Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
5-2021
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2361-6847
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Jennifer Butcher
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Christie Bledsoe
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Amy Barrios
Abstract
The problem this study addressed was the underrepresentation of ELLs in gifted and talented (GT) programs. The purpose of this case study was to explore teacher, parent, and administrator understandings of the identification process for the gifted and talented program in Gray ISD (pseudonym), in order to gain insights for improving the identification of ELLs for the GT program. The overall research question was: Based on their understandings of the GT identification process, what insights do teachers, parents, and administrators provide to improve the identification of ELLs for the GT program? With LatCrit theory serving as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study utilized a narrative case study approach. Key participants were parents and teachers of ELLs, and administrators at Gray Avenue Elementary in Gray ISD, a small, rural school district located in South Central Texas. Findings for the qualitative research indicated that first, teachers, administrators, and parents all need more information on the GT program itself as well as the identification and testing process for the program. Second, participants’ insights suggested that changes be made to the identification process so that ELLs are more likely to qualify for the GT program. Third, parents strongly advocated for more information. Parents insisted that they felt left out of the school, mostly due to the language barrier. They also called for more information from the school in general as well as more information about the GT program. Several suggestions were made to improve the identification process for ELLs. Parents made several recommendations on how to improve communication between the school and the bilingual parents.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Vasquez, Angelita O., "¿Dónde Están? Exploring the Identification Process for Gifted English Language Learners" (2021). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 365.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/365