This digest briefly discusses the identification of students who are gifted, difficulties in the identification process, appropriate identification practices, and procedures that can help with identification. First, it stresses that identification must be the means to securing appropriate services for the student, not an end in itself. The paper…

This guide for administrators addresses the problem of the frequent over-identification of African American students as disabled resulting in over-representation of this population in special education programs. The guide focuses on preventive strategies--specifically, how administrators may use the prereferral intervention process, school…

This survey of 1,627 educators and 1,503 non-educators found stereotypical attitudes and prejudices toward African American males, in the categories of athletics, crime, education, music, attitude, family, personality, and sexual prowess. Teachers are urged to become aware of negative black male stereotypes they may harbor, which…

This paper presents nationally representative information about the extent of disproportionate gender representation in special education for the disability conditions of learning disabilities, mental retardation, and emotional disturbance. Recommendations are made for research to elucidate the basis for differences, improved data collection and…

In examining the disproportionate representation of minority groups in special education, this article recommends the inclusion of philosophical and ethical perspectives to broader theoretical paradigms and the open acknowledgement in research efforts that issues related to ethnicity, race, and language background are highly contentious in our…

The present overrepresentation of African American males in the U.S. justice system, combined with racial disproportionality on measures of school discipline, provide compelling reasons for continued scrutiny of connections between the two areas. Although previous studies have revealed powerful insights about the salience of culture, particularly…

We explored whether women were equally represented in leadership roles in college student governance at 21 Midwestern comprehensive universities. We surveyed the college student governments and asked them to report how many women participated in governance, and how many had been president, vice president and more. Our analyses showed that, while…

This study is an examination of the relationship between gender and participation in high school and college instrumental jazz ensembles. Student demographic and attitudinal information was collected using the researcher-designed Instrumental Jazz Participation Survey (IJPS). Undergraduate college band students (N = 628) representing 15 programs…

In spite of the best efforts of educators, too few African-American students are academically succeeding in the science classroom. Ultimately, this lack of achievement has contributed to an under-representation of African-Americans with science degrees and science occupations. This article presents a survey that provides insight into what can help…

Social class is a major determining factor of accomplishment in most educational, employment, and social arenas and still one of the best predictors of who will achieve success, prosperity, and social status. Yet, despite its continued significance, social class is rarely as well considered as the related analytic vectors of gender and race,…

Continuing unresolved problems in the field of special education include the continued use of discrepancy models; the need for better identification models; continued debate over programmatic issues, ranging from inclusion to self-contained models; and the continued overrepresentation of certain ethnic and racial groups in the learning…

A dataset containing demographic information, gifted nomination status, and gifted identification status for all elementary school students in the state of Georgia (N = 705,074) was examined. The results indicated that automatic and teacher referrals were much more valuable than other referral sources. Asian and White students were much more…

The authors argue that English language learner (ELL) language assessment policy and poor language tests partly account for ELLs' disproportionate representation in special education. Previous research indicates that many states routinely assess ELLs' first language (L1) at initial enrollment and that ELLs identified as limited in both languages…

In this article, the author discusses the trends of advanced placement classes in American high schools. At Sharpstown High School, advanced placement classes have long been reserved for the academically well-to-do. Other students, a majority of them poor and members of racial or ethnic minorities, never considered the rigorous, college-level…

The organized political efforts to dismantle affirmative action programs resulted in both advantages and disadvantages in keeping the doors of higher education open to historically underrepresented students. The advantages included short-term solutions to underrepresentation such as developing alternative admission criteria for higher education.…