Segregating the "gifted" in Charlottesville: the founding of Quest, 1976-1986

The implementation of gifted programmes in the 1970s provided a way for school divisions to circumvent many of the aims of desegregated schooling as called for in Brown v. Board of Education. This study examines the implementation of one such system in a Southern school district that saw schools clo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational administration and history 2023-04, Vol.55 (2), p.128-145
Main Author: Thornton, Margaret E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Academically Gifted
Critical Race Theory
Desegregation
Disproportionate Representation
Educational History
Elementary Secondary Education
Gifted Education
Migration
Minority Group Students
Program Development
Program Implementation
Racial Relations
Racism
school board
School boards
School Segregation
Segregation
White Students
Whites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The implementation of gifted programmes in the 1970s provided a way for school divisions to circumvent many of the aims of desegregated schooling as called for in Brown v. Board of Education. This study examines the implementation of one such system in a Southern school district that saw schools close rather than integrate in the years preceding the founding of a segregated gifted programme known as Quest. Additionally, the study situates the founding of this gifted programme in a national social and legal context involving fears of educational stagnation and white flight from public school systems. Using primary and secondary sources, this study highlights the attitudes of national policymakers at work in the 1974 reauthorization of ESEA, which significantly limited school divisions abilities to integrate while also providing funds for gifted classrooms that segregated 'exceptional' children using racially and socioeconomically biased measures.
ISSN:0022-0620
1478-7431
DOI:10.1080/00220620.2022.2072275