Tips for Ensuring Culturally Responsive

Rigorous Instruction for Homeschoolers

This session will focus on incorporating students’ unique cultural identities and experiences into the curriculum. Attendees will gain strategies to emphasize building relationships between students and families, activating prior knowledge, and making learning relevant and meaningful.  Tips for parents to access dual enrollment, test preparation, and mentoring programs that are hosted by local public schools will be shared. Online resources and curriculum that teach through a diversity lens, traits of giftedness, and psychosocial traits of gifted homeschoolers will be unpacked.

Participants will come away with knowledge of how to:

• Access dual enrollment, test preparation, and mentoring programs that are hosted by local school districts.

• Identify online resources and curriculum that incorporate students’ unique cultural identities and experiences.

• Strategize to increase and enhance relationships between parents and students.

Dr. Erinn Fears Floyd is Founder and CEO of Equity and Excellence in Education, LLC, which provides culturally relevant professional learning, advocacy, and academic support for educators, organizations, parents, and students. With over 33 years in education, Dr. Floyd has served as a classroom teacher, Gifted and School Improvement Specialist, Literacy Specialist, District Gifted Education Coordinator, Assistant Principal, State Director of Gifted Education for the Alabama Department of Education, and Director of Professional Learning for the National Association for Gifted Children. She is a former Lecturer at Texas State University, University Supervisor at The University of Maryland, and Assistant Professor at The University of Georgia. Dr. Floyd is an inaugural recipient of the NAGC Dr. Mary Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development, the 2022 Dr. Alexinia Baldwin Gifted & __________ Award, and the 2024 Mary Frasier Equity and Excellence Award from the Georgia Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Floyd serves as Co-Chair of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Diversity and Equity Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Southeast Alabama Sickle Cell Association, Incorporated, The Tuskegee Wesley Foundation, the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum Board of Directors, and the Board of Trustees for her alma mater, The Alabama School of Fine Arts. She and her husband are the proud parents of two gifted children, a son, (18) and daughter (14).

Dr. Joy Lawson Davis, Core Faculty member at Bridges Graduate School for Cognitive Diversity in Education, is an award-winning equity activist, author, trainer, and keynote speaker with a distinguished record of scholarship in the field of gifted education. Her specific expertise is in increasing access and equity in gifted education programming for culturally diverse students, including those who are twice exceptional. Davis has a strong social media presence which enables her to reach a wider audience and empower them with information and resources to increase advocacy for gifted learners who are often overlooked, marginalized and limited due to cultural bias, teacher training, and minimal family engagement. Davis is the author of multiple publications, including six books, among them the award winning, Bright Talented & Black: A guide for Families of Black Gifted learners and Empowering Underrepresented Gifted students: Perspectives from the Field. Recently, her profile was featured in The Roeper Review as part of their ‘Eminent Scholar’ series. In 2024, Dr. Davis was awarded the Diversity Award from the Council for Exceptional Children/The Association for the Gifted.

Autumn A. Arnett is founder of A Black Child Can, an organization that works to increase access to high-quality education for Black and Brown children across the country. She is a fierce advocate for Black and Brown children, in whatever environment they may find themselves. Her work primarily focuses on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, and her professional background includes a mix of research, advocacy, and communications. She is the author of Let's Stop Calling it an Achievement Gap, and is a frequent speaker on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 and higher education. In 2022, she was awarded the Special Contributions to Equity Award by the American Consortium for Equity in Education. Autumn is a professional member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLOC), an advisor on the Great Schools Research Advisory Committee, and has previously served on the Pflugerville (TX) Independent School District’s Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee.