EQUITABLY IDENTIFYING GIFTED STUDENTS FROM LOW-INCOME AND/OR MULTICULTURAL BACKGROUNDS: INVESTIGATION OF THE HOPE TEACHER RATING SCALE

Since teachers’ referrals involve evaluation of students through sustained observation, comprehensive features of giftedness can be identified. In 2007, a project called Having Opportunities Promotes Excellence (HOPE) was launched at Purdue University with funds from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (Gentry et al., 2015). This 3-year project aimed to help identify giftedness among low-income and ethnically diverse students and serve these students in advanced programs. To do so, the project team created the HOPE Scale (Gentry et al., 2015), an instrument used by teachers to assess the academic and socioemotional characteristics of gifted students. Previous results from Project HOPE served as the foundation for the current studies. This dissertation is comprised of three related research papers investigating the HOPE Scale as an equitable measure for identifying underrepresented students for the gifted services. Following are the purpose and research questions for each of these related studies.

Study 1: Validity Evidence for the HOPE Scale to Identify Gifted Students from Low-Income and Multicultural Families in Korea

Study 2: Exploring Individual and Classroom Characteristics on Students’ Outcome Scores from the HOPE Teacher Rating Scale