Donna Y. Ford, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Human Ecology in the College of Education and Human Ecology at the Ohio State University. She is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Kirwan Institute and the Center for Latin American Studies. Professor Ford is in the Department of Educational Studies and the Special Education Program. Professor Ford has written over 300 articles and book chapters; she has made over 2,000 presentations at professional conferences and organizations, and in school districts.
She is the author/co-author/co-editor of 14 books, including Gumbo for the Soul: Liberating Memoirs and Stories to Inspire Females of Color (2017); Telling Our Stories: Culturally Different Adults Reflect on Growing Up in Single-Parent Families (2017); R.A.C.E. Mentoring Through Social Media:Black and Hispanic Scholars Share Their Journey in the Academy (2017); Recruiting and Retaining Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education (2013), Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students (1996, 2010), Multicultural Gifted Education (1999, 2011), Gifted and Advanced Black Students in School: An Anthology of Critical Works (2011).
Dr. Ford is creator of The Ford Female Achievement Model of Excellence (FAME). Donna is a two-time board member of the National Association for Gifted Children, and has served on numerous editorial boards, such as Gifted Child Quarterly, Exceptional Children, Roeper Review, Journal of Negro Education, Gifted Child Today, and Journal of Educational Psychology.
Trenches story: will talk about her childhood w/ 2 sisters & mom growing up on public assistance. Her mom wanted them to do well. She was determined they’d go to college. All of them have grad degrees, mom even has a master’s.
Will talk first about the achievement gap. Ph.d. in edu psychology GATE (gifted st’s edu). Dissertation was on why G/T Black st’s in Cleveland were underachieving. Asked can Donna achieve at a higher level. It’s fueled by… (get off recording).
Talk about gifted underrepresentation in secondary schools among BIPOC students, esp. school w/ IB/MYP programs, AP. Inequities in discipline. (ask her to give an overview of her work) Fueled by t’s under referrals. Every study has showed that. It’s about expectations. Even 50% of Hispanic st’s under referred. Testing matters but dispositions matter more. Train educators to be anti-rasist & culturally responsive. Bias testing. ocrdata.ed.gov shows the data of discrepancy. Over 1 million Black & brown. She’s been in G/T edu for 32 yrs. Name a school district w/ equity in GATE, there are none. It’s unjust/racist.
Will talk about the Blooms/Banks Matrix, 6 levels of Bloom’s, 4 levels of Banks. 6×4 matrix-24 cells. Is in quadrants. Low on both-red. High Bloom-low Bank-yellow. Low Bloom, high Bloom-blue, both on www.donnayford.com blank matrix- use w/ lesson plan. Put ? in cell, look @ it and see what you need to do more w/. Checklist. Goal is to get to top 3 level. Merge w/ Banks’ 4 levels-Food, fun, fashion & Folklore. Extremely timely in FL- like w/ not offering AP Black history. Color-culture blindness. Is trying to get to quadrant 4 which is high on Bloom & Banks. T’s only offer multicultural content is safe way. Has model w/ st’s at the center. Are we making sure minoritized children are represented in positive ways? How can we promote rigor in the curriculum? Multicultural curriculum is for all. T’s (white females) often uses “safe” books about strong Black females. They only want to address sexism. How do we get to transformation, infuse MC content every day? 4th level is social action-empower st’s. They get involved in social issue. Easier w/ older st’s.
How t’s are changing the instruction/assessment to make curriculum more culturally responsive? Has the needle moved? She has written about adding culture to SEL since COVID. Last quadrant is peer pressure. She’ll share her slides a bit during the recording.She can share natl. data on over/underrepresentation in G/T and discipline. Frustrated that when she comes for PD rarely sees fruit of labor-drive-by. Both in OH & Nashville. We need to retain st’s in GATE/AP. Some improvement for Hispanic. Listeners-look at your own data for AP/suspension/expulsion, etc. Look at ocrdata.ed.gov
Talk about your FAME — Female Achievement Model for Excellence program and how that got started & how many young women have benefited from it. FAME model is based on the SII. Model on website. She wanted to add aspects that were more particular to females. Females have more issues related to hair, and their intellect. She can also talk about planning the G/T institute, she’s not had time to run the girl’s institute, will start back up next year. Focus on … (get off recording). Counselors/t’s are doing better improving female improvement model. F.ex. she can have short hair if she wants to! Love the skin you’re in. Pride about being intelligent. Having goals for self.
Black Males: Promoting a Scholar Identity: Dr. Gilman Whiting and I are co-directors and co-founders of the trademarked Scholar Identity Institute (SII) based on Whiting’s Scholar Identity Model (SIM) which contains 9 characteristics of a school tailored to Black males. When will this be out? What is the title? (promoting?) Has been in existence and an institute since 2006. She ran the program until 2019. Started in ‘06, over 100 Black males, focused on 9 constructs (found on website). Day program for 2 wks. Model w/ 2 articles on her website. 1 construct is self-efficacy. Sense of agency. Teach about Vendura. Quick discussion. Future orientation- need for achievement, masculinity (it’s OK to be a top student, to read). Racial pride using William Cross’ model.
Will update the 2010 Multicultural Education and the 2011, will update to 3rd edition. Focusing on underachievement and how it fuels the achievement gap.Overrepresentation in Sped/discipline. Achievement traps. Will be submitted w/in 6 month, will co-author. Out early 2024.
Out of everything: does have a quote she’s say. She was an A,b.c better chance student (1976). This even happened on zoom during pandemic. Went to a private school. 1 teacher destroyed her, tore her to shreds. She became suicidal. Was accused of theft, cheating, daily. This is what drives her to being prolific as writer/speaker. YOU are being employed to be an ADVOCATE-or leave the profession. She sees st’s who give up early.United Negro College fund- a mind is a terrible thing to waste.T’s need authentic PD on anti-racicism. Is completing new book “Black Boys are Lit” one on girls haven’t chosen title- will be out on amazon.
Where can ppl find you? FB DonnaYFord Twitter @donnayford
Www.donnayford.com FB, IG, Threads @donnayford
View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zQpmqiIiWV8
