A study investigated the effects of the placement of five economically disadvantaged minority students, who were identified in kindergarten as potentially academically gifted through nontraditional means, in a gifted school. Six-year follow-up data suggest that the student's academic careers have for the most part progressed well. Performance…

Reported are the activities of the U.S. Office of Education Task Force on Gifted and Talented Education, which centered around three issues: minority and disadvantaged gifted, leadership training, and visual and performing arts. (BD)

This interview with Howard Spicker discusses his early leadership in the Head Start programs of the mid-1960s, his establishment of the Indiana University College for Gifted and Talented Youth, and his development of alternative procedures, instrumentation, and programs for gifted students from special populations. His work on Project SPRING is…

In a previous article, we (Naglieri & Ford, 2003) provided evidence from a large-scale study that similar proportions of White, Black, and Hispanic children would be identified as gifted using the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT; Naglieri, 1997). Lohman (2005) has taken issue with our conclusions and our methods. We provide several…

This study administered a cognitive battery of 9 tasks to 400 regular kindergarten children and 31 children identified as gifted. The upper 2% of the regular sample outperformed 81% of the gifted sample, with minority group students achieving most of the top scores. Results support the use of such batteries in identifying previously unidentified…

Project ARTS was designed to identify high-ability, artistically talented third graders from four different ethnic backgrounds in seven rural schools and to implement differentiated arts programs for them. Locally designed measures, developed by teachers and community members, were found to be appropriate by educators if several different measures…

Findings are presented of a gifted identification assessment at the second-grade level (n=600) founded on the principles of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory. Positive relations were evident among scores for different types of intelligences and the traditional measure. The Problem Solving Assessment procedure resulted in a more diverse…

A study involving 257 Navajo Indians and Mexican American elementary students, used the Raven Progressive Matrices to examined the concurrent validity of the DISCOVER assessment. Results provided some evidence for concurrent validity and showed that, through the use of the DISCOVER assessment, 22.9 percent were identified as gifted. (Contains…

A relatively new performance-based assessment, the DISCOVER process, is presented in this review. The theoretical framework of the assessment is explained, followed by a delineation of the assessment process, checklist characteristics and development, and the tasks in the five different activities. Findings on assessment validity and reliability…

Reviewed are the highlights of the past 20 years in the author's search for understanding what might be done about the creativity of gifted minority/disadvantaged children. (BD)

Early Assessment for Exceptional Potential of Young Minority and/or Economically Disadvantaged Students is a project which used portfolio assessment to identify exceptional potential in primary-level children and develop instructional plans. The project determined universal identifiers of exceptional potential and taught teachers to recognize them…

Reports findings from case studies of eight gifted minority children in second and third grade who participated in a Project START (Support To Affirm Rising Talent). Discusses factors that promoted and discouraged success in the regular classroom and in transition to special services for gifted learners. (Author/CR)

Two studies of gifted high school dropouts (n=3,854) found many dropouts were from low socioeconomic-status families and racial minority groups, had parents with low levels of education, and participated less in extracurricular activities. Dropout behavior was related to student's educational aspiration, pregnancy or child-rearing, gender, and…

This article discusses the use of performance task assessments by Project STAR for identifying students for academically gifted programs in grades 3-6. A field test of the performance assessment tasks resulted in finding an additional group of students who were 12 percent African American and 14 percent low-income children. (Contains references.)…

Research and literature are reviewed to support the thesis that new identification procedures, appropriate criteria for evaluating identification procedures, new curricular and instructional programs, and changes in beliefs and stereotypes are needed to resolve the problem of underrepresentation of minority students in gifted programs. A…