Identification of Gifted Students in the United States Today: A Look at State Definitions, Policies, and Practices

TLDR

Definitions of giftedness and the policies used to identify gifted students shape which individuals receive gifted services. The study reports on a national survey of state policies and practices that define giftedness, identify gifted students, and accommodate gifted minority group students. The authors conducted a national survey to collect data on state definitions, identification methods, and accommodations for gifted minority students. Results indicate substantial changes in giftedness definitions and categories over the past decade, variability in identification methods—most states use a 3–5% cutscore with multiple cutoff or averaging approaches—and that no state currently endorses a single‑score decision‑making model, highlighting implications for school psychology.

Abstract

Definitions of what constitute students who are gifted and talented as well as policies and procedures to identify these high-ability students play a critical role in determining which individuals actually receive gifted services. This article reports on a national survey of how state policies and practices define giftedness, identify gifted students, and accommodate for gifted minority group students. Results indicate substantial changes in definitions and categories of giftedness over the past decade. Results also reveal variability in identification methods, with a majority of states using a 3–5% cutscore for demarcating giftedness while endorsing a multiple cutoff or averaging approach to gifted decision making. Most noteworthy is the fact that at present, no state advocates using a single-score decision-making model for gifted classification. The authors discuss the implications for school psychology.