In Richmond City Schools:  African American students are 88% of the student enrollment but only 60% of students receiving gifted education services.  Caucasian students are 7% of the student enrollment, yet 36% of students receiving gifted education services.

We echo the words of Thomas Jefferson: "By …[selecting] the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated. "

-Recommend:  Change 8 VAC 20-40-40 Screening, referral, identification, and service.  School divisions should not be required to establish uniform procedures for screening, referring, identifying, and serving students.

-Recommend:  In school districts where the student population is very homogeneous, districts may find that criteria used for identifying gifted/talented students on one campus works for all campuses in the district.

-For example, if each campus in the district has similar socioeconomic and racial/ethnic demographics, the same criteria may be used throughout the district.

-Recommend:  However, in districts in which the demographics are more diverse, a single set of criteria used on all campuses will tend to identify gifted/talented students on one campus to the exclusion of potentially eligible students on another campus.