A school that seeks to serve gifted students first must find them. The children most likely to be identified as gifted are White, affluent, well behaved, and high achieving. Underrepresented in programs for the gifted are certain ethnic or cultural minorities, poor or disabled children, limited-English speakers, underachievers, and kids who act out.
Girls are underserved in gifted programs focusing on math and science.
Besides limiting participation to a narrow population, gifted programs in America typically restrict the talents they recognize and nurture. Traditional academic and intellectual abilities being smart in math, science, and language arts are what most schools look for when they seek out gifted kids. But the virtuoso violinist and the prima ballerina, the potential leader and the inventive genius often fail to surface. The Marland Report published in 1972 encouraged schools to define giftedness broadly, including leadership ability, visual and performing arts, and creative or productive thinking along with academic and intellectual talent. To locate gifted kids, most schools rely on group IQ tests along with teacher recommendations, National Excellence reports.