Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

By Annie Gilbertson | KPCC

One in three Asian students is labeled as gifted by his or her school, according to data released by the Los Angeles Unified School District for a school board committee meeting scheduled today.

The latest numbers again raise questions about the over- and under-representation of ethnic groups in the district’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs, which can set a student on a path into the most sought-after schools and colleges.

In breakdowns of the overall GATE enrollment, the racial division is stark:

• Asian students are 150 percent overrepresented based on enrollment estimates of all Asian students in L.A. Unified.
• White students are 60 percent overrepresented compared to their estimated numbers.
• Latino students are 15 percent underrepresented based on their estimated enrollment.
• Black students are 30 percent underrepresented compared to their estimated enrollment.

White and Asian students aren’t innately smarter than their black and brown peers, experts say.

Click here to read the full story.