Unpacking Giftedness : Research and Strategies for Promoting Racial and Socioeconomic Equity

Giftedness as a construct continues to be contested in academia, in the classroom and around kitchen tables. It means different things to different communities and, as a result, acquiring the gifted label looks different around the country. Once labeled, student giftedness produces different responses depending on state and district guidelines. A constant among the patchwork of defining, identifying and responding to student giftedness, though, is a serious racial and economic disparity in who is considered gifted and who is not. This report provides key takeaways from research literature on gifted and talented (GT) programs. It is organized according to five questions: 1) What does it mean to be gifted? 2) Who receives gifted services? 3) Why does this matter? 4) What factors contribute to disparities in gifted services? and 5) What strategies help to address disparities in gifted education