The Nouveau Talented Tenth: Envisioning W.E.B. Du Bois in the Context of Contemporary Gifted and Talented Education

Abstract

Similar to W.E.B. Du Bois, we believe that access to educational opportunities is a fundamental right that should be provided to all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin. Too often, however, the educational experiences for Black students are significantly uneven in comparison to other demographic groups. These students commonly do not have access to advanced curricula, courses, programs, facilities, and teachers-important factors regarded as the hallmark for receiving a quality pre-K-12 education. To this end, the authors critically investigated the under-representation of Black students in gifted and talented programs in the United States. Using data from the 2015-16 Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection, the authors discovered, again, negative gifted and talented trends among Black students, suggesting that racial discrimination and bias may significantly contribute to their low participation in such advanced academic programs. We link the findings to the court decisions of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and McFadden v. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46. Recommendations for dismantling the under-representation or low representation of Black students in gifted and talented1 are offered.

Publication Title

Journal of Negro Education

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