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//Patterns and Profiles of Promising Learners From Poverty// gives a detailed review of the issues surrounding the education and inclusion of students from poverty who are enrolled in gifted and talented programs. The book is a compilation of vignettes and facts and figures about gifted learners, and it is written by a wide variety of educators and experts in education. //Patterns and Profiles//’ objective is to prove that intelligence can come from any economic background. It serves as a convenient guide for teachers, administrators, and gifted education program directors who look to help students with significant potential who come from backgrounds where academics do not receive the funding or support they need to develop. Each chapter focuses on students from many different backgrounds, and the authors provide encouragement and give tips to readers who are educators and who want the best from their students ~ no matter their home circumstances. That is, teachers need to provide a supportive environment for culturally diverse and socioeconomically-challenged learners, including acknowledging their cultural strengths and sharing them with others.

//Patterns and Profiles of Promising Learners From Poverty// explores a variety of issues that are relevant to the education of students from low-income families ~ including the role of culture in education, curriculum for promising learners, psychosocial factors that affect these learners, professional development for teachers of low-income students, and state policy implementation that affect these students' education. Chapters examine and address six distinct poverty groups: rural and urban-area students, African- American students, Caucasian students, and high nonverbal, low verbal students (which would include the ESOL population). It strongly advocates that students from low-income families be proactively identified and included in gifted and talented programs.

Underlying the collection of stories are observations that poverty is the factor that leads to under-representation in gifted programs, rather than race, ethnicity, or gender. As well, there is a culture of poverty, with distinct rules for conduct, whether in urban neighborhoods or rural areas. The author uses data analysis of relevant test scores, Gifted and Talented Enrollment and Funding Data, as well as a Vignette Analysis Format. This approach uses the form of vignettes to personalize the data and make it more reader-friendly; however, the content is closely linked to data analysis.

The fact that //Patterns and Profiles// was written for three distinct audiences (teachers, administrators, and gifted education program directors) will most likely bring more attention to the issue of poverty-stricken learners, which will, in turn, bring more financial assistance to the problem.

About the Editor: Joyce VanTassel-BaskaShort is Professor Emerita at The College of William and Mary, where she founded the Center for Gifted Education. Formerly she initiated and directed the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. Dr. VanTassel-BaskaShort has also served as state director of gifted programs in Illinois, a regional director, a local coordinator of gifted programs, and a teacher of gifted high school students. Her major research interests are in the talent development process and effective curricular interventions with the gifted.

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