Working Paper: NBER ID: w29546
Authors: Owen Thompson
Abstract: Racial segregation can occur across educational programs or classrooms within a given school, and there has been particular concern that gifted & talented programs may reduce integration within schools. This paper evaluates the contribution of gifted & talented education to racial segregation using data on the presence and racial composition of gifted & talented programs at virtually all US elementary schools over a span of nine school years. I first show that, consistent with widespread perceptions, gifted & talented programs do disproportionately enroll white and Asian students while Black, Hispanic and Native American students are underrepresented. However, I also show that accounting for the within-school racial sorting caused by these programs has little or no effect on standard measures of overall racial segregation. This is primarily because gifted & talented programs are a small share of total enrollments and do enroll non-negligible numbers of under-represented minority students. I also estimate changes in race-specific enrollments after schools initiate or discontinue gifted & talented programs, and find no significant enrollment changes after programs are eliminated or initiated. I conclude that gifted & talented education is a quantitatively small contributor to racial segregation in US elementary schools.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I24; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Presence of GT programs (C88) | Higher percentage of white and Asian students (I24) |
| GT programs (D58) | Racial sorting within schools (I24) |
| GT programs (D58) | Overall measures of racial segregation (R23) |
| GT programs (D58) | Racial segregation in context (R28) |
| Initiation of GT programs (O31) | Changes in race-specific enrollments (I24) |
| Elimination of GT programs (H53) | Changes in race-specific enrollments (I24) |