Perceptions of African-American middle school gifted students regarding factors that influence their attrition in gifted education programs

摘要

This study examines the relationship between the attrition of African-American gifted students’ participation in gifted programs and their racial identity, cultural attitude, self-esteem, group membership, teacher support, and student demographics from the student’s perspective.This study was based on the premise that some underrepresentation of African- American gifted students is partially caused by gifted students own choices not to participate in gifted programs. This concept is less explored in the research with the John Uzo Ogbu (2003) controversial research as its foundation.A Pearson r Product Moment Correlation Coefficient research study was used to determine if there was a relationship between the attrition of African-American gifted students participation in gifted programs and their racial identity, cultural attitude, self esteem, group membership and teacher support. A questionnaire was developed for students for the purpose of collecting and analyzing data to test the null hypotheses, which states that no relationship exists.The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest the results of this study indicate that there is no significant relationship between African-American gifted students’ racial identity, cultural attitudes, self-esteem or teacher support and their attrition in the gifted program. However, there is a significant relationship between African-American gifted students’ group membership and their attrition in the gifted program. Specifically, those students who had feelings of alienation from the other gifted students were more likely to be at-risk for attrition in their gifted program. Therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted for research questions one through three, and number five but the null hypothesis was rejected for research question number four.