Professor Guadalupe Valdés recently completed a “young interpreters” project, a five-year effort to expand definitions of giftedness so that non-English background students who display gifted traits will be more readily identified.

Traditionally, students who score at the top one percent of IQ tests are classified as gifted. This immediately puts non-English background students at a disadvantage. “If you only use an English-based IQ test as the sole basis for identification, how will you be able to identify kids who don’t speak English, or whose English is limited?” asks Valdés. “If we assume giftedness is spread equally across the general population, why then are gifted classes mainly all-white, while special education classes are disproportionately filled with students of color?”

In her research, Valdés has identified a talent that seems to occur most often among students fluent in two languages, which she calls “linguistic giftedness.” Many young children of immigrant parents often find themselves having to broker communication between their parents and the surrounding community. Being able to serve as effective interpreters for their parents requires youngsters to identify the significant parts of the incoming speech, pay attention to the tone and stance of the message, and then decide whether to transmit the entire message, abstract it, or compress a part of it. All of this must be done while keeping up with what each speaker is saying, all the while compensating for language limitations.
“It’s truly a test of analytical abilities, memory, and abstract reasoning in real-time,” says Valdés. Work on professional interpreters, moreover, reveals that only a select group of bilingual individuals can operate as interpreters for sustained periods of time or at reasonable speeds.

While she does not advocate putting students with limited English language ability in existing gifted and talented classes, she believes educators can nurture these youngsters’ talents by developing qualitatively different programs designed to meet their needs. One idea she has put forward is to implement special programs within the high school curriculum that would further develop bilingual skills, with the goal of preparing some students for careers as interpreters and translators. Teachers of ESL, Spanish, and English would all participate in special school-to-college-to-work programs. For example, there might be classes in beginning translation, and a practicum in community interpreting and literary translation. The biggest payoff would be getting many young people to stay in high school by valuing their areas of strength. Students would also be motivated to perfect their English, since sophisticated proficiencies in two languages are a prerequisite to entering these career fields.

Valdés, together with several teachers and two doctoral students (Claudia Angelelli and Kerry Enright), recently developed a curriculum for young interpreters. She hopes to pilot the curriculum at several schools in the Bay Area. Eventually she would like to see the curriculum adopted more widely in California and elsewhere. All of Valdés’ research on linguistic giftedness is contained in a new book entitled, Expanding Definitions of Giftedness: The Case of Young Interpreters of Immigrant Background, scheduled to be published next year by Erlbaum.

MARTIN CARNOY’s book, Sustaining the New Economy: Work, Family, and Community in the Information Age (published by Harvard University Press in December 2000), explores the growing tension between the requirements of employers for a flexible work force and the ability of parents and communities to nurture their children and provide for their health, welfare, and education.

LARRY CUBAN will have two books published this year, How Can I Fix It? An Educator’s Guide to Solving Problems and Managing Dilemmas published by Teachers College Press, and Oversold and Underused: Computers in Classrooms published by Harvard University Press. In addition, he has been awarded a month-long fellowship to write at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy.

In 2000, LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND was awarded the E. Robert Stevens Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the Association of Educational Service Agencies, the Professional Publication Award from the California County of Superintendents Educational Services Association, an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oslo, and a Research in Practice Award from the American Educational Research Association. Her recent publications include Teaching as the Learning Profession: A Handbook of Policy and Practice, co-edited with Gary Sykes, which won the Outstanding Book Award from the National Staff Development Council in December 2000 and a three volume set entitled Studies of Excellence in Teacher Education published by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

ELLIOT EISNER has been appointed editor of the first Handbook on Research and Policy in Art Education, which is scheduled for publication in 2003. Co-editor of the handbook is Professor MICHAEL DAY, EDD ’73, of Brigham Young University. Professor Eisner has also contributed a chapter on “The Art and Science of Qualitative Research,” for Qualitative Research in Psychology, a volume published by the American Psychological Association. He is also the author of “Connoisseurship Evaluation,” which will appear in the International Handbook of Educational Evaluation to be published in 2002.

DAVID FETTERMAN’s new book is entitled, Foundations of Empowerment Evaluation, published by SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA. Last year, he was awarded the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Evaluation Theory and the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award for Evaluation Practice. In addition, he received a presidential invitation to be a plenary speaker at the Stauffer Symposium on Applied Social Psychology at the Claremont Colleges. He facilitated an empowerment evaluation by the Potowami Indians at their reservation in Northern Michigan.

SUSANNA LOEB recently published articles entitled: “Estimating the Effects of School Finance Reform: A Framework for a Federalist System” in the Journal of Public Economics, “Welfare, Work Experience, and Economic Self-Sufficiency” in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, “Examining the Link Between Teacher Wages and Student Outcomes: The Importance of Alternative Labor Market Opportunities and Non-Pecuniary Variation” in the Review of Economics and Statistics, and “School Size in Chicago Elementary Schools: Effects on Teachers’ Attitudes and Students’ Achievement” in the American Education Research Journal. In 2000, she received The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Dissertation Award and the American Education Finance Association Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award.

At the 2nd Annual National Multicultural Conference and Summit, AMADO PADILLA received the Carolyn Attneave Award in honor of his longstanding dedication to learning the importance of knowing and respecting diversity and the differences therein, and his ability to mobilize networks across cultures. The conference is sponsored by the American Psychological Association.

GEORGE SPINDLER is currently working on a paper for the Journal of Visual Anthropology and on a book-length piece entitled Two Anthropologists Loose in North America describing travels and travails in fieldwork with Indian tribes. In 2000, he published The Four Careers of George and Louise Spindler, 1948-2000. This spring, he is teaching a seminar in the ethnography of schooling at Stanford University and at Sacramento State University.

DEBORAH STIPEK’s new book, Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning (published by Henry Holt and Company in April 2001), explains how close relationships with adults and feelings of competency and autonomy make children want to learn. Stipek and co-author Kathy Seal describe how to create an intellectually enriching home environment for children that will enhance their school experience.