Giftedness in African American Children

What is Giftedness?

Giftedness is a term that over time has been hard to define. Most people have an idea that it means being “really smart” or “talented” but don't know anything more than that. There has been a lack of agreement among educators, government officials, and others as to what giftedness really is and how it should be measured. During the early 1920s, the prevailing belief was that giftedness could be demonstrated through academic and cognitive abilities on intelligence or IQ tests (Hamilton, 1993). In later years, giftedness was thought to encompass many other abilities that are usually not measured by most intelligence tests. Many agencies responded to these results by also including nonacademic abilities in their definitions. The U.S. Department of Education (USDE), for example, includes performing and visual arts as well as leadership in their definition of giftedness.

While this definition does comprise a broad array of abilities and is applied by many of our nation's school districts, most giftedness testing involves only the administration of an IQ test. This is primarily because these tests are time effective and relatively easy to administer.

Some Problems with Current Referral Practices

The lack of consensus in a definition for giftedness has made the identification process very problematic. As a result, many gifted children have been bypassed for gifted programs. The problem with using only intelligence tests for eligibility is that many of the test items do not transcend factors such as culture, socioeconomic status, and schooling that may have an impact on one's performance. This is especially difficult for African American and other minority children, because the standards and values on which these tests are based differ from theirs. Minority children face test bias and experience test anxiety disproportionately to other groups. This also has an impact on their scores. Average IQ scores support this; the average IQ for European Americans is 100, whereas that for African Americans is only 85. As a result, the select few who do adapt have the opportunity to be identified.

Before children can even be identified as gifted, they need to be referred for an evaluation. One of the most frequently used sources for identifying potentially gifted students is teachers. The data, however, show that many teachers are not reliable, especially in the identification of students from different racial and cultural backgrounds (Ford, 1995). One explanation for this is that many teachers are under the assumption that gifted children are only those who are “model children,” those who are well behaved and cooperative. Many teachers are also unaware of the differences in learning styles of people from different backgrounds and may take these approaches to be faults rather than assets. Oftentimes, however, students are not viewed as potentially gifted because they fall on either of two extremes: they're either too visible to their teachers or not visible enough. Misbehavior and underachievement in gifted children are frequently the result of fear of being ridiculed by lower achieving students and/or of boredom because the class work is too easy. Low self-esteem and/or feelings of inferiority (which are commonplace in African American students) also prevent children from exhibiting the confidence that is characteristic of the traditional gifted child. In effect, many children get overlooked.

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