Denver Colorado has been having issues with their magnet programs for gifted students these last few years. Their problem is one that is experienced nationwide, and unlike the problems with most public schools, it does not relate to poor performance. The problem Denver has been facing is that in their mostly minority districts, enrollments in the gifted program are majority white students. In this age of diversity where the appearance of equality means more than equality itself, the Denver school board has come up with a simplistic solution perfectly fitting of a public educator. They intend to lower standards for students who fit certain criteria.

Denver Public Schools is trying to fix a disparity in the program that serves its smartest and most talented students — which up until now has drawn mostly white students in a district that is mostly Latino.

To determine who gets into the program, the district previously relied on oral tests that measure a student’s reasoning and IQ.

But some educators and social scientists believe those tests are biased against students learning English and poorer students who may not have had the same life experiences as their richer peers.

To make things more equitable, the district now relies on a sum of measures to determine eligibility into the highly gifted program — cognitive tests, annual assessments, reading tests and teacher nominations. Next year, the district will consider artwork and writings.

Also, students get extra points toward entry into the program if English is their second language or if they receive federal meal benefits — a measure of poverty.

For example, a student who scores as low as the 75th percentile on cognitive tests could be considered, Howard said. Previously, that child would not have been admitted.

The American Civil Liberties Union in California last year threatened to sue the Tustin Unified School District over low numbers of Latinos and African-Americans in the district’s gifted programs.

“If what we are trying to do is measure not accomplishment but giftedness and talent, then putting your thumb on the scale or adding points for kids from low-income backgrounds re-equalizes things,” he [Joshua Wyner, executive vice president of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation] said. “The question is how heavy should that thumb be?”

Once again we find the public school system announcing to kids that if they are poor, or from a certain ethnic background they are not expected to perform as well as others. The idea of admitting students into a gifted program who do not even speak English is probably the most preposterous solution I have seen so far. This is not to say that it is necessary to speak English in order to be considered “gifted”, however when a class is taught in English it is obviously helpful if the students in that class understand what the teacher is saying.

Rather than making every available effort to increase the performance of these children, Denver has simply decided to lower its standards. Previously only about 3 percent of students met the criteria for the gifted program, making those who qualified feel truly gifted. Under the new standards accepting students as low as the 75th percentile, the program should be renamed to the “slightly better than average” program.

Although I do not expect to see it anytime soon, I certainly pray that one day our educators will wake up to the realization that by lowering standards in an effort to help minority students, you are actually hurting them.

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Education, Features, Racism