has been changed almost completely since 1995 The present version of includes the use of a simplified matrix (compare Table 14 to

Table 10) that is used with students in first through 12th grades and a revised list of IQ and achievement tests that are used for full evaluation. No information was reported to the Office for Civil Rights concerning preschool and kindergarten evaluation criteria.

To be eligible for gifted program placement, students had to (a) obtain at least 3 points on an IQ test, or (b) obtain 7 or more total points on the matrix, or (c) obtain 6 or more total points on the matrix with at least 1 point in IQ and with the tester's recommendation. The Woodcock-Johnson Revised (WJ-R) was the achievement test used. The IQ tests used were the Wechsler Intelligence Scales

for Children (WISC III), the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). The

WISC-III, according to Post and Mitchell (1993, p. 541) is “arguably the best instrument currently available for assessing students' intelligence." Its norms were updated in the early 1990s to fairly assess the intelligence of culturally disadvantaged and minority children due to the inclusion of an additional scale. According to Hicks and Bolen (1990), the Woodcock-Johnson can be used as either an IQ test or an achievement test. It is one of a few tests that is based on the theory of multiple intelligences. It was normed using a sample of individuals from ages two through 90, and the sample included gender, geographic region, community size, race, and socioeconomic variables.

Table 14

Gifted Student Evaluation Matrix Points 84m-93rd percentile (1 point) 94m-97m percentile (2 points) 98m-99m percentile (3 points) IQ Test Score Reading Achievement Test Score Mathematics Achievement Test Score

Results of the Interventions

Table 15 shows the Bayou Parish gifted population the year before the Office for Civil Rights interventions began (1994-1995), the years during the monitored interventions (1995-1997), the year of the follow-up visit by the Office for Civil Rights (1999), and the two following years. The table shows the gradual increase in the African-American population identified as gifted.students. The drop in the Other Minority category is being addressed by Bayou Parish during the 2001-2002 school year.

The Office for Civil Rights personnel (U.S. Department of Education, 2000) believed the increase in the gifted African-American population took place without lowering the standards and within the guidelines of the Louisiana

Department of Education. The three barriers identified by Ford (1994) were

addressed by the interventions. Identification practices were made more inclusive by allowing more minority students the opportunity to take an individually

administered IQ test and by allowing more African-American students the opportunity to take gifted-type enrichment classes. Tests that showed poor performance in identifying gifted students were eliminated, and other tests were being examined during the 2001-2002 school year as possible replacements. Parents and teachers were made aware of giftedness and the gifted program through the use of posters, fliers, presentations, newspaper articles, and television news features. In addition, a task force of concerned educators,

parents, and community members was formed to carry out the interventions and to seek new methods that may also be effective.

Table 15

Bavou Parish Gifted Prooram Enrollment

Total Black White Other

1994-1995 1,322 106 (8.0%) 1,173 (88.7%) 43 (3.3%) 1995-1996 1,238 106 (8.6%) 1,093 (88.3%) 39 (3.2%) 1996-1997 1,330 122 (9.2%) 1,162(87.4%) 46 (3.5%) 1997-1998 1,384 140(10.1%) 1,193 (86.2%) 51 (3.7%) 1998-1999 1,493 159(10.6%) 1,278 (85.6%) 56 (3.8%) 1999-2000 1,498 163(10.8%) 1,273 (85.1%) 62(4.1% ) 2000-2001 1,550 200(12.9%) 1,314(84.8%) 36 (2.3%)

Summary of Document Analysis

The Office for Civil Rights worked with the Bayou Parish school system to find a way to increase the number of gifted African-American students throughout the school system. The interventions that were implemented were within the guidelines mandated by the Louisiana Department of Education. The

interventions were based on the belief that if more African-American students were given the opportunity for a gifted screening, then more African-American students would have the opportunity of being placed in the gifted program.

Teachers and parents became more familiar with giftedness and gifted education through the use of presentations at vahous organizations, local news coverage, fliers, posters, and “Child Search Month" activities. A task force was established to develop ongoing plans to further increase the gifted minority population. The task force also examined student screening and evaluation instruments. They eliminated the instruments that were considered to be

ineffective and are considering new instruments as replacements. A member of Bayou Parish’s Pupil Appraisal Team was interviewed to gather further

information about the gifted student identification procedure. The interview is summarized below.

Pupil Appraisal Team Interview Results

The Bayou Parish Pupil Appraisal Team consists of the Supervisor of Gifted Programs, a Pupil Appraisal Team coordinator, psychologists, and

educational diagnosticians, all of whom work as employees of the Bayou Parish school system and are housed at the Pupil Appraisal Office. The number of these employees is uncertain at the time of this study (July 2001) because, dunng this time of year, employees often change jobs. Because several employees had recently been promoted to other jobs or had transferred to other jobs, the remaining employees were working to take up the slack left by the changes. Thus, only one Pupil Appraisal Team member (who also happened to be a member of the Task Force, described earlier) consented to be interviewed by the

researcher. This was a tape-recorded telephone interview that took place after hours. The following is a narrative summary of the interview.

In 1995, the Office for Civil Rights conducted a compliance review of the Bayou Parish gifted program. Bayou Parish was chosen through random

selection and not due to parent complaints. The impact of the compliance review was that it made people in Bayou Parish (teachers, parents, etc.) more aware of the problem of the underrepresentation of minority students in the gifted program.

As shown previously in Table 15, the Office for Civil Rights examined the following gifted populations in Bayou Parish: White, Black, and Other Minority. Other Minority included Asian and Native American students. Other Minority did not include any Limited English Proficiency students until the 1999-2000 school year.

As a part of the interventions created by the Office for Civil Rights, a Task Force (described in the previous section of this chapter) was established and still exists. The Task Force was (and still is) a group of eight to ten members that now includes the special education supervisor, the gifted program supervisor, members of Pupil Appraisal, and some teachers. Some members were appointed by supervisors, but most members volunteered. Some teachers volunteered because being on the Task Force was part of their Professional Growth Plan. The team is now examining new identification instruments (IQ tests) that are said to be less culturally biased, and some of these instruments are being field-tested by the Task Force members. They have discovered that