Theme

Teacher expectations

What adults believe a student can do, and how fast that belief becomes true.

Journal entries

Sep 1, 2026 · EDOC 7120 · Slides 24–25

Who gets called gifted, and who gets pulled out

How do we take all of these layers and move toward more equity for neurodiverse students in schools? Start with who gets identified — and who gets sent to me.

Reading & influences

Article · Krystal Cohen, Princeton University

Young, Gifted, and Black: Inequitable Outcomes of Gifted and Talented Programs

Race and maternal education showing up as factors in gifted identification. This is opportunity hoarding with a nomination form attached — the same discretion I keep circling in my racialized rigor question, only pointed upward instead of downward.

Article · Jason Okonofua, Gregory Walton & Jennifer Eberhardt, Perspectives on Psychological Science

A Vicious Cycle: A Social-Psychological Account of Extreme Racial Disparities in School Discipline (2016)

This is the piece that keeps me from writing racialized rigor as a story about villains. Two identical infractions, same file, different name at the top — and by the second one the teacher already sees a pattern. It is stereotype plus discretion plus fatigue, looping. My question is whether the same loop runs in the opposite direction with academic demands: the student who is already read as needing toughening gets toughened.

Book · Prudence L. Carter & Kevin G. Welner, editors

Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance (2013)

My reference shelf for the inputs side. Useful counterpressure on my own idea: much of the harm is under-resourcing and low expectations, not over-demanding. Racialized rigor only earns its keep if it names something these chapters do not already cover — that is the test I keep failing to fully pass.