ACHIEVEMENT AND SELF-CONCEPT OF MINORITY-STUDENTS IN ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL GIFTED PROGRAMS

Despite considerable interest in the identification of minority studen ts for gifted programs, few studies have investigated minority student s actually selected for gifted programs. The present study reports on the standardized achievement scores and self-concept levels of African -American (N = 299), Hispanic (N = 52), and white (N = 595) elementary school students placed in gifted or regular school programs. Results indicate that minority students identified for gifted programs scored significantly higher on achievement measures than minority students pl aced in regular classrooms, although white gifted-program students sco red significantly higher than both African-American and Hispanic gifte d-program students. There were no minority-group differences in academ ic or social self-concept. Additional analyses suggested that the dist inction between academic and social self-concept used with white stude nts may not be applicable to minority students. This article challenge s gifted education to address the conceptual problems and methodologic al difficulties in interpreting the meaning of standardized achievemen t test scores for minority students in gifted programs.