This article explores the challenges faced by gifted multilingual learners, using the story of Diego, an eighth-grade student, to highlight the disparities in recognizing and serving this group of students. The author discusses the need for a paradigm shift in identifying and supporting gifted multilingual learners, providing insights into their characteristics and proposing tools for educators and parents to become talent scouts for these students.
Leader Action Resource: Identifying Gifted Multilingual Learners (MLs)
In the gifted education space, much of the research highlights students’ socio-emotional needs, equitable identification practices, and classroom intervention strategies to support advanced learners. However, far less research exists that focuses on the secondary space, and even less on a student’s transition into secondary. Gifted-identified students still need and deserve advanced services in middle and high school. This resource includes guidance to help understand the gifted education landscape and what the research says about students’ unique instructional and socio-emotional needs as they transition into secondary. As a series of resources, these one-pagers provide research-driven key takeaways and specific action steps you can begin immediately to support students’ transition to secondary.
