Underserved Gifted Populations Summit

Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Ph. D.Center for Talent Development

Northwestern UniversityCorresponding email: p-olszewski-kubilius@northwestern.edu

Achievement Gaps Continue And Are Long Standing

Nation’s Report Card (National Assessment of Educational Performance NAEP)

•The Black-White, Hispanic-White, and free and reduced lunch-non free and reduced lunch achievement gaps in mathematics and reading at Grades 4 and 8 remained relatively stable from 2013 to 2015 (NAEP, 2015).•Longitudinal data over the past 20 years suggest that while average NAEP scores have generally improved since 1990 for all groups, gaps have remained relatively static (Rampey, Dion, & Donahue, 2009).

Achievement Gaps and SES• The income gap in educational achievement, defined as the

difference between children whose families were at the 90th versus the 10th percentile on family income, has widened historically and is now twice as large as the Black-White achievement gap.

• However, it is important to say tht racial disparities in educational achievement persist beyond the role of SES (Levy, Heissel, Richeson, & Adam, 2016).

• Additionally, racial achievement gaps exist at all socioeconomic levels, and may even be larger in higher socioeconomic levels (College Board, 2005).

How Big Are They?Achievement Gaps

Reading Black-White Hispanic-White

FRL-NFRL

4th Grade 26 24 28

8th Grade 28 21 24

Reading Achievement Gaps, NAEP 2015

Math Black-White Hispanic-White

FRL-NFRL

4th Grade 24 18 24

8th Grade 32 22 28

Math Achievement Gaps, NAEP 2015

Level of Poverty Affects Gaps• Achievement gaps are

wider for children who have been eligible for FRL for multiple years—i.e. have persistent economic disadvantage—compared to students who are occasionally eligible (Michelmore & Dynarski, 2016).

• Children persistently disadvantaged score .94 standard deviation units below students who were never eligible for free and reduced lunch and .23 standard deviation units below students occasionally eligible on a measure of math achievement.

Gaps Begin Early

• Differences in vocabulary between children from higher versus lower socioeconomic status families are apparent at 18 months and continue to grow (Fernald, Marchman & Weisleder, 2013)

• Large gaps exist in science knowledge at kindergarten between lower and higher SES children-- as a result of differential, informal exposure to the natural world and these gaps persist through elementary school (Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, Maczuga, 2016.

Gaps Begin Early• At age 4, 37% of White students were proficient in letter

recognition compared to 28% of Black and 23% of Hispanic students

• In number and shape recognition, 73% of White students were proficient compared to 55% of Black students and 52% of Hispanic students

Gaps Persist• NAEP data indicate that while greater percentages of all

racial groups completed more challenging curriculum levels in 2009 than in 2005, only White and Asian groups exhibited significant increases in the percentage of students who completed a rigorous curriculum by the time they graduated from high school.

• African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and English Language Learners are underrepresented among the top 1%, 5% and 10% of students at every level of the education system from kindergarten through graduate and professional school (College Board, 2005)

What is the Picture for Higher achieving students?

Excellence Gaps• Excellence gaps are large and continue to grow between

grades 3 and 8, especially in math. Low income and minority children are much less likely to perform at advanced levels of proficiency than their white or advantaged peers (Plucker, Burroughs & Song, 2008: Plucker, Hardesty & Burroughts, 2014).

• Minority achievement gaps widen at a greater rate (2X as much) between K to grade 5 for higher achieving students than for low achieving students (Reardon, 2008).

Less Access to Gifted Programs• Low income and minority students are less likely to be

referred for testing for giftedness (Card & Guiliano, 2015)

• Minority, low income, and ELL children are severely under-represented in gifted programming (Yoon & Gentry, 2009)

What Happens to Low Income and Minority High Achievers?

• Are more likely to fall out of the top performing group (top 10%) as they go through elementary school (Wyner, Bridgeland & Diiulio, 2009)

• Particularly if they come from high poverty schools (Xiang, Dahlin, Cronin, Theaker & Durant, 2011)

• Less likely to be grouped for instruction in math by ability in middle school even though they score at the 90th percentile or above (Loveless, 2016)

What Happens to Low Income and Minority High Achievers?

• Less likely to take advanced classes in high school such as AP

• Less likely to take and earn a 3 on AP exams

• Have lower SAT and ACT scores• Earn lower GPAs (Education Trust, 2014)

What Happens to High Achievers?

• Less likely to apply to and matriculate at a selective institution of higher education

• Less likely to finish college• Less likely to attend graduate school

WHY???

• Primary culprit– Opportunities to learn that differ both between

schools and also WITHIN schools (Schmidt, Burroughs, Zoido & Houang, 2015)

• Advanced and gifted programming• Summer opportunities• Extracurricular opportunities • Quality of instruction and curriculum• Level of experience of teachers