Significant disparities exist in the identification of and the opportunities provided to gifted children. Analysis of Chicago Public School data reveals disparities based on income, race, disability status, and school. Unfortunately, initiatives by the District aimed at addressing inequity had unintended, but not unforeseeable, consequences of exacerbating opportunity gaps for many low-income students of color. Bureaucratic changes by CPS to provide universal standards decreased the number of applications for accelerated instruction and made it less likely for Black and Latino/x students to receive advanced instruction. I propose multiple low-cost and easy-to-implement solutions to improve the identification of gifted and academically talented students that are more inclusive.
