Identifying Underserved Gifted Students
through Multi-Tiered Systems of Systems of
Supports
Nanda Mitra-Itle
[email protected]
Jessica dirsmith, D.Ed.
[email protected]
Underrepresentation is a tragic
waste of human potential: The
concerto never written, the
scientific discovery never
made, the political solution
never found
(J.J. Gallagher & Kinney, 1974)
What are
gifted
students?
Who are
underserved?
Who are Underserved
 Economically Disadvantaged
 Culturally Diverse (Especially African, Latin and Native
Americans)
 Linguistically Diverse (ELL)
 Twice-Exceptional (2E)
Percentage enrolled
Race of Gifted Students Nationally
62%
49%
25%
19%
16%
10%
AFRICAN A
HISPANIC
Enrolled
EUROPEAN AMERICAN
Gifted
Legislative budget7 and finance committee (2013)
What are the factors contributing to the
under-representation of underserved gifted
students
Factors Contributing to Underrepresentation
 Gifted Myths
 Lack of Teacher, admin, counselor and psychologist training on gifted
and underserved populations
 Conflict in cultural values
 Culturally loaded assessments
 Conflict of cultural values
 Culturally loaded assessments
What are Current Practices in Gifted Assessment?
5 assumptions of intelligence tests by Test
Developers (Still TRUE?)
 Test developers assume that test takers have no linguistic
barriers or differences that inhibit their performance
 Assume that the content of the test at any particular level is
suitable and of nearly equal difficulty for test takers
 Assume that test takers are familiar with or have theist
sophistication for taking standardized tests
 Assume that test takers are properly motivated to do well on
tests
 Assume that test takers do no have strong negative
psychological reactions to testing
(Lam, 1993 as cited in VanTassel-Baska, 2008)
How do you decide which test to use?
 Multiple factors determine which test a psychologist uses:
 Availability of assessment
 Familiarity
 Student characteristics
 Characteristics of assessment
 Pervious experiences of student, etc.
 Goals of gifted program
 Culture of school
12
What are Best
Practices in
gifted
assessment?
Adopting a pluralistic perspective
 Means assimilating the definitional disagreements into one cohesive
perspective that uses a multimodal/multidimensional view that
accounts for the variability in gifted expression.
 This allows for definition based on strengths and research instead of
relative to European American middle class students.
 Allows for more flexibility
 This perspective forces us to see both the individual and
environmental factors of each student.
14
Using a multiple-criteria method
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Student interview
Permanent products
GATES (Gifted and Talented Evaluation Scales)
Other Gifted Rating Scales (SIGS, GRS, etc.)
Parent Interview
Teacher interview
Observations
Performance based assessments
Cognitive assessment
Cognitive Assessments
CHC cross battery approach
Dynamic assessment (pretest-intervention-posttest
for acquisition of skills)
(Lidz & Macrine, 2001)
15
Before using a cognitive assessment remember…
 Administration of intelligence tests in English are appropriate when used with
students who are English dominant (Bainter et al, 2003)
 Bilingual-Assessment should measure task performance across two languages
(Ascher, 1990)
 Minorities perform better on performance based assessment than on
standardized assessments. (Sarouphim, 2004)
 Focus on an assessment is the person not the test or score
 Goal of any examiner is to be better than the test one uses
 Intelligence tests measure what individual has learned within a culture
 Intelligence tests measure mental functioning under fixed experimental
conditions
16
(Kauffman,
1990 as cited in VanTassel-Baska, 2008)
After using a cognitive assessment
 Self-awareness of one conceptions, viewpoints about diverse groups
both negative and positive
 Develop complex schemas go groups. Avoid simplistic interpretations of
scores
 Search for alternative explanations for scores, especially low ones
 Resist a rush to judgment. Be thoughtful and inquisitive in interpreting
scores
(Sandoval, Frisby, Geisinger, Scheuneman and Grenier, 1998
as cited in VanTassel-Baska, 2008)
What is the
current
practice in
GIEPS?
What is Best
Practice in
GIEPs?
What is MTSS?
The big “BIG” idea of MTSS
1.
Deciding what is important for students to know
2.
Teaching what is important for students to know
3.
Keeping track of how students are doing
4. Making changes according to the results collected
MTSS Framework
 Leadership
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Identified Teams
Buy-In/Consensus
Communication
Professional Development
Empowering Culture
 Professional Development
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Initial Training
Support for Implementation
Monitoring for Fidelity
Providing ongoing Support
 Empowering Culture
 Involving all Staff
 Involving Parents
 Informing All
MTSS Framework
 Assessment
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Screening
Diagnostic
Progress Monitoring
Outcomes
 Curriculum
 Core
 Supplemental
 Intensive
 Instruction
 Core
 Supplemental
 Intensive
MTSS Framework
 All (Core)
 Core Curriculum
 Core Instruction
 Screening Assessment
 Some (Supplemental)
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Protocol Based Curriculum
Protocol Based Instruction
Diagnostic Assessment
Progress Monitoring
Assessment
 Problem Solving Teams
 Few (Intensive)
 Problem Solving Teams
 Intensive,
 Customized Supports