From left, Alina Weise and Cate Guilfoyle, both seniors at Allderdice High School, stand for a portrait in Weise’s backyard in Squirrel Hill on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. The two met as second graders at Colfax K-8. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
The Pittsburgh Public Schools Gifted Center is largely White in a mostly Black district. Critics say unfair metrics set the stage for racial skew in advanced classes, other opportunities.
by Laija Mistry, PublicSource
Cate Guilfoyle, a senior at Allderdice High School, learned of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ gifted program when she was in second grade at Colfax K-8. Many of her peers attended the district’s Gifted Center at Greenway, once a week, to participate in accelerated hands-on courses.
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“There was a huge stigma around, like, everyone that went there was super smart,” she said.
Guilfoyle was evaluated and identified as a gifted student a few years later. Like others, she attended the Gifted Center, which she believes offered more resources than Colfax. With that, Guilfoyle said, she also saw immediate disparities in her classroom.
On the days when she and her classmates bussed off to the Gifted Center, she said, “Greenway would look like all White kids and then all of Colfax would have only African American kids.”
The district’s Gifted and Talented program offers unique opportunities for students who are identified as “high-achieving.” However, students of color are highly underrepresented among students who are identified for the program.
As the district works through a strategic planning process with a focus on equity, at least some board members say the time is right to rethink approaches to gifted education.
Of the 18,650 students enrolled in the district, 1,315 were identified as gifted in 2022-23, according to the district’s enrollment dashboard. Of the students identified as gifted, 16% were Black and 66% were white. Black students make up 51% of the district’s student population.
Schools with a higher share of economically disadvantaged students also had a lower percentage of students identified as gifted. Of all students with a Gifted Individualized Education Plan [GIEP], only 23% were economically disadvantaged, while districtwide, 70% of students are economically disadvantaged.
Statewide, 3.3% of all students were identified as gifted, according to the 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Less than 1% of Black students were identified. Studies have shown that gifted programs do not necessarily improve student reading and math scores.
PPS spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the district follows state guidelines when evaluating students for gifted education, but did not substantively address questions about racial disparities in the program.
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