Ohio gifted educators, the Fordham Institute has just released a new report about educational outcomes of Ohio children who scored in the top 20 percent on English language arts or mathematics exams taken in third grade. From the title, Ohio’s Lost Einsteins: The inequitable outcomes of early high achievers, it is clear we have a lot of work to do to support Ohio’s gifted students.
Dr. Scott Imberman of Michigan State University offered the following conclusions based on his analysis of the progress of the early high achievers into college.
- A low percentage of Ohio’s high achieving students are identified as gifted. Economically disadvantaged early high achievers are less likely to be identified as gifted and talented than students with higher SES status. Black and Hispanic early high achievers are less likely to be identified as gifted than White and Asian/Pacific Islander students. Only 34% of economically disadvantaged early high achievers and 30% percent of Black early high achievers were formally identified by their schools as gifted.
- Gifted identification impacts student outcomes. Statistical analyses showed that gifted identification improved math achievement for Black early high achievers. Early high achievers identified as gifted performed better than early high achievers who were not identified as gifted on a variety of long-term outcomes, including high school achievement, ACT/SAT exam scores, AP test taking rates, AP test scores, 2-year college enrollment, and 4-year college enrollment.
You can review the slides from the report release presentation here.
Do these results align with the data from your school district or your school? What changes can you make in your school or in your school district to disrupt this pattern? How can we do better for our gifted students?