Effect of Children's Ethnicity on Teachers' Referral and Recommendation Decisions in Gifted and Talented Programs

Abstract

This study examines the effect of students' ethnicity on teachers' educational decision making. A total of 207 elementary school teachers from a large midwestern city participated in this study. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions. Each group was provided with a short case vignette describing a gifted child. One third of the teachers read a vignette describing a European American student, one third read a vignette describing an African American student, and one third served as a control group and received no information about the student's ethnicity. After reading the vignette, all participants were asked to respond to two questions. The results of this study indicated that the student's ethnicity did make a difference in the teachers' referral decisions.