Every year, students return to school already knowing much of the grade-level material that will be taught in their classrooms. Research shows that in a typical fifth-grade classroom, as many as half the students are working at least a year ahead in reading, more than a third are advanced in math, and some are working several years above grade level (Peters et al., 2017; Rambo-Hernandez et al., 2024). When instruction does not meet their needs, these students can disengage, develop poor study habits, or even drop out of school.
Identifying Gifted Multilingual Students: Barriers and Promising Practices
Giftedness occurs equally in all populations; however, research shows that gifted multilingual learners (MLs) are not represented equally in gifted programs (Siegle et al., 2016; Gubbins et al., 2018; Mun et al., 2020; Long et al., 2023). According to the National Education Association (NEA, 2020), MLs (students developing proficiency in multiple languages, including English), are the fastest-growing student group in the US. Despite the growing number of MLs, their representation in gifted programs continues to fall behind not only traditional populations of learners, but also behind all underserved populations, including twice-exceptional, rural, Hispanic, Native American, and Black students (Mun et al., 2020).
