A wide research base has documented the disproportional enrollment in K-12 special education and gifted and talented services across racial and socioeconomic lines. This study extends that knowledge base by integrating multiple population-level datasets to better understand predictors of access to and enrollment in gifted and talented services and tested whether these variables remained predictive after controlling for state mandate to provide services, average district achievement, and average school achievement. Results showed that states varied, with some serving 20% of their students as gifted and others serving 0%. Similarly, within-district income segregation, income-related achievement gaps, and parental education were dominant predictors of a school offering gifted and talented services and the size of the population served, even after controlling for achievement and the presence of a state mandate. These findings suggest that gifted and talented programs are often made available based on school or community demographics rather than the needs of the students.

广泛的研究基础记录了跨种族和社会经济领域的 K-12 特殊教育和有天赋和有才华的服务的不成比例的入学率。本研究通过整合多个人口级别的数据集来扩展该知识库，以更好地了解获得和注册有天赋和有才华的服务的预测因素，并测试这些变量在控制了提供服务的州授权、平均地区成就和平均学校后是否仍然具有预测性成就。结果显示，各州各不相同，有些州为 20% 的天才学生提供服务，而另一些则为 0%。同样，地区内的收入隔离、与收入相关的成就差距和父母教育是学校提供有天赋和有才华的服务以及所服务人口规模的主要预测因素，即使在控制了成就和国家授权的存在之后。这些发现表明，有天赋和有才华的项目通常是根据学校或社区的人口统计数据而不是学生的需求提供的。