Adolescent Voices—Who's Listening?

Historically, the psychosocial development of minority gifted students has received little attention. The purpose of this study was to assess how gifted, low income, minority eighth grade students self reported on various psychosocial dimensions while attending a three-year high school preparatory program. Locus of control, peer relations, leadership, and community orientation emerged as dominant themes. Subjects consisted initially of 44 African American, Filipino, and Hispanic students (of which 24 were eventually interviewed). Both questionnaires and targeted one-on-one interviews were used. Responses differed between genders, with females showing more external locus of control, fragmented peer relations, decreased sense of community, and heightened career aspirations. The role of school climate is discussed in terms of adolescent adjustment.

“An ounce of prevention… ”: A case study of a migrant gifted student

In efforts to identify their minority gifted population, a small school district discovered a young, Spanish speaking migrant student, The student's background placed him at risk in the public education system. His identification as gifted and the subsequent educational services provided may have prevented his failing or dropping out of school. Examination of the student's test scores and his learning behaviors provided insight into educational stereotypes and gifted learning behaviors of Hispanic students.

Undiscovered Diamonds: The Minority Gifted Child

A disproportionately low number of minority students have been identified and placed in programs for gifted students. The realities of the situation relate to the attitudes of planners and teachers, the identification process itself, inadequate research verifying the use of appropriate identification tools, and an inadequate picture of how a program should be designed. Empirical research on identification and planning for the minority gifted child is sparse, but that which is available highlights the need for more extensive research in this area. Exploratory research using The Raven Matrices and chronometric devices as part of the identification process appear to hold promise for developing new hypotheses and proving or disproving those that are presently proposed. More flexibility of planning, more funding for research, more dissemination of information, and improved teacher training on how to recognize clues for identifying exceptional intellectual processing abilities are among the recommendations proposed here to alleviate the problem of discovering the gifted among minority populations.