The document is a book titled "BRIGHT, TALENTED & BLACK~ A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR EDUCATORS" by Dr. Joy Lawson Davis. The book aims to empower families and communities of African American learners and improve understandings of the unique challenges faced by this group in schools. It also addresses the underachievement of culturally diverse students and increasing identification of these students for gifted programs. The book is presented as a resource to help educators and families advocate for African American gifted learners.

1. BRIGHT, TALENTED &
BLACK~
A PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR
EDUCATORS
2012
Dr. Joy Lawson Davis, Author

2. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
PURPOSE OF THE BOOK
 To empower parents, families & communities
 To enlighten & affirm educators
 To improve understandings of the unique
intellectual and socio-emotional challenges faced
by African American Learners in today’s schools
 To address the systemic issues surrounding
underachievement of culturally diverse students
 To increase the rate of referrals and identification
of African American & other culturally diverse
students to Gifted Education & Other Advanced
Learner Programs nationwide

3. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
GENIUS CHILD
This is a song for the genius child
Sing it softly for the song is wild
Sing it softly as ever you can –
Lest the song get out of hand
Nobody loves a genius child
Can you love an eagle, tame or wild?
Wild or tame,
Can you love a monster of frightening name?
Nobody loves a genius child.
Kill him and let his soul run wild
-Langston Hughes, 1947

4. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
OVERVIEW
 Four optional strategies for Reading
 Chapter by Chapter
 Section by Section
 Focused Discussion
 Unique challenges of African American learners
 Academic Needs of the Gifted
 Parenting African American gifted learners
 Review of Important Resources for all Gifted learners
 Review& Discussion of ‘Advocates
Vocabulary’ and Other Resources

5. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
BRIGHT, TALENTED & BLACK BOOK TRAILER-
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEjOzOy
45Y&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

6. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING
 Perhaps the best part of this book is how refreshingly
straightforward it is about so many difficult issues.
 This is not the kind of book that encourages you to long,
thoughtful navel-gazing, but rather a matter of fact
discussion of real life.
 It's a useful resource on giftedness for parents,
teachers, administrators, relatives, and friends..

7. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
REVIEWER FEEDBACK~
 Parents and families will benefit from this book by using it
as an advocacy tool and a roadmap to navigate
school's policies and procedures for gifted
identification, culturally responsive educational
programming, and much more.
 This book is a must have not only for families - but for
teachers and district leaders concerned with making
gifted education equitable for all.

8. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
REVIEWER FEEDBACK~
 Challenges the reader to rethink their
definitions and attitudes toward gifted children
 Among the many books I've come across, in my
efforts to find good resources for families of
academically gifted children, Bright, Talented &
Black… stands out as so clear, well-researched,
accessible, and up-to-date.

9. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
USING BTB FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
 Professional educators & families across the
nation are finding that Bright, Talented &
Black is an effective tool to address systemic
underachievement of Black students in general
education AND under-representation in gifted
education and advanced learner programs

10. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
SECTION I- CHAPTERS 1 & 2
 What it really means to be Gifted &
African American
 Internal & External Challenges of
being Young, Gifted &
Black

11. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
SECTION II- CHAPTERS 3 & 4
 The Immeasurable Value of Family
Involvement
 A Parent’s Responsibility: Becoming
your Child’s Best Advocate

12. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
SECTION III- CHAPTERS 5-8
 GiftedEducation in Public Schools
 Teaching child to ‘Survive & Thrive’
 Appendices & Resources

13. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
SMALL GROUP ACTIVITIES
Read assigned passages
Write & discuss 3-4 key points
about each passage
Share w/ entire group

14. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
EXAMINING KEY ISSUES
 Underrepresentation is a systemic problem
 African American students make up 17-18% of
general school aged population, yet only 8%
identified/served in gifted programs
(USDOE/OCR)
 On the flip-side- nationally, there is an
Overrepresentation of African American
students in Special Education (USDOE/OCR)

15. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
KEY ISSUES
 Expanded definition of giftedness – up to 10% of
general population can be identified and served
(NAGC, 2010)
 Talent development model suggests that more
students should be exposed to gifted curriculum to
enable gifts to be developed, make up for lack of
resources and exposure (NAGC Convention, 2011,
President’s address)

16. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
KEY ISSUES
 Vestiges of discrimination in schools
 Discrimination through low expectations
 Misunderstanding of culture, gender and
class and the impact on learning
 Lack of cultural responsiveness
 Recent Discipline Study reported that Black and
Hispanic students are more subject to disciplinary
action in schools than their White peers. (Losen &
Skiba, 2011).

17. All Rights Reserved JLDavis 2012
~KEY SOLUTIONS~
Family Engagement
Professional Development
(gifted education & diversity
education)
Programmatic Re-design