There are, however, some important caveats that readers should consider:

As you work down to the local level, I suspect the results will look different. For example, only two years ago there was not a single elementary school gifted program in four of New York City's twenty-eight districts. That situation has changed (a little), thanks in large part to the use of strategies recommended in this report. But still, how did no one in the district office not think this was a problem? Districts around the country should use this report as a starting point and investigate subgroup participation rates within each school, not just at the district level.
I wonder if the data would look different if the sample were divided into states that mandate programming for advanced students (twenty-eight at last count) and those that do not. My quick, back-of-the-envelope analysis of the report data suggests there is a difference, but I'd like to see Fordham—or anybody—look at this distinction.
Breadth and quality of services matters, and those data were not available to the researchers. But, for example, consider the states noted in the report for enrolling more than 10 percent of their black and Hispanic students in gifted programs: Kentucky, Maryland, and New Hampshire. I've spent time on the ground in all three states, and I can assure you that program breadth and quality is much, much higher in two of them, and those states are also making serious efforts to close excellence gaps. Advocates in the third state would give up their firstborns to have almost any attention paid to advanced learners in their state. And there are massive differences in the sizes of those populations within each state. So state demographics matter when interpreting these data.

Regardless of these caveats, the results tell us something important, and they lead to additional, more complex questions (which is the point of research after all).

Instant Insights /

Every American school has talented students. It's time to start acting like we believe that.

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