The Underrepresentation of English Learners in Mississippi's Intellectually Gifted Education Program: a Framework for Change

School districts have been struggling with the challenges of educating English learners for decades, long before the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Yet, considering the abundance of research on English learners, relatively few studies have examined specific methods or efforts of districts and schools to identify English learners for participation in an intellectually gifted education program. The purpose of this study was to determine if particular gifted education programming, or programming criteria, impacts this student population's identification for participation in Mississippi's intellectually gifted education program. Specifically, this study aimed to investigate the district- and school-level policies and practices, as well as the use of multi-step and multi-source procedures and processes used by educators to identify the "gifts" and abilities of English learners. Based on the study's findings, the researcher hopes that this study will serve as a framework for change that tasks Mississippi and its school districts with reconsidering the identification process used to determine student eligibility for participation in an intellectually gifted education program by providing high-quality professional development and technical assistance and by implementing sound and reliable multi-assessment methods and measures that prove beneficial to identifying English learners' potential and ability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Patterson-Davidson, Vicki

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thea H. Williams-Black
• Whitney Webb
• Larry Hanshaw

• English As A Second Language
• English Learners
• Gifted
• Intellectually Gifted
• Intelligence Quotient
• Limited English Proficiency
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/224

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1223