Teachers often play a key role in identifying which students in their classrooms are highly intelligent and should be tested for admission to gifted programs.
In a separate study using different data, Grissom found that black students are more likely to be identified as gifted when they have a black teacher, whatever the racial composition of the rest of the staff. Students with very similar — and very high — test scores are assigned to gifted programs at different rates depending on race, he found; the disparities were less stark for students of color with teachers of the same race.
Observers seeking to explain the discrepancies in gifted representation are quick to raise questions about teachers’ biases or lack of cultural understanding, Grissom said. But he said there could be many other factors, including students who exhibit stronger performance when their teachers are the same race.
“It could be that two different teachers are actually seeing different capacities in a kid because that kid is behaving differently,” Grissom said.
Gifted assignment is far from the only aspect of education in which race appears to matter. Research has shown lower suspension rates for black students in schools with higher proportions of black teachers, for example. Minority students are less likely to be assigned to special education when there are more minority teachers. And students tend to achieve at higher levels when they have teachers of the same race.
Demographic change means it is all the more important to better understand these patterns, Grissom said. Minority students now compose the majority of students in public schools, but more than 80 percent of the nation’s teachers are white.
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4713