Gifted identification as a constitutional issue

Abstract

State and national statistics relative to the proportionality of ethnic minority group students who are identified for gifted educational programming are dismal. African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans were consistently underrepresented in 34 of the 50 states in 1980 and 1992 in data taken from the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report (Brown, 1995). This lack of proportionality is an ethical issue for educators and may well be an issue of constitutional law.