Ensuring Educational Equity for Gifted African-American Student

Homeschooling has become a popular option for African American families. While homeschooling has grown over the past few decades, it has become progressively more popular since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with African American families showing the most growth in this method for instructing their children. According to the first phase of the Household Pulse Surveys,¹ from April to October homeschooling rates increased five-fold, from 3.3% to 16.1% among African American  households. Cheryl Fields-Smith, a University of Georgia professor well-versed in homeschooling, shared that some African American families tried as many as four schools before settling on homeschool for their children.²

African Americans have a legacy of being self-taught which originated during slavery when literacy was quelled among this population. Traditionally, across the nation, authentic African American history is not included in the instruction in public schools. While all students deserve to see themselves mirrored in school curricula, the stories, lives, contributions, and experiences of non-White students and families are excluded. To this end, many African American parents have chosen to take the leap of faith to homeschool their children to ensure images in the lessons and materials accurately resemble their history, themselves, and their families.

To combat the ascribed failure of traditional schools to improve academic achievement and provide their children equitable education, African American parents have increasingly chosen to homeschool their children in recent years.³ Because schools have traditionally

operated from a mono-cultural, White middle-class value and belief system, African American parents chose to bridge the gap between their children’s home and school cultures to provide multicultural and culturally responsive⁴ schooling experiences by instructing them at home.⁵ Fields-Smith and Williams-Johnson posited that for African American parents, homeschooling provides full ownership of their children’s educational experiences and greater choice and empowerment.⁶ Determined to provide their children an unvarnished version of United States history and ensure culturally responsive instruction, parents of African American children have taken control of their children’s education to disrupt the marginalization of their conventional school experiences.

The option for African American parents to homeschool their children is not a new trend. For several decades, and increasingly more prevalent in recent years, escalating challenges to equal access in public schools has influenced the increase in homeschooling as the choice for African American parents. Historically, African American students, mostly male, have been plagued by negative stereotypes and images. Additionally, African American students have been victims of disproportionate representation in gifted⁷ and special education programs. Public and violent challenges to segregation, elitist programs, voting and civil rights, educational access, and fair treatment forced African families to question the safety and education of their children in predominately White educational settings.⁸ African American students continue to be overlooked for participation in gifted education programs, over-referred for special education services, and victims of disproportionate disciplinary action. As a result, parents have decided to create their own culturally appropriate, equitable, and safe learning spaces for their children.

The choice to homeschool lies within the family of each child. Benefits of homeschooling for African American families includes parents’ ability to tailor the selected curriculum to their cultural beliefs and practices, create positive learning experiences not typically previously experienced in public school settings,⁹ enhance family relationships, and individualize their children’s education.¹⁰ Electing to homeschool provides African American families the opportunity to guide their children’s learning experience and engagement, and protect them from the limited possibilities provided by traditional school

policy, procedures, and pedagogy, all while increasing opportunities for academic excellence.

Notes:

1. United States Census Bureau (2020). Measuring Household Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Census.gov. Available from: https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html.

2. Fields-Smith, C.A. (2020). Voices Speaking Truths from Our Past and Our Present. In H. Lees and Michael Reiss (Eds.) Exploring Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling (pp. 1-20). Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education.

3. Taylor, V. (2005). Behind the trend: Increases in homeschooling among African American families. In B. S.Cooper (Ed.) Home schooling in full view: A reader (pp. 121-133). Information Age Publishing.

United States Census Bureau (2020). Measuring Household Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Census.gov. Available from: https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html.

4. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy.

American Educational Research Journal, 32, 159-165.

5. Fields-Smith, C.A. (2020). Voices Speaking Truths from Our Past and Our Present. In H. Lees and Michael Reiss (Eds.) Exploring Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling (pp. 1-20). Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education.

6. Fields-Smith, C. & Williams-Johnson, M. (2009). Motivations, sacrifices, and challenges: Black parents’ decisions to home school. Urban Review, 41, 369-389.

7. Frasier, M. M., Hunsaker, S., Lee, J., Finley, V., Frank, E., Garcia, J., & Martin, D. (1995). Educators’ perceptions of barriers to the identification of gifted children from economically disadvantaged and limited English proficient backgrounds. Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.

8. Fields-Smith, C. & Williams-Johnson, M. (2009). Motivations, sacrifices, and challenges: Black parents’ decisions to home school. Urban Review, 41, 369-389.

Mazama, A. (2016). African American homeschooling practices: Empirical evidence. Theory and Research in Education, 14, 26-44.

9. Mazama, A. (2016). African American homeschooling practices: Empirical evidence. Theory and Research in Education, 14, 26-44.

10.Taylor, V. (2005). Behind the trend: Increases in homeschooling among African American families. In B. S. Cooper (Ed.) Home schooling in full view: A reader (pp. 121-133). Information Age Publishing.