![]() What I didn’t realize as a nine-year old, was the level of privilege that helped get me into the gifted program.Įducators, advocates, and policymakers often discuss the wide achievement gaps that exist in education. Being in the gifted program in elementary school led to me taking advanced classes in middle, honors classes in high school, a high ACT score, and ultimately receiving merit-based college scholarships, getting accepted into graduate school, and having a successful career. Once given the opportunity to participate in the gifted program, I excelled. The following quarter-I received straight As. What happened? The next quarter in school I received Bs. Before I switched classes, my mom was warned I would likely struggle in the gifted program and shouldn’t expect to receive grades higher than Cs and Ds. It took several meetings and constant phone calls to my teacher, the school principal, and the school district until the school finally agreed to place me in the gifted program halfway through fourth grade. When I was in fourth grade my mom thought I wasn’t being challenged enough in school, so she advocated for me to be placed in the school’s gifted program. My placement scores were considered “average” to “below-average,” so I was placed in regular classes year after year. I wasn’t supposed to be in the gifted program in grade school. "We're certainly willing to work with the district and the law firm to review this case, and the state rule.By: Nycole Stawinoga, Program Manager, Research & Communications "We haven't had any other formal complaints until now," said JoAnn Carrin, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education. The federal agency investigated and ruled in 1994 that "Plan B is a permissible means to address the historic underrepresentation of minority students in gifted programs." ![]() Department of Education Office for Civil Rights alleging that the policy discriminated on the basis of race. The state's policy for gifted admissions was challenged in 1993 when a complaint was filed with the U.S. Last year 1.49 percent of black students were in gifted, and 2.12 percent of Hispanic children had that distinction. In Pinellas County, the numbers of minority students in gifted programs have been on the rise under Plan B. Districts generally aim for roughly 3.0 percent of any student population to qualify for gifted classes. The percentage of Hispanic students rose from 1.9 percent to 4.2 percent. For instance, in Hillsborough County the percentage of black students in gifted classes rose from 1.1 percent to 2.4 percent from 1992 to 1998. "The idea is to make it so that all kids can meet their potential (and) to find other ways to identify students who might have been overlooked," said Mary Ann Ratliff, supervisor of elementary gifted education for Hillsborough County schools. Under a points system, those kinds of qualities paired with an IQ score of 115 or better could qualify a child for a gifted program _ if the child is African American, Hispanic, speaks limited English or comes from a family living in poverty. It involves other non-IQ factors, such as leadership qualities, creativity, ability to overcome adversity and motivation. Plan B focuses on minority students who tend to be underrepresented in such programs. Plan A involves the traditional qualifications: a score of 130 or above on an IQ test. ![]() Based on state guidelines, districts devised two plans for admission, and they came to be known as plans A and B. ![]() In 1991, the state directed school districts to increase the number of minority students in gifted programs. But that policy already has survived a similar challenge. State policy does dictate how Hillsborough and other districts identify gifted students, and those policies do call for a two-track system. "We think the state of Florida's policies dictate to Hillsborough County how they admit students to gifted programs." "She was denied admission under a two-track system, because of her race we consider that to be discrimination," said Edward Blum, chairman of the Campaign for a Color-Blind America, a non-profit group that works with Helfand's law firm in challenging race-based policies in government. 3 letter, lawyer William Helfand threatened to sue Florida if the state does not end its "racially discriminatory policies for admissions." The letter was sent to Florida's governor, education commissioner, attorney general and the chairwoman of the Hillsborough County School Board. ![]()
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