There's a problem with the way Ohio educates its smartest students.
Many of Ohio's early high achievers, students who score in the top 20% on their third-grade exams, lose their academic edge by the time they reach high school, according to a study released Tuesday by the Fordham Institute.
"Excellence gaps" emerge for economically disadvantaged kids and students of color and by the time they reach high school, less than half of those kids (47% and 41% respectively) took the ACT college entrance exam. Those who took the test scored lower than their wealthier, whiter counterparts. And just 26% of Black early high achievers went on to enroll in four-year colleges.
"In other words, high-achieving white and affluent students are much more likely to remain high achieving than their Black and lower-income peers," Michigan State University professor Scott Imberman said.
He conducted the study for the Fordham Institute, a school choice group, by following more than 900,000 kids who took the third-grade math or reading exams between 2005 and 2012.
"We need to know why these gaps emerged, whether recent policies have shrunk them, and what can be done to make sure all Ohio students have access to the services that they need," Imberman said. "It is a really tough question."
How gifted programs work
A few years ago Ohio started screening all its students for gifted abilities, once between K-2 and a second time between 3-6 grades.
That's great, according to the Ohio Association for Gifted Children, but the policy only exists on paper.
"I know there are some districts that try to get out of it, who tell their students 'you don't want to take another test,'" Executive Director Ann Sheldon said. "There are no penalties for that. There is no gifted police."
And the state has no requirement that gifted children get anything beyond a letter in the mail.
Their schools don't have to offer gifted services and up until a few months ago they could spend their state dollars for gifted education on other things. And some of them did.
Forty-six of the state's 610 districts reported no gifted education expenditures, according to a May 2018 study by the Ohio Department of Education.
"That's been the big hole in state policy for gifted children," Sheldon said. "The wealthier districts offer services, and the districts that are not as wealthy do not."
Federal and state policies have spent the last two decades largely focused on kids who perform below their grade level, Imberman said. Raising those kids up is important, he said, but Ohio also needs "to understand whether this is complementary to or a substitute for maintaining high achievers’ performance." That's especially important for Black students or those who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
"With any population that needs a different curriculum, the earlier you get to them the better chance you have of developing their potential ...," Sheldon said. "If you don’t use it you lose it. That is what this study shows more than anything."
Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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