Carla Brigandi, associate professor in the School of Education in the West Virginia University College of Applied Human Sciences, has co-authored the 2023 Paper of the Year as selected by the editors of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted. This prestigious recognition highlights significant contributions to the field of gifted education.
The award-winning paper, titled "Who Gets Identified? The Consequences of Variability in Teacher Ratings and Combination Rules for Determining Eligibility for Gifted Services for Young Children," makes an important contribution to the field of gifted education as it looks at the effectiveness of using teacher rating scales to identify students for gifted services. The results highlight the importance of finding alternate ways to identify students with academic talent, which is particularly important for students living in rural and low socioeconomic communities, who are often overlooked and underserved in gifted education programs compared to their higher-income counterparts.
Co-authored by Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez, Syahrul Amin, and Nancy Spillane, the study calls attention to the need for more objective and reliable assessment methods to ensure fair and accurate identification of gifted students.
"We are honored to receive this recognition for our research," Brigandi said. "Our findings highlight the importance of developing more consistent and equitable identification practices for gifted programs to reduce bias and reach students who may not be otherwise recognized. There are many students in West Virginia who have the potential to excel academically but are not being given the opportunity to do so. We don’t have an aptitude issue in West Virginia, Rather, we have an equity issue that detrimentally affects our prospective highest achievers.”