamilton, University of Connecticut - Storrs; Danielle Rita Bousquet, University of Connecticut

• Potential Options for Mitigating Inequality in Advanced Education and Their Implications for the Field of Gifted Education - Scott Joseph Peters, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater