 Dear reader,
If you’ve wondered why there is so much controversy surrounding “gifted and talented” education, consider these stark statistics from New York City: More than three quarters of children in these programs are white or Asian. Only 16 percent of gifted seats go to Black and Hispanic students — yet they make up some 65 percent of the city’s public schoolchildren.
Nationally, almost 7 percent of students are tapped for gifted and talented programs, yet debates are raging about those programs’ fairness and effectiveness. That’s one reason we took a look this week at what the research says about gifted education. The findings are both fascinating and inconclusive, and well worth your time.
Also this week, we delved into the lonely struggle of one administrator in Utah to track down homeless students and their families, at a time when some 420,000 homeless students are missing from school rolls. During the pandemic, many simply vanished, and it’s not clear they will ever be back. Please take some time with these stories and tell us what you think. We love to hear from our readers!
Liz Willen, Editor
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Main Idea
