ABSTRACT
It is estimated that by 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children in America. Obstacles identified by researchers that have led to the severe shortage of Hispanic/Latino students identified as gifted and/or who are in gifted programs include deficit thinking, ineffective policies and procedures, ineffective screening instruments, a lack of cultural understanding, and poor school-parent relationships. Ford identified deficit thinking as one of the primary reasons for the underidentification of Hispanic/Latino and other CLED learners as gifted. Ineffective policies and procedures are yet another obstacle to adequately identifying gifted Hispanic/Latino learners. If a teacher has deficit thinking, low expectations for Hispanic/Latino students' achievement, and/or cannot recognize the characteristics of gifted Hispanic/Latino learners, then that teacher is less likely to refer Hispanic/Latino students for gifted screening or programming.
