Gifted and Talented (G/T) programs, are often under pressure because G/T students do not mirror the demographic and programmatic characteristics of the general student population. The students identified as G/T in Arkansas are whiter, wealthier, and more likely to be female than students as a whole, as shown in the chart below.
Arkansas’ Gifted and Talented student characteristics vs. All students, 2020-21
Identification discrepancies persist even after limiting the sample to the highest-achieving students. OEP’s research regarding G/T identification in the state of Arkansas found that high-achieving students from low-income households are 50% less likely to be identified as G/T by the 4th grade than similarly high achieving students from more advantaged backgrounds.
Since we found that 30% of the highest achieving students are not being provided G/T services, our recommendation is that districts universally screen all students for G/T consideration, rather than relying on a nomination procedure to identify high-aptitude students.
In addition, we wondered if using an identification process that identifies students who are performing at a high level relative to their local school context would increase the diversity of G/T students. We modeled the use of this local norms approach and compared the results to Arkansas’ current G/T identification strategy to investigate whether a new method would improve the identification rates of underrepresented students in Arkansas. We recommend that you read more about the research in the policy brief or the full report, but we will highlight the main takeaways below.
We examined nine cohorts in the analysis, and we found no consistent evidence that using local norms would increase the racial or programmatic diversity of students identified as G/T throughout the state.
We were surprised to find that, contrary to other research, using local norms in Arkansas would not increase the G/T representation of traditionally marginalized groups. We still suggest that districts use local norms in the G/T identification process, however, as it will reduce and unintended bias, and lead to better alignment between the services being provided and the needs of the identified students.
If you want to learn more about how to implement local norms, just reach out to us at oep@uark.edu.