Chapter 4: From Pain to the Promise: Strategies for Supporting Gifted African American Males With Dyslexia

Across the U.S. academic system, there are 16,758 school districts, 95,507 schools, and 50,035,744 students from diverse neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Some ethnic and racial groups have not fared well, historically and presently, in the U.S. educational system. One specific demographic, African Americans make up 15.5% of the student population compared to 50.3% Caucasians, yet, African Americans, particularly males, are at higher danger of (a) being overidentified as “at-risk” and underidentified as gifted learners, and (b) having their learning framed from a deficit perspective versus strength-based perspective, which both require that teachers acknowledge their academic strengths and tap into their creativity and cultural capitals (Ford, Coleman, & Davis, 2014; Gillborn, 2015).